OPENING: Saturday 18 JANUARY FROM 17.00 - 19.30H

Upstream Gallery proudly presents Jeroen Jongeleen's new solo exhibition, Grey Zone Tactics: Black Ops, White Noise. The works in this exhibition build on his earlier running-based projects but are more than ever imbued with a political layer. The crises of our time, such as war conflicts and the looming threat of climate change, are palpable in a series of works employing various media, including video, sculpture, and text.

Jongeleen's work almost always originates in public spaces, where he leaves traces that he documents. Through his interventions, he encourages the free use of public space, driven by his belief that freedom of expression and movement lies at the heart of a truly democratic society. From this perspective, he examines his role as an individual and citizen within broader political issues. Without passing moral judgment or pointing fingers, he exposes the power dynamics at play in public spaces.

With the exhibition's title, Jongeleen refers to the grey area between peace and war in international relations. It is an ambiguous space where (as yet) no direct conflict occurs, but tactics such as espionage, disinformation, and cyberattacks are employed. These forms of hybrid warfare are often invisible to the individual but play a crucial role in contemporary global conflicts. Jongeleen himself also operates in a grey zone: the liminal space between legality and illegality. He ventures into places where he is not permitted to be and leaves traces that sometimes verge on vandalism. This in-between space, where rules blur and actions become ambiguous, forms the playing field for his work and reflects the complex dynamics of modern conflicts. 

Nitroglyphs

In his series Running in Circles, Jongeleen runs extreme distances in a circular path, gradually wearing down the ground beneath him. These physical and meditative actions are captured with a drone, resulting in serene images of a solitary performance. The locations where he runs play a crucial role: they are often “guilty landscapes” or sites imbued with layered meanings.(1) The triptych Nitroglyphs marks the culmination of this series. Here, Jongeleen runs on the Veluwe, a Dutch nature reserve, where strange patterns in the landscape become visible. These traces, only perceptible from the air, reveal the dramatic state of the terrain. They are the result of interventions by Staatsbosbeheer (the Dutch Forestry Commission) in an effort to save biodiversity from the harmful effects of nitrogen. Large swaths of nature are plowed, creating the peculiar marks Jongeleen documents. Through this triptych, he captures the radical transformations the natural world undergoes due to human intervention and the impacts of climate change.

Invisible Cities

In his latest journeys, Jongeleen no longer runs meditative circles through aesthetic landscapes but ventures into the forest, deviating from established paths. He follows animal tracks deep into the woods, where he sometimes encounters hidden treasures. Alongside deer, wild boars, or wolves, he also discovers traces of human presence, such as remnants of abandoned ruins. During one of these expeditions, he stumbled upon a hidden bunker village: a cluster of about 15 bunkers that appeared untouched since World War II. Traces of German troops remain visible as if time has stood still. However, new traces have also appeared: Jongeleen painted murals on the German concrete.

But what can be seen in Jongeleen’s bunker village remains shrouded in mystery. Instead of straightforward video or photographic documentation, he presents in Invisible Cities interpretations and translations that contribute to a carefully constructed myth. For instance, on different occasions, he invited six writer friends to the location and asked them to capture their experiences in text. Images of the murals, which he claims to have created, were processed using artificial intelligence, resulting in disorienting, fragmented visuals. The outcome is a series of works and a publication that both reveal and conceal—a layered narrative where fact and fiction merge.

Oostdorp

Jongeleen’s latest video work,  Oostdorp, is a filmed portrait of a house discovered in a remote, abandoned military training area. Oostdorp is used as a training village by various military units to familiarize themselves with urban warfare. The village consists of several houses, some of which are specially equipped to demonstrate the mechanics of booby traps. Jongeleen enters the houses and films his expedition. The result is a portrait of an “untouched house,” sketched by the intruder, intercut with tunnels and trenches that surround and intersect the buildings.(2)

Fire lays

During his journeys through the forest, Jongeleen collects wooden branches, which he uses for defense against potential predators he might encounter along the way. Each stick, a found artifact, takes on meaning as a silent witness to his encounters and experiences. They symbolize his travels, with each branch carrying the weight and intensity of a specific journey. In this sense, they are imbued with effort and significance, akin to Brancusi’s eggs. In the gallery, these branches are transformed into suggested pyres, immortalized within the framework of art.

Fake news

Branches freed by storm damage serve as the framework for a so-called tintinnabulum, a mobile that captures the fleeting nature of the moment.(3) Using clipped newspaper headlines that reach us through the press, Jongeleen creates a cloud that heralds ominous times.

 

(1) The Dutch expression “guilty landscape” was introduced in the 1970s by Armando to describe a (peaceful or picturesque-looking) landscape where terrible events took place in the past.

(2) An untouched house is a novella by Dutch author Willem Frederik Hermans, published in 1952. It tells the story of a Dutch soldier during World War II who takes up residence in an abandoned house in a muddy no man's land.

(3) In Roman times, a tintinnabulum was typically a bronze bell or a series of bells. Often, one or more bells were suspended beneath a phallic-shaped structure and used as an amulet to ward off evil.

Banner image: still from Running Between Works At Night, Jeroen Jongeleen (2023)

Grey Zone Tactics: Black Ops, White Noise | Jeroen Jongeleen 
18 January - 1 March, 2025