Arne Quinze (born 15 December 1971) is a Belgian

conceptual artist Conceptual art, also referred to as conceptualism, is art in which the concept(s) or idea(s) involved in the work take precedence over traditional Aesthetics, aesthetic, technical, and material concerns. Some works of conceptual art, sometimes ca ...

best known for his unconventional and controversial public art installations. Quinze also creates large and small sculptures, drawings, and paintings. In his late teens, he started out as a graffiti artist in Brussels, and he never completed a formal art education.

Installation art

Quinze is known for his trademark sculptures made out of wooden planks. His installations are built to provoke reaction and to intervene in the daily life of passersby confronted with his sculptures. Quinze sees his installations as places where people meet each other again and start conversations. In 2006, he gained a lot of attention by building ''Uchronia: A message from the future'', a large wide wooden sculpture at the Burning Man festival in

Black Rock City Burning Man is an event focused on community, art, self-expression, and self-reliance held annually in the western United States. The name of the event comes from its culminating ceremony: the symbolic burning of a large wooden effigy, referre ...

, in the

Nevada Nevada ( ; ) is a U.S. state, state in the Western United States, Western region of the United States. It is bordered by Oregon to the northwest, Idaho to the northeast, California to the west, Arizona to the southeast, and Utah to the east. N ...

desert,

United States The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 states, a federal district, five major unincorporated territorie ...

. ''Cityscape'' (2007) and ''The Sequence'' (2008) are two of his giant wooden public art installations in the centre of

Brussels Brussels (french: Bruxelles or ; nl, Brussel ), officially the Brussels-Capital Region (All text and all but one graphic show the English name as Brussels-Capital Region.) (french: link=no, Région de Bruxelles-Capitale; nl, link=no, Bruss ...

Belgium Belgium, ; french: Belgique ; german: Belgien officially the Kingdom of Belgium, is a country in Northwestern Europe. The country is bordered by the Netherlands to the north, Germany to the east, Luxembourg to the southeast, France to th ...

. It was the first time a sculpture gave the impression touching two buildings in the city center while traffic still passes by underneath it. The installation for the

Flemish Parliament The Flemish Parliament (Dutch: , formerly called Flemish Council or ''Vlaamse Raad'') constitutes the legislative power in Flanders for matters which fall within the competence of Flanders, both as a geographic region and as a cultural communi ...

became an unequivocal actor in the city. In

Munich Munich ( ; german: München ; bar, Minga ) is the capital and most populous city of the States of Germany, German state of Bavaria. With a population of 1,558,395 inhabitants as of 31 July 2020, it is the List of cities in Germany by popu ...

Germany Germany,, officially the Federal Republic of Germany, is a country in Central Europe. It is the second most populous country in Europe after Russia, and the most populous member state of the European Union. Germany is situated betwe ...

, he built ''Traveller'' (2008) for French luxury fashion and leather goods brand

Louis Vuitton Louis Vuitton Malletier, commonly known as Louis Vuitton (, ), is a French high-end luxury fashion house and company founded in 1854 by Louis Vuitton. The label's LV monogram appears on most of its products, ranging from luxury bags and leather ...

. Other public art installations by Arne Quinze have recently been revealed in the centre of

Paris, France Paris () is the Capital city, capital and List of communes in France with over 20,000 inhabitants, most populous city of France, with an estimated population of 2,165,423 residents in 2019 in an area of more than 105 km² (41 sq mi), ma ...

(''Rebirth'', 2008),

Beirut Beirut, french: Beyrouth is the capital and largest city of Lebanon. , Greater Beirut has a population of 2.5 million, which makes it the third-largest city in the Levant region. The city is situated on a peninsula at the midpoint o ...

Lebanon Lebanon ( , ar, لُبْنَان, translit=lubnān, ), officially the Republic of Lebanon () or the Lebanese Republic, is a country in Western Asia. It is located between Syria to the north and east and Israel to the south, while Cyprus li ...

(''The Visitor'', 2009) and

Louisville, Kentucky Louisville ( , , ) is the largest city in the Commonwealth of Kentucky and the 28th most-populous city in the United States. Louisville is the historical seat and, since 2003, the nominal seat of Jefferson County, on the Indiana border ...

(''Big Four Bridge, ongoing'') During the festival Rouen Impressionnée which took place in

Rouen Rouen (, ; or ) is a city on the River Seine in northern France. It is the prefecture of the Regions of France, region of Normandy (administrative region), Normandy and the Departments of France, department of Seine-Maritime. Formerly one of ...

in the summer of 2010 he paid tribute to the impressionist

Claude Monet Oscar-Claude Monet (, , ; 14 November 1840 – 5 December 1926) was a French painter and founder of impressionist painting who is seen as a key precursor to modernism, especially in his attempts to paint nature as he perceived it. During ...

by painting ''Les Jardins/The Waterlilies'' series for an exhibition in the Abbatiale de Saint-Ouen. The festival was organized as the contemporary component of the Normandie Impressionniste festival, a festival under the presidency of

Laurent Fabius Laurent Fabius (; born 20 August 1946) is a French politician serving as President of the Constitutional Council since 8 March 2016. A member of the Socialist Party, he previously served as Prime Minister of France from 17 July 1984 to 20 Marc ...

