08 September 2006 - 14 October 2006

"Christine Clinckx shows herself to be an artist who is a typical child of our time. Not only does she utilise the media on which she and her generation were reared (audio and video) in her work, its themes are also closely related to the problems of growing up in a complex, contemporary society. From his early youth, the Westerner is brought up realising that life amounts to more than the earthly cycle of birth, procreation and death, that he differs from animals because of his mental capacity, and that this enables him to strive towards the ideals of civilisation and progress.

Through play, children learn the norms and values of our society. Everyone is aware of examples of how children's games are often steeped in stereotypical ideas and taboos concerning the difference between good and evil. 'Heaven' and 'hell' are concepts that initially appeal to our imagination, even before we find out anything about religion. Through reading and education we later learn that the highest human ideals are pre-eminently expressed in religion and art, because both enable people to rise above their earthly existence. In his renowned study 'Uber den Prozess der Zivilisation' (1939) (The Civilisation Process, 2000), Norbert Elias pointed out that the process trough which a human child becomes and adult can be viewed as an individual 'civilisation process to which every person growing up in a civilised society is automatically subject from a young age, to a greater of lesser extend and with varying degrees of success'.
It comes down to this: every individual must undergo alone the centuries old process of civilisation of the society of which he is a part. This has the added effect that the distance between the adult world and the children's world becomes ever greater." (fragment text Stijn Huijts in catalogue Christine Clinckx. HE(LL)AVEN, Museum Het Domein, Sittard, The Netherlands)