MAEN FLORIN’S DWARF
He has been standing in the courtyard lawn of the Book Tower for a couple of weeks now: Maen Florin's Dwarf. And, as if by accident, he has been gazing exactly at the spot where by the end of 2011 the underground repository will be dug out.
That repository will accommodate 45 km of books, and those books are currently undergoing a thorough cleaning before they are packed in acid-free boxes - exactly the type of box the Dwarf is holding under his arms...
Frank Maes about Maen Florin's work:
Maen Florin's sculptures invariably refer to the human figure but always show deviations from its regular anatomy. Often fitted with clichéd attributes such as a clown's nose, a mask, pointed ears or wide open mouth, they call up associations with marionettes, dummies, comic book characters or dwarves. Amidst global and lightning-fast communication, Florin's characters appear incapable of communicating with others or with the (outside) world. In a world flooded by images, they tend to convey a thoroughly disturbed self-image. It is these battered self-images - 'interfaces' between the social subject and the world – that the beholder is confronted with in accurately sculpted syntheses. Maen Florin also puts sculptures in the public space, where they throw the relationship between the individual and the collective into relief.
In Lovendegem ('Een thuis voor een beeld 2005'), Maldegem (2007) and Eeklo (2010), the Province of East-Flanders was involved in the selection.
More work by Maen Florin is being exhibited in Do not look at the Caermersklooster, Vrouwebroersstraat 6, Ghent
until March, 27, 2011.
Dwarf / Dwerg, 2009
h. 126 cm
polyester, metal
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