N° 5 2008
Oktober/November
Monument
A large number of artists in the Netherlands and elsewhere are intensely occupied with the history of the monument. The question is, what exactly is going on? Where does this investigation of a genre of art that has been under fire for decades, with its historic undertones, come from? Why this embrace of a form of art, that as Robert Musil once poignantly wrote, offered the best possible guarantee of invisibility? Is it an attempt to reconfirm a people’s own national identity, now under pressure in a globalized economy? Do people want to counter the all-pervasive negativity by using art to boost morality with tokens of grandeur, as Anna Tilroe suggested during her visit to Sonsbeek last summer? Or is the monument suddenly again being seen as an important social factor, now that relational aesthetics have proved to reach no further than the inner circle of the art circuit?
Interview with Guido van der Werve - The Charm of the Poetic One-liner
06/10/08 Laurence Lowe
No other Dutch artist has caused an international sensation as quickly as Guido van der Werve. The maker of elegant rhythmical videos with a clear relation to music succeeds in sustaining the beauty of an idea throughout narratives that are as romantic as they are mad. In anticipation of a large exhibition in Basel (this fall) and Haarlem (spring), an interview with the artist in his New York studio. This weekend his latest show opened at De Hallen in Haarlem
John Baldessari is the winner of the B.A.C.A. International 2008. The Bonnefantenmuseum in Maastricht is currently showing a large exhibition of his work, for which it collaborated with students from the Jan van Eyck Institute. It is an indication of the extent to which Baldessari is not only a respected artist but also a beloved teacher. Catherine Taft looked him up in his studio in Los Angeles and spoke with him about his life as an artist and teacher of art.
Sculpture Park Rules
04/10/08 Domeniek Ruyters
A large number of artists in the Netherlands and elsewhere are intensely occupied with the history of the monument. From whence comes this interest in what had until recently seemed a genre relegated to the inactive list?
At the last Biennale in Venice the Romanian curator Mihnea Mircan collaborated with Metahaven to present a subtle meditation on monumental art in the Romanian pavilion. Now Mircan has made a follow-up to that project for Stroom Den Haag: the exhibition Since we last spoke about monuments.
Flattened History
A conversation with Cyprien Gaillard
04/10/08 Payam Sharifi (Slavs and Tatars)
Cyprien Gaillard and Payam Sharifi (a member of the art collective Slavs and Tatars) met each other in 2002 in Paris and have been friends ever since. They have also done a few projects together. Whereas Gaillard's work is intuitive and romantic, the work of Slavs and Tatars is more intellectual end discursive. Nonetheless they share a similar passion for themes such as 'the state' and 'power' and how these are manifested through architecture, monuments and history.
OPENING
