Sven ‘t Jolle

Oct 14

‘Vroeger was ik ook voor de vrede’

14.10.2023 — 19.11.2023

PLUS-ONE Gallery presents the solo exhibition by Sven 't Jolle at the gallery (New South).

In the promotional image for Sven ‘t Jolle’s latest exhibition, an illustration depicts a figure standing at a grand window, looking down at a crowd that appears to be protesting outside. Some of the protesters are holding banners; one reads ‘NO WAR’. The drawing bears the caption: ‘vroeger was Ik ook voor de vrede’ – I used to be for peace too.

One may wonder, on viewing this illustration, to which war the artist references. Is it a commentary on the current war in Ukraine, which we receive news reports of daily? Or civil war in Afghanistan, Syria or Myanmar? Does the artist agree with this statement or does he repeat it with tongue in cheek? Is peace even possible? Does the sentiment change when we discover that Sven’s drawing was not inspired by recent events? In fact, it was made more than twenty years ago, one of a series of recurring drawings that appear in his sketchbooks from 1999 until around 2002, depicted in differing styles and perspectives but showing the same striking scene.

Sven has long been interested in exploring and critiquing systems of institutional power: the church, the state, the banks. He shows an affinity with the underdogs of society, the undocumented and overlooked, the vulnerable and powerless. He draws inspiration from the strong lineage of artists who made art in response to the issues of their times, often speaking out against injustices. Aligning himself with the folk artists, the outsider artists, the revolutionaries, the degenerates – the artists working outside or in opposition to the system, his practice seeks to present a counternarrative to the dominant narrative perpetuated by mainstream medias.

Excerpt of the exhibition text written by Laura Couttie, 2023

Sven ‘t Jolle (°1966) lives and works in Melbourne, Australia
Sven 't Jolle was born in 1966 in Antwerp, where he studied art at the Royal Academy of Fine Arts from 1986 to 1990. Although his first exhibitions in the early 1990s already attested to a social interest that would remain constant, the current orientation of his thought took root during a trip to the North of France in 1997. ‘t Jolle tells how a crossing of Picardy led him to the village of Saint Leger, which he immediately associated with the French painter Fernand Léger (1881-1955), raised, by the amalgam and humour of 't Jolle, to the status of saint. It was during this Summer that the Forges de Clabecq, a Belgian steel factory located in Tubize, announced that they were closing down, which started a wave of demonstrations. Playing on words, Sven 't Jolle combined the French village, the homonymous painter, and the socio-economic events into the term: ‘tubism’. Tubism, a variant of Cubism proposed by Fernand Léger, lends its sonority, in the spirit of ‘t Jolle, to the social event, which had disrupted Tubize and Belgium
The anecdote illustrates the way Sven 't Jolle constructs his artistic reflection. Starting from sculpture, and sometimes other media as well, the artist reduces the boundary between aesthetics and social commitment. Openly a supporter of the underprivileged, the artist acts within the world of art; his struggle is not isolated from the reality he defends, and the artistic bubble does not constitute a withdrawal for him. The aim is to provoke a reflection on the social, political and economic situation among artists and viewers. In this context, 't Jolle pushes his work towards self-reflection and questions the possibility of a subversive art, which pleads for the working class to the economically privileged art public. The question itself becomes the subject of the work.
After several exhibitions in Flanders and Brussels, Sven 't Jolle exhibited in France and Germany in the late 1990s. He travelled to Middle Eastern countries several times and today lives and works in Melbourne, Australia.