Marcel
Installation. Color video projection on black and white photograph, audio.
Dating from 2005, re-worked in 2007 to its present form. In collaboration with Marcel Musters, Inez van Lamsweerde/Vinoodh Matadin and Jeroen Willems.
Performed live on november 20, 2005 at the Mugmetdegoudentand theatre studio.
Exhibitions: Artpace (San Antonio, 2006) De Hallen (Haarlem, 2007).
Collection of Frans Halsmuseum / De Hallen, Haarlem.
Audio text:
Funny.
Well it’s a nice view.
Lonely buggers. Reality sucks.
Well why dont you just let it happen?
They’ll shoot up just the same without anybody watching. Fucking prostitutes.
You see he was right.
Stay calm. 1659, 1759, 1859, 1959. Bang. Right guys I’m here. Working, working. Meanwhile it’s others who die. My father, Mariel, Gerald, Anthony, Suk.
I know. How powerless can you get? I know I dont drink because..
The only difference between me and them is that they’re..
Not that it gets me anywhere, but still.
Just a byproduct of advertising. Sick.
Ladies and gentlemen, this is your captain speaking, earth has disappeared. As we will not be able to crash, we will continue flying until we run out of fuel.
Well so do something about it you’ve been wining about it for years.
Well... Halfway,
Everything’s fine. Stay calm.
Come on guys what’s the big idea?
You know, these days when somebody on the street says ‘sorry’ it’s a junky.
You see you don’t get it. You’re just a character in someone else's plot. But I can not be held responsible. Well it’s fucking noisy.
Dead people walking uo and down. Stay Calm. Relax. Respect. You see.
Shutting the windows doesn’t help
I am the only one who really sees what’s going on. See, lost it now, never mind.
What was the question again?
RODIN
Niet-weten als normAls Zijlstra praat, dan hoor je de positieve, neoliberale peptalk van Rutte, maar ook de anti-elitaire en antiglobalistische onderbuikpraat van Wilders. Het roer moet niet alleen om, maar de bestaande structuur moet – als doel op zich – schade worden toegebracht. Met andere woorden, schepping en destructie gaan hand in hand – en uit de mond van Zijlstra klinkt dat allemaal verbluffend unisono.
De Burgers van SeoulEen betere verbeelding van hoe kunst aan macht en geld gelieerd is – en gecorrumpeerd kan raken – heb ik niet eerder zo gezien. Met de glaswand die me van hen scheidt hebben de Burgers van Calais een nieuwe huid gekregen. Het heeft weinig meer te maken met de gevoelige expressie in de beeldtaal van Rodin, of met de innovatieve kracht waarmee hij de beeldhouwkunst in de moderniteit heeft binnengehaald.
Destroyed ThinkerIn january 2007 two thieves stole a small cast of the Thinker from the Singer Museum in Laren, Holland. Not knowing the value of the sculpture, the thieves started taking the sculpture apart to be melted down. Alarmed by the press attention for their theft, and learning about its estimated value, they burried the sculpture in their garden. A few days later it was found, heavily damaged.
Rodin researchFrom 2005 onwards, I have been focusing on Rodin as a research topic. The main question that I ask myself is in what way Rodin consciously helped shaping the mythical proportions of his own artistic persona. By studying his life and works and by studying the timeframe of the second half of the nineteenth century – in which his work came to existence – I seek to create a context of paralel references as a source of inspiration for nowadays artistic practice.
Immovably CentredEverything just chucked away. Subsidy handed back. A total failure. Fine. Well done. I’d like to know when you’re not going to be a failure. If you’re not. And whether I’m going to witness it in this lifetime. So vain. So weak. So lacking in backbone. I have to keep the whole show on the road while you just sit upstairs crying at your desk, your tears staining what you’re only going to scrunch up again any second and toss into the corner. On that laptop of yours.
Call meIt’s either filthy thoughts or intellectual blah-blah, and nothing in between. Look closer. More closer. Look at me! You hear me?! If there’s any reason for me to be ashamed, it’s you. The only reason I’m standing in front of the town hall is because I happened to have been ‘created’ by a world-famous sculptor: Rodin, the genius of deep emotions and existential gestures. Yeah right. The way I’m standing here, Rodin is the only person who’s never once laid a finger on me.