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Centrale presents the exhibition Mitja Tušek & Bertille Bak (10.04 > 24.08.2025)
Mitja Tušek’s paintings and series are informed by references to the history of art and European culture, from the Middle Ages to Ensor and the Rorschach tests, whose forms recall the multitude of possible representations and perceptions of an image. Mitja Tušek’s paintings play with the codes of figuration and abstraction: figurative paintings touch on abstraction, while those that appear abstract often feature portraits or landscapes. The materials he uses - wax, lead, interference pigment - contribute through their power of absorption or reflection to an ambiguous perception of the image; we guess at it more than we see it, and yet we retain an almost palpable presence. Several series of large-format canvases allow us to embrace the diversity of forms that Tušek’s painting takes. It shifts the gaze, questioning the image and its double, the medium and its materiality, starting with the smallest particle of image, almost the pixel, which is zoomed in and enlarged, gaining in density with the successive layers applied by the painter over the years.
For this exhibition at Centrale, Mitja Tušek has invited the artist Bertille Bak. As a video and visual artist, Bertille Bak takes a committed look at the world, focusing on personal and collective narratives, questioning both the day-to-day reality of the communities she encounters and the representations we make of them. Through her installations and videos, “Bak doesn’t seek to create an illusion of realism but attempts to reveal what goes on behind the scenes in the construction of any image and to warn the public, in a tender but madcap way, that art is only make-believe.” (Exhibition Abus de Souffle, 2024, Jeu de Paume, Paris).