Wonderland Through the Looking Glass

'Wonderland, Through the Looking Glass' is the opening exhibition of the new Kunsthal KAdE in Amersfoort, Netherlands. KAdE's ambition is to put together a national-level program with an international dimension.

'Wonderland' features over twenty artists, the vast majority of whom are from abroad. Artists who seek the imagination in an expressive and 'extreme' way. Their work is figurative, narrative - verging on the anecdotal -, surreal and absurd. They work from their own imagination, but also draw on existing fairy tales, myths and "ethnic" traditions. The parallel worlds created by the artists are autonomous, but may also contain references to social and political themes. The work appeals to the viewer's imagination, appeals to memories, emotions and subcutaneous feelings and can also invite reflection on 'real life'.

The trend of explicitly narrative and anecdotal work - in the tradition of tableaux vivants - has been increasingly visible within contemporary art, particularly on the international gallery circuit, for about ten years. The work goes against the "laws" of modernism, which for decades dominated thinking about contemporary art and in which the literary/narrative/ornamental was taboo.

The artists in "Wonderland, Through the Looking Glass" break away from conceptual doctrine by addressing the viewer through the path of imagination. A number of artists are creating new works especially for the exhibition.