The hand that topples the tower - Mike Bourscheid & Vanessa Brown

Wednesday to Sunday, 12 to 6 pm 

Free Admission 

Curator: Daniela Del Fabbro 

The exhibition will be open on Friday June, 23 for the public holiday! 

During this summer season, the CNA is delighted to present The hand that topples the tower – a two-person exhibition by Vanessa Brown and Mike Bourscheid at Waassertuerm + Pomhouse. From May 6 to August 20 the two different artistic approaches will come together on the emblematic former industrial site in Dudelange to immerse the visitor in a multi-media experience.

In the exhibition space at the foot of the tower, Luxembourgish artist Mike Bourscheid will present a new photographic series Mutual feelings through which he tackles the dichotomies that structure our vision of the world. Beyond the object/subject relationship, it also looks at the opposition between human and beast. The interior of the former water tank will be dedicated to the artist’s Sunny Side Up and other sorrowful stories, consisting of a projection of his new film Agnes, in which he takes on different roles, accompanied by sculptures presenting several costumes from the film.  Meanwhile, the old pumping station Pomhouse will host Canadian artist Vanessa Brown's  >>>000 / Gravity, which includes evocative projections and installations exploring the concept of holes as symbolic representations of human desire, the relativity of time, and our place in the galaxy. 

In his work Sunny Side Up and other sorrowful stories presented inside the water tower, Mike Bourscheid melds family anecdotes, fictional tales, domestic work, and tropes of masculinity. Bringing together several sculptural works and a short film starring the artist himself, his work functions as a stage or set ready to be activated. Bourscheid’s signature sense of play and pathos percolates through this series of carefully hand-crafted and bespoke costumes, props, prosthetics, and puppets—many of which were originally featured in the film. The daily actions of the body in the household and the performance of care in general, the routine that shows itself in repeated laundry, dishwashing, keeping order or sweeping the floor, is playfully staged. With his usual meticulous craftsmanship, Bourscheid produced props, such as gloves and socks, to which he latch-hooked hair like a wig: tools that appear to be extremely cumbersome for working in the household and at the same time artistically comment on the loving, admittedly often absurd, devotion to everyday objects and rites.

Born in Luxembourg, Mike Bourscheid studied at the Université d'Aix-Marseille and at the University of the Arts in Berlin. He respresented Luxembourg at the 57th Venice Biennale (2017) and his recent exhibitions include Haverford Center Philadelphia (USA), Kunstverein Braunschweig (Germany), LIAR NYC (USA), Nanaimo Art Gallery (Canada), Casino Luxembourg – Forum d'Art Contemporain and Kunstpalais Erlangen (Germany).

The idea of the hole is a potent point of access for Vanessa Brown’s exhibition >>>000 / Gravity, which features a series of video works, textiles, and a commissioned sound work by composer Michelle Helene Mackenzie. Brown mines the depths of this surprisingly rich subject matter in her eclectic research that includes pop culture, geographical craters, caves, black holes, and the body’s orifices. c Brown traces the inspiration for this series back to her childhood and her early enthrallment with the Looney Tunes portable hole. In this animated cartoon universe, the hole alternates between objecthood and void. Brown’s installation also references holes of many other types, encompassing those found in outer space, geography, and the body’s anatomy. The artist's integration of sound and video alongside textiles creates an immersive installation that sparks a sense of magic and awe. As much a philosophical and existential voyage as it is an artistic one, her exhibition oscillates between inner and outer worlds, transforming the hole into a powerfully imagined site of longing and escape, respite and refuge. 

Vanessa Brown graduated with the Chancellors Award from Emily Carr University. She has exhibited in Canada, Germany, Luxembourg, Denmark, the USA, and Mexico, with solo and two-person exhibitions at The Richmond Art Gallery, Richmond; The Esker Foundation, Calgary; Patel Brown, Toronto; Projet Pangee, Montreal; The Western Front, Vancouver; NADA, Miami; The Armory Show, New York; and group exhibitions at the Vancouver Art Gallery, Vancouver; Fellner Louvigny, Luxembourg; Artpace, San Antonio; and MOLAF at Künstlerhaus Bethanien, Berlin. She currently based in Luxembourg and in xʷməθkʷəy̓əm, Səl̓lwətaʔ/Selilwitulh and Sḵwx̱wu7mesh land, also known as Vancouver, Canada 

*Adapted from exhibitions texts on Vanessa Brown: That Other Hunger (2022) and Mike Bourscheid: Sunny Side Up and other sorrowful stories (2023), by Zoë Chan for Richmond Art Gallery