Hotel Polaris in Ostend

Hotel Polaris is the follow-up of the exhibit Salonfähig (fall 2006) and the second in a series representing the work of Guido Vrolix . After exhibiting in a Brussels Art Nouveau house, he is now showing in an Neo-Classical hotel in Ostend.

"I step into the empty lobby. It is very dark. Immediately there is the smell – old and wary. It is the smell of memories; memories left behind by long-gone visitors. Their presence is imposing and almost tangible in the darkness of  this old hotel. They gather around, at the edge of my mind's eye, as if they welcome me, politely and firmly. Involuntary I look around and then move on to track them down, eager to discover them all in the myriad rooms".

Due to the bourgeois nature of the Art Nouveau house, Salonfähig did inevitably put Vrolix's paintings up front. In Ostend, just as it was in Brussels, it is the building that chooses the work to be exhibited. Like a library, a hotel collects the bits and pieces of history left behind by each visitor. Vrolix sifts through the accumulated pile of memories and distills out-of-time images. In a series of black-and-white ink drawings and colourful paintings, Vrolix reveals scraps of life. As the newest visitor in this hotel you look at the fragments of a story that belongs to the past as well as to the future, it is yours and that of others. Vrolix shows us what memories and dreams are made of.

Hotel Polaris opens on Saturday May 5th and runs until Sunday May 20th - Groentemarkt 19, Ostend, Belgium.
Vrolix presents a combination of ink drawings, sculptures and paintings in this old abandoned hotel at the seaside.

Since his first show with Galery Joost Declercq in 1989, Guido Vrolix (1961) has become renown as a talented and versatile artist. Vrolix' work and designs can be purchased at www.bettydhamers.com.

For more information click here.