My Secret Garden

This summer, the Rotterdam Art Gallery presents ‘My Secret Garden’, Arne Quinze’s first exhibition in the Netherlands. ‘My Secret Garden’ is a large- scale indoor project in which visitors actively search for answers to questions on which parts of the private life, which he calls the secret garden, occupy centre stage. From his own intimate experiences, he tries to stimulate visitors into looking for their own inner selves. For this installation, Arne Quinze introduces specially created light and sound compositions, made by the duo Danny Mommens and Els pynoo (Vive la Fête).

‘My Secret Garden’ consists of two parts: an impressive wooden installation and a space, which Arne Quinze refers to as ‘the temple’. He uses the wooden labyrinth to provide the people with a framework to contemplate on the way they organize their lives in relation to others and to undertake a search for their own inner selves.  He regards a ‘secret garden’ as a place where we feel safe and are in control of who and what we allow to enter into this clearly defined zone. It is precisely in ‘the temple’ that visitors come to themselves. Branches rise from the altar and reach into space. Metal display cases contain Quinze’s most recent works. In addition to the installation and ‘the temple’, the movies Rock Strangers and My Secret Garden are also shown, featuring the making of in the Arts Centre and interviews with the artist and others by Saskia de Coster.

The exhibition in the Arts Centre takes place at exactly the same time as the one in Ostend and is therefore part of a double project with 2 publications and 2 films.