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MODULES
The basic material for this series of works are oil barrels and chemical containers that where gathered during fieldtrips in central Africa, Rwanda, 1989. The first intention was to use them in a frame context for the series Tableaux Africains. Around 60 selected barrels where cut up and flattened by steelworkers in Kigali Rwanda, and cut in strips. The bending was done by the artist himself at the metal workshop of a local missionary and with the assistance of his friend and colleague Jacobus Kloppenburg.
A local carpenter was asked to build four crates for the transport to Brussels by Sabena Airlines.
In 1995, the use of the metal strips shifted into a sculptural process, in reference to the process of painting and light and the anatomy of the painting. A first presentation of the Modules works was given at the retrospective show at the Kunsthalle Recklinghausen 2000, following an invitation by its director Prof. dr. Ferdinand Ullrich.
Bien’s engagement in the public defence of Kloppenburg’s Artchive for the Future( www.artchiveforthefuture.com) forced him to stop in 2002.
In 2006 the work on the Modules continued again and is in currently in process. A full report on further developments will follow in future updates.
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