, former French Prime Minister, celebrating the impressionist past of the region. Next to the exhibition an installation (''Camille'') was built on the Boieldieu bridge, a bridge that has been painted by the impressionist painter

Camille Pissarro Jacob Abraham Camille Pissarro ( , ; 10 July 1830 – 13 November 1903) was a Danish-French Impressionist and Neo-Impressionist painter born on the island of Saint Thomas, U.S. Virgin Islands, St Thomas (now in the US Virgin Islands, but t ...

several times. Like a futuristic substitute for the market squares of old, Quinze sees his installations as places where people meet and converse as they used to in bygone eras. ''Red Beacon'' (2010) is placed in the Jing’an Sculpture Park, the pioneer of presenting public art in the heart of

Shanghai Shanghai (; , , Standard Mandarin pronunciation: ) is one of the four direct-administered municipalities of the People's Republic of China (PRC). The city is located on the southern estuary of the Yangtze River, with the Huangpu River flow ...

located downtown in the

Jing'an District Jing'an District () is one of the central districts of Shanghai. In 2014, it had 1,180,000 inhabitants in an area of . The district borders the Hongkou District to the east, Huangpu District, Shanghai, Huangpu District to the east and south, Put ...

. His sculptures redefine social space and provide alternative models of interaction. Other work is focusing on the axiom that people tend to seek a safe environment, a cocoon eliminating the unexpectable. The installation ''My Home My House My Stilthouse'' (2011) in Humlebaek,

Denmark ) , song = ( en, "King Christian stood by the lofty mast") , song_type = National and royal anthem , image_map = EU-Denmark.svg , map_caption = , subdivision_type = Sovereign state , subdivision_name = Danish Realm, Kingdom of Denmark ...

at the

Louisiana Museum of Modern Art The Louisiana Museum of Modern Art is an art museum located on the shore of the Øresund Sound in Humlebæk, north of Copenhagen, Denmark. It is the most visited art museum in Denmark, and has an extensive permanent collection of modern and cont ...

shows the visitor a new form of how housing and living can be perceived. He revealed a virtual installation ''Rock Strangers'' (2011) on the

Statue of Liberty The Statue of Liberty (''Liberty Enlightening the World''; French: ''La Liberté éclairant le monde'') is a List of colossal sculpture in situ, colossal neoclassical sculpture on Liberty Island in New York Harbor in New York City, in the U ...

New York City New York, often called New York City or NYC, is the List of United States cities by population, most populous city in the United States. With a 2020 population of 8,804,190 distributed over , New York City is also the L ...

, US on 4 July in collaboration with Beck's for their Green Box Project. The project is co-curated, commissioned and mentored by Nick Knight of SHOWstudio.com and producer

Sam Spiegel Samuel P. Spiegel (November 11, 1901December 31, 1985) was an American independent film producer born in the Galician area of Austria-Hungary. Financially responsible for some of the most critically acclaimed motion pictures of the 20th centur ...

. Commissioned work will only ever appear in the digital realm. Arne Quinze: "With these sculptures I'm looking for a confrontation with the public, I hope they start asking questions about what their function on this planet is. What happens when putting all of the sudden an alien element in the city, our habitual urban environment? How do we react to unusual objects if we are confronted with them in our daily lives? Who or what remains the stranger, the person confronted with it or the object itself?" In the context of Mons 2015 European Capital of Culture, a wooden installation called ''The Passenger'' has been built and will remain visible from 6 December 2014 until 19 December 2019. Unfortunately a partial collapse occurred on 24 December 2014. The installation was fully rebuilt on 15 October 2015 and inaugurated on 16 October 2015. Uchronia by Arne Quinze, Nevada desert, USA

Uchronia by Arne Quinze, Nevada desert, USA

Work

Quinze's artwork is mainly referring to social interaction,

evolution Evolution is change in the heritable characteristics of biological populations over successive generations. These characteristics are the expressions of genes, which are passed on from parent to offspring during reproduction. Variation ...

communication Communication (from la, communicare, meaning "to share" or "to be in relation with") is usually defined as the transmission of information. The term may also refer to the message communicated through such transmissions or the field of inquir ...

, rhythm, the interplay of lines, contrasts and

contradictions In traditional logic, a contradiction occurs when a proposition conflicts either with itself or established fact. It is often used as a tool to detect disingenuous beliefs and bias. Illustrating a general tendency in applied logic, Aristotle's ...

