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DICK VERDULT
Dick El Demasiado -
Dick VerdultBienvenido, 2014rubber80 x 130 cm -
Bienvendido is Dick Verdult's / Dick El Demasiado's solo presentation for ArtBo 2022.
Titles are an important element in Verdult’s practice, both for his artworks, lyrics, poems, performances and his films.His titles often have an ambiguous meaning, or at least involve a witty play. In this case, Verdult chose Bienvendido, which literally translates into Well Sold. It may sound very enthusiastic and cheerful, especially in combination with the Bienvenido doormats, but it has a cynical undertone. A ‘vendido’ is one who has sold himself and his soul to the devil. ‘Ese vendido’ is a direct insult and unfortunately, in many cases, the truth.
As art fairs function as a scale for one’s social positioning, both for the visitor as for the artist, the word vendido is a word that is gaining weight. This play with words in combination with the seductively colorful but sinister sculptures, as well as the brutal aesthetics of Verdult’s drawings, do anything but reassure.
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Bienvenido
The two floor mats, each titled Bienvenido (2019), both refer to motherhood.
Combined with the Spanish word for welcome (Bien Venido), they exude a beautiful spirit -
were it not for the fact that floor mats are meant to wipe feet on.
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Una Gente Sombreada
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Mud Void model Kissinger, 2019 & Mud Void model Pinochet, 2019
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Dick Verdult will perform as his alter ego, Dick El Demasiado. He is the founder of the ‘Cumbia Lunatica’, a variation of the originally Colombian cumbia music. He has toured and performed around Latin America and his music is well known by the people. The documentary ‘’It is true but not here’’ (Luuk Bouwman, 2017) shows Dick El Demasiado perfom in Bogota.
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Exhibitions
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And on Sunday we celebrate Friday
Van Abbemuseum, 2011Under the title "And on Sunday we celebrate Friday," Verdult showed several independent works that approach the theme of cultural misunderstandings in peripheral, excessive and humorous ways. The works in the solo exhibition address the universal misunderstanding of the encounter between different cultures and worldviews.Pictured below is the interior of the apartment of Padre Teresa, the founder of Cumbia Experimental. In a successful attempt to overturn on a continental scale a cliché about Cumbia music and free it from the plebeian stigma attached to it, Verdult has written a history of Cumbia Experimental, complete with legends and music. -
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The Panoptic Perspective Always Revolves
The work The Panoptic Perspective Always Revolves is based on a booklet Verdult made in 1995 as an outline of the development of his work over the next 10 (or 20?) years, whether or not with the IBW, the Institute for Affordable Madness, which he founded. In this installation, linocuts, drawings and clippings interact with each other as in a kind of choreography.
Verdult, who speaks more than five languages, developed an early interest in everyday language, and much of his work questions and shows the many layers of (contemporary) clichés. -
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Smiledoor, 2012
Gwangju Biennale, South KoreaFor the Gwanju Biennale in 2012, Dick Verdult created the work Smiledoor. This installation is dedicated to the gap between the front teeth. The small wooden store space Verdult built is set up as a place for cosmetic dentistry, where visitors can obtain a gap between their front teeth. -
Dick VerdultSaymo & Garfunky, 2019Acrylic enamel paint on cardboard234 x 174 x 0.5 cm
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Song: Gol Vudu ('Voodoo Goal')
Album: Mi Tu
Artist: Dick El Demasiado
Dick El Demasiado
Dick Verdult is the creator of Cumbias Experimentales. This is his own variations on the cumbia, a popular Colombian music and dance style.
As Dick El Demasiado he has already released seven successful albums and performed in all the capitals of the Latin American continent, Europe and Japan. He has appeared in the international club circuit, but also in sold-out stadiums, a prison in Argentina, the Arctic sea, Sonar Festival in Barcelona. -
Kunstmuseum Den Haag, 2019
Uit de KleiThe installation Bullshit defines architecture by Dick Verdult (1954) was created during his working period at the EKWC, an international recidency for ceramics. "I brought together a lot of garbage like cardboard, wood, blankets and tape and covered it with clay. Once the clay was dry I took out the supporting elements (the 'bullshit'). Thus Bullshit literally defines architecture. But of course it is also an expression that says something about our society. Its slightly bellicose character reminds me of pictures of Grozny, where everything was shot to pieces." The installation features a radio-controlled tank and a soundtrack that dictatorially preaches about "Neurealistische Keramik. On his residency, "The expertise of the people at the EKWC ensured that major disappointments - such as: 'Oh no, now it's cracked! - stayed out. The whole ritual of painfully waiting to see how a piece comes out of the oven always became a celebration. Not only with me, but with the vast majority of participants. I enjoyed, played and discovered for two months."
Dick Verdult: ArtBo 2022
Past viewing_room
