Magali Reus’s work assumes a minimalist form, in which she approaches today’s visual culture from a unique perspective. Through the interconnections with everyday objects she seems to be creating a sterile, inhuman reality; an idea of reality through which it reveals itself to us in a new way. This construction makes it clear that the everyday quality to which her work refers does not exist in isolation, but resonates with allusions and meaning.
The gallery space puts us in mind of a building site, full of containers, plastic, scaffolding, and sheets. But this harmonizes with the colour combinations and materials chosen by Magali Reus, as well as the forms that the works eventually assume. The associations evoked by the works intermingle and contradict each other. This incongruity is reinforced by the video work ‘Finish’ (2010), in which four men race against each other on the beach. In Reus’s approach, the men are presented in such an abstract and stylized way as to drain them of their humanity. Winning the race is apparently not the real purpose, and the result remains unclear. The colours, the setting and the movements appear more important than the narrative. The strength of Magali Reus’s work lies precisely in this combination of direct significance and the association of isolated elements.