Gabriel Lester: Suspension of Disbelief

From Saturday, 12 February, the public can also experience this magical exhibition, which runs for almost three months. Lester has specially created an immersive total installation composed of a dozen or so new and earlier works that explore concepts such as fortune and misfortune, expectations, superstition, rituals, magical beliefs, prophecies and, most especially, destiny and fate. Fate and magical beliefs play a pivotal role in Suspension of Disbelief.

This exhibition seems to suggest that the attribution of value to non-existent connections is one of the means of surviving in an unpredictable world. Lester’s installations and films present various examples of people trying to fathom out fate.

Lester at the IFFR
As a foretaste of his exhibition in Boijmans, one of Gabriël Lester’s films can be seen on the silver screens of the International Film Festival Rotterdam (IFFR) this coming Monday. The fickleness of destiny and the need for ritual acts are pivotal themes for Lester. As a prelude, this Dutch artist – albeit one with Belgian and American roots – throws one of his favourite themes into the mix: lotteries. He will be accompanied by a one-man band.

Gabriël Lester
- has been featured in exhibitions in São Paulo, Stockholm, London and Istanbul
-has a cinematic way of working: he isolates elements such as light, scenery, music and image, and subsequently moulds them to his will using techniques such as montage and framing.
-immerses the public in a conceptual and sensual experience.
-is intrigued by the human idiosyncrasy of wanting to gain control of the intangible world.