. Recurring techniques in his work are multiple types of wood, including salvaged wood; cardboard,

polyurethane Polyurethane (; often abbreviated PUR and PU) refers to a class of polymers composed of organic chemistry, organic units joined by carbamate (urethane) links. In contrast to other common polymers such as polyethylene and polystyrene, polyurethan ...

and electrical colors in

fluorescent paint Luminous paint or luminescent paint is paint that exhibits luminescence. In other words, it gives off visible light through fluorescence, phosphorescence, or radioluminescence. There are three types of luminous paints: fluorescent paint, phosp ...

. Because of their intense orange-red color the sculptures contrast with their natural surroundings and generate the sentiment of estrangement. People are completely absorbed by the orange initiating astonished reactions. He creates works in themes such as ''Bidonville'', ''Stilthouse'', ''My Home My House My Stilthouse'', ''View'' and ''Chaos''; broadening further on his studies of

livability Quality of life (QOL) is defined by the World Health Organization as "an individual's perception of their position in life in the context of the culture and value systems in which they live and in relation to their goals, expectations, standard ...

in today's context. All his work has a humane aspect; ''Stilthouses'' can be perceived as humans on fragile legs symbolizing the strong nature of man. ''Bidonvilles'' are considered to be houses for the

future The future is the time after the past and present. Its arrival is considered inevitable due to the existence of time and the laws of physics. Due to the apparent nature of reality and the unavoidability of the future, everything that currently ...

as an

apperception Apperception (from the Latin ''ad-'', "to, toward" and ''percipere'', "to perceive, gain, secure, learn, or feel") is any of several aspects of perception and consciousness in such fields as psychology, philosophy and epistemology. Meaning in philo ...

on the way how people are living now and tranquilize or accelerate the living process intentionally, provoking open

in a

society A society is a group of individuals involved in persistent social interaction, or a large social group sharing the same spatial or social territory, typically subject to the same political authority and dominant cultural expectations. Socie ...

human interaction The concept of interpersonal relationship involves social associations, connections, or affiliations between two or more people. Interpersonal relationships vary in their degree of intimacy or self-disclosure, but also in their duration, in t ...

. In 2009, Quinze installed a public ''Stilthouse'' installation called ''The Visitor'' in

near its newly developed Souk complex, and auction house Phillips de Pury & Company invited the artist to present his work at their

London London is the capital and largest city of England and the United Kingdom, with a population of just under 9 million. It stands on the River Thames in south-east England at the head of a estuary down to the North Sea, and has been a majo ...

gallery. Due to its success early 2010, the exhibition was prolonged at London's

Saatchi Gallery The Saatchi Gallery is a London gallery for contemporary art and an independent charity opened by Charles Saatchi in 1985. Exhibitions which drew upon the collection of Charles Saatchi, starting with US artists and minimalism, moving to the D ...

in the

Duke of York's Headquarters The Duke of York's Headquarters is a building in Chelsea in the Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea, England. In 1969 it was declared a listed building at Grade II*, due to its outstanding historic or architectural special interest. History ...

King's Road King's Road or Kings Road (or sometimes the King's Road, especially when it was the king's private road until 1830, or as a colloquialism by middle/upper class London residents), is a major street stretching through Chelsea and Fulham, both ...

. During Hamburg Artweek (2011) he revealed new work showing a shift in the use of materials including smashed old porcelain symbolizing the destruction of our family traditions. In June 2014 Arne Quinze created a unique artwork in collaboration with Veridor: 45 kg of precious metal crafted into a „Natural Chaos". This art piece was primarily made of 18-carat rose gold and of the finest 18-carat palladium white gold in rod and pipe form, as well as gold wire and leaves. The piece named Natural Chaos - Golden Edition No. 1 is for sale for EUR 1.8 million on the Internet luxury marketplace

JamesEdition JamesEdition is a global online luxury marketplace with headquarters in Amsterdam, Netherlands. The website has 15 different categories. These are: real estate, cars, jewellery, jets, helicopters, watches, yachts, extraordinaire, motorcycles, li ...

.JamesEdition Extraordinaire
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Personal life

Quinze lives and works in Sint Martens Latem near

Ghent Ghent ( nl, Gent ; french: Gand ; traditional English: Gaunt) is a city and a municipality in the Flemish Region of Belgium. It is the capital and largest city of the East Flanders province, and the third largest in the country, exceeded in ...

, Belgium.

Marriages

Arne Quinze married Barbara Becker at their Miami waterfront home on 9 September 2009. They celebrated the marriage on 12 September 2009 in

Berlin Berlin ( , ) is the capital and largest city of Germany by both area and population. Its 3.7 million inhabitants make it the European Union's most populous city, according to population within city limits. One of Germany's sixteen constitue ...

. In October 2011, Barbara Becker and Quinze divorced. He married

An Lemmens An Lemmens (born 8 September 1980) is a television and radio presenter at VTM/ 2BE/Studio Brussel and a former VJ on TMF Belgium. Career Lemmens, while studying to be a veterinary assistant, was discovered by television broadcast network ...

on 6 October 2012. In September 2015,

and Quinze divorced.

References

External links