*apologies for cross-posting*

"A Similar Place"
http://www.artengine.ca/asimilarplace

Artengine is very pleased to announce "A Similar Place", a new
net art work by Matthijs de Bruijne. This project is Artengine
first guest curated project featuring a European artist.


Last December 2001, Matthijs de Bruijne traveled for the second
time to Buenos Aires, Argentina. This time he brought with him
14 photographs of images from Amsterdam. The purpose was to look
for similar sites in Buenos Aires of generic places - such as
restaurants, trains, roads, fences, houses - that can be found
anywhere in the world. However, when he arrived in Buenos Aires
the country was going through a serious period of economic and
political turmoil, a situation very much different from that of
Amsterdam. It is in this particular context that de Bruijne
developed 'A Similar Place'.

The project explores notions of migration, despair and defeat.
In 14 tableaux Matthijs portrays aspects of life in Buenos Aires
as he experimented it during his stay. The work adopts a cinematic
perspective. Texts are displayed slowly. They appear as subtitles
that enhance the filmic aspect of the piece. The subtitled texts
play on different ranges: documentary, fictitious and personal
reflection. Each image is associated with a text that expresses
the artist's perception of Argentina's new social and economical
order. The sound material recorded on-site displays a very
effective use of ambient sounds, amplifying the paradox between
the images from Amsterdam and the situation in Buenos Aires. The
original combination of texts, sounds and images gives new meaning
to the pictures and creates a poetic story.

- Dominique Fontaine


Artist info
Born in the Netherlands, in 1967, Matthijs de Bruijne work is
process oriented and formed an invisible network with people.
His work does not only consist of photographs, videos, audio and
texts, etc. - it's a result of a process, a direct communication
with people. This communication is an important element or an
indispensable instrument in his approach. He uses the terms
're-mapping" to refer to his exploration in his work of cities an
new places with which he is not familiar. He graduated from the
Gerrit Rietveld Academie, 1990-1994 (Voorheen Audiovisueel) and
was an artist in residence at the Rijksakademie voor Beeldende
Kunsten (Amsterdam) from 1999-2000. Matthijs de Bruijne works
and lives in Amsterdam, the Netherlands.

Selected Exhibitions
2002
"Side Effects", Irida Foundation, Sofia, Bulgaria
"Regionalisten", PRPL FBRK, Nijmegen, The Netherlands

2001
"Een lege plek om te blijven", Watou, Belgium
"No es lo que parace ser", La Casona de los Olivera, Buenos Aires

2000
"AD:RES:", Brussels 2000, Brussels
"Their City", site specific exchange project, Lisbon

1999
"Doel Zonder Oorzaak", W139, Amsterdam
"Medium for Exchange", Ostre Anlaeg, Copenhagen

Web projects
"It's not what is seems to be" http://www.w139.nl
"Their City" http://www.outsite.net/theircity
"Medium for exchange" http://www.outsite.net/exchange
"An Analysis of an Unknown "http://www.outsite.net/analysis


Dominique Fontaine is a freelance curator currently working and
living in Montreal, Quebec. E: dofontaine@yahoo.ca


Artengine is a Canadian artist-run, not-for-profit, federally
incorporated organization and internet site for visual and new media
artists devoted to the propagation of art on the internet as well as
to the artistic exploration of new technologies.
http://www.artengine.ca