Cofficeine and Photosynthesis, 2021
coffee machines, office chairs, paper cups, free coffee

Kunst_planten, 2021-22
Happiness Brussels, COAST Creative Agency, Josworld, Page in extremis, CLOTH, AdSomeNoise. Office plants borrowed from advertising agencies

Been there, done that (doodles), 2022
Light blue paint, scribbles

Abri poster, 2021-22, B&W print on blueback, 118,9 × 175 cm

Untitled (landscape paintings), 2021, digital print, heavy duty PVC, alumi-num stretchers, vinyl, 150 × 200 cm each

Billboard advertising falls on top of two cars during strong wind weather, 2021
Single channel, iPhone, 3’’40 (loop)

FREE COFFEE**, 2021
adhesive vinyl, white, yellow, 510 × 200 cm

Kunst_planten, 2021,
Hahnemühle print on Dibond, courtesy Alexander Webber, 60 × 40 cm

You are invited to water the plants.

Photo: Lola Pertsowsky

Arthur Cordier’s analytical, playful approach to cycles of labour, advertising and consumption runs through each element of the exhibition. The artist is fascinated by flimsy motivational-management, corporate rhetoric, and self-proclaimed economic studies – the latter of which inspires the title of this exhibition.

The exhibition includes a new iteration of Kunst_planten (2021-22), for which Arthur Cordier borrows plants from creative agencies around Belgium and displays them in the exhibition space, inviting visitors to water them – again with a twist. Similarly to coffee, office plants are thought to increase employee productivity and satisfaction. By displacing these office plants into the exhibition space, companies may become less efficient themselves by transferring their productive tools to the exhibition space. These subtle transfers of immaterial resources — efficiency, attention, care — are among the artist's key competences.

Arthur Cordier's solo exhibition at IKOB is a continuation of his Very Contemporary residency, realised in collaboration between Greylight Projects (Heerlen, NL) and IKOB. During the residency, spanning from September to November 2021, the artist was invited to develop research offering a new perspective on the particularities of the Euregio-Meuse-Rhine, responding to the distances, landscapes, and borders between the institutions of the Very Contemporary network.

Three of the painting works were later acquired for the Museum’s collection

Link to the exhibition ︎︎︎