This was on a invitation by artist: Ton van Kints.
My dear friend Jolanda Lunshof did the openingspeech:
“The Flattened Truth
A first solo exhibition isn’t just a series of works on a wall. It’s an exhalation of everything that’s been breathed in over the years. It’s daring to show what moves you — and wanting others to be moved by it too.
The title of this exhibition, The Flattened Truth – de platgelegde waarheid – is not only poetic, it’s also quintessentially Barbera. Everything is examined, tested, turned inside out and unfolded until you arrive at a truth that isn’t hard or fixed, but rather fragile. Tangible. Layered.
When I heard Barbera was unfolding bricks, two things crossed my mind. One: that sounds like something for which you'd need a helmet. And two: only Barbera could come up with that.
But this truth isn’t being hacked open. It reveals itself – patiently, from the beginning, layer by layer. No violence, only attention. She explores what becomes visible from the very first moment of the Waal format. And what appears is not a chiselled core, but space. The inside, until now hidden, becomes a surface. A story.
And so, connection arises — between form and emptiness, between material and meaning, between the inside and the outside. The work invites you to pause and reflect on what usually goes unseen: the space between forms. The space between two people. The tension between what we say and what we truly feel.
It is an ode to the hidden. An invitation to look, to feel, and to connect.
This exhibition is not only a milestone in Barbera’s artistic journey. It is also a testament to what art is truly about: connection. Between maker and work. Between work and viewer. And perhaps most of all: between ourselves and who we are inside.
Those who enter this space are invited not only to look with open eyes, but with an open heart. Let the work affect you. Don’t be afraid to be moved — that’s what it’s meant for.
An unfolded brick has nothing to hide. At most, a quiet story — stretched in thread, caught in fabric, shaped in concrete, fired in ceramic.
What is not always visible, turns out to be deeply felt. Something that lingers between the fibres, in the space, on the surface of the material.
To art, to emptiness, to what reveals itself when you dare to truly look.”
Jolanda Lunshof-Egberts