Text by Lula Valletta:
GlueHeads
A Berlin Odyssey into the Unreal
GlueHeads collage group exhibition. Celebrating the project GlueHeads and the life of its
founder, the late Anelor Robin.
Participants:
Anelor Robin †, maycec, Jorge Chamorro, Caro Mantke, Lula Valletta, Natascha Frioud
D.M. Nagu, Lydia Mojzis, Niels Kalk, Isabel Reitemeyer, Aline Helmcke, Cédric Mantel,
Maike Zimmermann, Clémentine Rettig and Rinus van Alebeek
GlueHeads (2014-2019) was a contemporary collage project bringing together a group of
collage loving artists, lots of magazines, scissors and glue and a hint of good spirit.
Berlin is the city where Anelor Robin started GlueHeads as a project in 2014. Little did she
know that GlueHeads by 2023 would have grown beyond the project and become a group
of friends, a Berliner collage collective, of which she was and will always remain the glue.
Even though the project GlueHeads died along with Anelor’s untimely death four years
ago, the GlueHeads are still very much active as a collective. A GlueHead you are for
life… The exhibition showcases collages by Berliner GlueHeads and the GlueHeads
zines.
The basic tenets of the GlueHeads project were as simple as they were powerful:
One Day, One Exhibition, One Zine.
For each edition of the GlueHeads project, curator Anelor Robin brought together artists
working with different collage techniques. To make every exhibition and accompanying
zine unique and to keep the concept fresh, each GlueHeads session was always held in a
different gallery with a whole new set of artists. In the gallery during the daytime, the artists
created the collages that were shown to the audience at the end of the day and that
eventually ended up in the next edition of the GlueHeads zine.
All artists brought their own materials, although there was also an emphasis on sharing, collaboration, and creating a collective stew of raw and unexpected creative ingredients to draw from. The GlueHeads zine was put together by maycec and would consist exclusively of collages made on the day itself. The ambition of the zine was not only to document these ephemeral works, but in consideration of the zine medium, to also be a substantial and comprehensive work in itself; a collage of collages.
Anelor organised GlueHeads editions 1-5 in Berlin, before travelling with the concept to
Turkey, Morocco, Iran and Serbia. The GlueHeads artists community (everyone
who was ever included in or invited to join a GlueHeads session) spans 58 artists
worldwide.
The exhibition is a dazzlingly colourful mix of collages. The artists on view here are just a
section of longstanding Berliner GlueHeads. All sharing the GlueHead spirit and vital
members of the contemporary collage community in Berlin.
From analog collage to sound collage, tablecloths, records and video collage as well as
objects from Anelor’s Wunderkammer collections, it’s all there.
The Verbeke expo is curated by fellow GlueHead and friend of Anelor, Lula Valletta, in
collaboration with Marie Verboven. Starting from Anelor’s personal archive, Lula did a
‘reverse GlueHeads tour’. She visited each of the exhibiting artists in their studio, home or
atelier, where she made a selection of collages, some older and some brand new, in the
spirit of GlueHeads’ odyssey into the unreal. This exhibition celebrating the project
GlueHeads and the contemporary collage scene in Berlin is lovingly dedicated to Anelor’s
memory.
_
Opening: Sunday 14 May 2023, 11:00h
Verbeke Foundation
Westakker 1, 9190 Stekene, Belgium
On view til 5 November 2023