Kris Martin

The linen-bound book by Kris Martin comprises 240 pages presenting the most important works of the Belgian artist from 2005 to 2008. The work is accompanied by explanatory texts by Jessica Morgan (Tate Modern, London), Neville Wakefield (PS1 MoMA, New York), Vincent Honoré (David Roberts Collection, London), and Jens Hoffmann (Wattis Institute, San Francisco). were written.

Kris Martin is one of the most exciting artists of his generation. His work focuses almost exclusively on the fragility of human existence and the proximity of life to death. One of his best-known works, Mandi III (2003), an arrival and departure board whose clattering black tiles do not provide any information, clearly shows that there is only one destination at the end. Another work, Still alive (2005), a silvered bronze replica of the artist's own skull, is a morbid, albeit noble, allusion to what must surely go by. His works often draw attention to impermanence and, in the sense of the centuries-long tradition of the memento mori, they evoke in the beholder the memory of the inevitable death. Instead of being threatening, his sculptural works and drawings reflect the fragility of life with sharp simplicity, humor and grace.