Koen Brams & Dirk Pültau
The clandestine in the work of Jef Cornelis
2009
English --- 93 pp — 12 x 18.8 cm — hard cover — colour and b/w illustrations
Edition: 1000
Concept: Koen Brams & Dirk Pültau
Design: Raoul Wassenaar
Editing: Petra Van der Jeught
Publisher: Jan van Eyck Academie, Maastricht
Co-publishers: Argos, De Witte Raaf, Marcelum Boxtareos
ISBN: 978-90-72076-39-7
€ 15
The clandestine in the work of Jef Cornelis comprises two essays about ‘hidden’ messages in the television films Daniel Buren (Wide White Space Gallery, 1971), Sonsbeek beyond lawn and order (1971) and Landscape of churches (1989). Koen Brams considers Cornelis’ explicit strategies to bring to light differences of opinion in the art world in the year 1971. He further shows that Cornelis avails himself of less explicit methods of operation to carry his point. Dirk Pültau analyses the covert elements of the soundtrack of the film Landscape of churches. What at first hearing seems a classical sound recording turns out, on further consideration, to contain a ‘demonic’ message.
The clandestine in the work of Jef Cornelis calls attention to an as yet unknown aspect of Cornelis’ oeuvre and contains documentation and records that have rarely or never been published.
The book is accompanied by a DVD that holds three original films with English subtitles.
