Telkens als ik reis, reis ik mateloos
Whenever I travel, I travel boundless

Fernando Pessoa, Book of Disquiet, p.306

Albada Jelgersma Gallery is pleased to present Detour, the solo exhibition of Rens Horn. This will be his second solo with the gallery.

Rens Horn is renowned for his intriguing, poetic and intimate images, taken during his many travels abroad and road trips with his motorcycle. For Horn, the road is a symbol for freedom, curiosity, adventure, in short: the longing for the unknown. It’s also a metaphor for life: choices to be made, unexpected turns, unclear follow-up, hope for better times or the concern for the opposite. A selection of works from his travels to the North Cape (2017) and to Mongolia (2018) will be shown in the gallery.

Detour
In 2017, Rens Horn drove his Harley Davidson from his home in Rotterdam to the North Cape, the most northern part of Norway. Packed with a copy of Fernando Pessoa’s Book of Disquiet, a book that has been described as a timeless universe in which the description of thoughts is central. Reading a few pages every day, it began to influence Horn’s own thoughts and observation. In North Journal he translated this experience into something tangible. His photos, accompanied by handwritten quotes from the book, are printed on all kinds of photo paper, sometimes recent, sometimes very old, referring to the fragmentary nature of Pessoa’s book.

The other part of the exhibition shows works from 2018, when Horn and a friend drove a Toyota Land Cruiser from Amsterdam to Ulaan Baatar, Mongolia. Traveling through the Ukraine, Russia and Kazachstan, before ending up on the steppes of Mongolia. For the longest time these steppes were virtually unchanged from the time of Genghis Khan, when horses could roam freely. These days they are being cultivated more and more. The nomadic lifestyle is changing very quickly and the evidence for this can be seen on the road. In Horn’s photo’s, changing roads tell the story of a changing society.

Rens Horn (1970) lives and works in Rotterdam. In 1995 he graduated at the St Joost Academy in Breda. Recent (group) exhibitions include Ketelfactory, Rotterdan (2019); Albada Jelgersma Gallery, (2018); WTC Art Gallery, Rotterdam (2013); Route du Nord, Rotterdam (2013); Kunsthal, Rotterdam (1999); Booijmans van Beuningen, Rotterdam (with Jeff Wall) (1996). For the Nederlands Photo Museum in Rotterdam he prints works by Ed van der Elsken, Cas Oorthuys and Lucebert.