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Two horse’s heads, part of a skeleton, a devil on wheels, and a horseman more or less hanging upside down. The one thing that seems certain is that Ode aan Dürer (2024) by Bart Pols (1992) is telling a story that is open to a wide range of interpretations. The title of the work might come in handy. Pols is hinting at an engraving by Albrecht Dürer, Knight, Death and the Devil (1513), depicting a knight on horseback who is observed by the devil and death. While the similarities seem to end there, Pols still succeeds in drawing us into his surprising and playful installation. He confronts us with an ingenious, fiery devil’s head constructed from the parts of various beasts, toy horses that look both terrifying and cheerful, a subtly concealed sun and moon, and a watch apparently symbolizing the passing of time.
Pols is intrigued by contradictions: tough versus fragile, horizontal versus vertical, hollow versus solid – contrasts he seems to be defying by means of the combinations he makes and his use of materials. It is as if he wants to tell us that contradictions are often more closely related that you might expect – like life and death. Pols came to this realization first-hand after the sudden passing of his partner.
However, regardless of all the symbolic, autobiographical, and even humorous references in his installations, Pols’ collage-like Ode aan Dürer also pays homage to the imagination, and to act of making itself.
Text: Esther Darley
Translated from Dutch by Marie Louise Schoondergang (The Art of Translation)