DEURLE, BELGIUM.- MDD (Museum Dhondt-Dhaenens) presents “In Search of the Perfect Lover,” on view through December 21, 2003. The exhibition presents works by Louise Bourgeois, Marlene Dumas, Paul McCarthy and Raymond Pettibon from the Hauser & Wirth Collection. Curators Michaela Unterdörfer and Edith Doove. The fragility of the drawing shows the contradictory aspect of creativity that both creates and cuts, and is both an inscription and a registration.

These conflicts come afore in the very diverging oeuvres of Bourgeois, Dumas, McCarthy and Pettibon. They all work round themes like eroticism, sexuality, longing, conflicts and fears. Sexuality here is a metaphor for the creative that tries to express itself through metaphors and an unhampered style that does not deny the narrow bond between violence and death.

The title of the exhibition, that was originally made in collaboration with Matthias Winzen and first shown at the Staatliche Kunsthalle Baden-Baden, quotes in the first place a series of drawings by Marlene Dumas and points to the ambiguous relationship between the fragile drawing and the injure of the sheet of paper.

The title can however also be interpreted as a search for a perfect (other) body. This notion is shown in the video work by Koen Theys (B, ‘Meeting (William Wilson)’, 2003 and L.A. Raeven (NL, ‘Nature’s Choice’, 2002) that is added especially for the show at MDD.

Garden: Maria Roosen, ‘…ooo…Reflection…ooo…’, 2002-2003
Return of the impressive installation of mirror balls that last year was especially created for the garden of MDD. The mirror balls call forth different associations like gigantic dew drops, mushrooms from outer space, a nursery for Christmas decoration etc.

Erich Weiss, ‘Sleeping Beauty’, 2003 - We all grow up with fairy tales. Weiss is interested in how these stories influence us and what happens when their heroes are connected to everyday surroundings. The innocent image of a pregnant sleeping woman almost automatically is interpreted as a crime scene with the girl as an innocent victim.