Building Casuariestraat corner Schouwburgstraat, used as a campus by Leiden University.
The building itself is officially said to be built around 1700, however, the way it looks, it is probably late 19th century or even later.
It has been used as State Archive and as the library of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs.
From 1990 to 2010 it housed De Illusie (“The Illusion”) a so called culturele broedplaats (“cultural breeding ground”), a squatted powerhouse for art and music.
I remember its early days as an exhibition spot, with its strange empty archive room and its narrow staircases.
One of the oldest artists initiatives in The Hague and excellently located in between the Royal Academy and the museums in the city centre, De Illusie was vacated for Leiden University in spite of serious objections by The Hague’s cultural institutions.
I don’t know. Maybe it’s the generational divide. I brought my camera to Trixie, in case there would be something to make pictures of. But there wasn’t anything worth photographing without becoming cynical. And i don’t want to become cynical about something i still believe was made with some kind of attention and care. I was offered some camomile tea and i walked around with it, looking at the kitsch hanging on the walls. Then some music started which didn’t make me feel “encouraged to self reflect while visiting the space,” as the invitation stated. Indeed, self reflecting i was thinking, what the heck am i doing here? I had come to a place with things that didn’t interest me, with a bunch of people that were busy amongst themselves, which reminded me of the 1970s. To be short: i felt obsolete and so i left the place.
Maybe you’ll have another and more precious experience than i had if you pay focus loslaten | ontspannen a visit which is still possible Friday and over the weekend. (opened 16.00 – 22.00 hrs; because of Covid-19 measures you have to send them an e-mail to tell when you would like to come; tea and waffles are present)
Doing a Master in Artistic Research is not an easy matter, as what is “artistic” and what is “research?”
Mazen AshkarMazen Ashkar
Generally too many artists are claiming to be researching.
Georgie Brinkman
While art can be the result of inner or outer research – or one may need to research in order to make art –, stressing the research in art means the research itself is emphatically part of the art you show.
Georgie Brinkman
However, in the end it is just the materiality of what you show that should make the difference.
Georgie Brinkman
As a viewer you don’t give a damn if a work of art is the result of any research; that only starts to matter if, as a viewer, you become part of the research.
Daphne Monastirioti
To engage the viewer you need all the conventional conditions and techniques.
Daphne Monastirioti
There is the material object you want to show, there is the space you want to show it in, there are the acoustics of the space and there is time, the space of time you want to engage the viewer in.
Daphne Monastirioti
Whether you are good at Mid-Atlantic English non-speak or not, doesn’t make any difference.
Carmen Roca Igual
When showing your work as an artist, you are in fact artistically naked, you can hide almost nothing, and even if you do, the hiding itself becomes part of your artistic nakedness.
Carmen Roca Igual
That counts for any artist, whether you are a conventional painter or a maker of intricate video installations.
There are no pictures of Arribas’ work here as she had organised a digital performance with sound, however, her website gives you some idea of what she is up to.
Leonie Brandner
1646 is also taking part in the national artistic online Unlocked/Reconnected show, with a work by Carmen Roca Igual (scroll up for pictures), which came out a bit shallow in combination with the works of the students, apart from its less than perfect presentation with too much reflections on the video screen.
Lena Longefay
Serene Hui showed her work in Page Not Found, and works by Leonie Brandner, Lena Longefay, Giath Taha, Juliana Martínez Hernández and by Leos were on show at Ruimtevaart.
Lena Longefay
Referring to what i preached before, i must say not all exhibiting students really engage you in their artistic research, although all do make interesting works.
Lena Longefay
One of the most interesting works was shown by Giath Taha.
Giath Taha
The work looked quite simple and open in the beginning, but looking at it in a darkened room made it haunting and even a bit spooky.
Giath Taha
A work about space, presence and absence, it engages the viewer completely.
Giath Taha
At least that is what happened with me.
Giath Taha
Another very interesting presentation was Serene Hui’s at Page Not Found. (scroll up for pictures of her work)
Juliana Martínez Hernández
In her work different ideas come together, from the manipulation of Google’s algorithms to truth and fake behind language in a post-truth society.
Juliana Martínez Hernández
The different voices filled up the space from different speakers, making it also a work about time and space, while the book titles of the shop seemed to illustrate the whole work.
LeosLeos
Generally i admire the way these mostly international students have coped with the present situation, cut off from their friends, families and homes (some may have been in that situation already before) and finding themselves in a world that is suddenly less international in many ways.
This is the Prince Berhard fly-over, at the end of Rijnstraat and running along Schedeldoekshaven.
It was built in 1975 to open up The Hague’s city centre for car traffic and to regulate it.
It didn’t prove to be the best of solutions and today it has become obsolete.
Plans have been presented in 2019 to largely break down the fly-over and the office buildings built over it, and to create a new area with new offices for the state administration, Leiden University campus, cultural activities and for a new giant skyscraper with apartments.
The new post-postmodern proposals have been presented with modernist élan (as were once the Prince Bernhard fly-over and its surroundings).
The present situation looks unloved and forgotten.
De Bree took his copper plates, or rather printed circuit boards used in computers, to the border of the two Koreas, on the South Korean side.
He prepared them with paint and went to see what he could do with them in a heavily militarised border zone like the Korean where he also visited many old battlefields from the Korean War (1950-1953).
In the end they became a kind of dialogue between the landscape and the prepared plates themselves.
It wasn’t possible to take photographs of the landscape, while just making compositions with found objects from the military zone was too superficial.
So De Bree used found objects to scratch the landscape – the hills but also the dams that were built on both sides of the border – into the copper plates.
As such he made a series of works that are open to a wide range of interpretations.
They defy the ban on publicly showing certain details of the border area.
On the other hand the surface of the works are blurred and only the graphic lines of the hilltops and the dams impose themselves as abstract lines.
To make the experience complete, you are allowed to be alone for ten minutes with the works in the gallery on Saturdays or you may see them by appointment.
Any way you choose, they are good works to see in real as they change by any change of light, becoming copperplates of both defiance and acquiescence.
I leave you here with my own choice of what is on show, to give you a taste of the diversity of the collection.
Suzie van StaaverenIngrid MolNoëlle von EugenJan SnoeckFrits RotgansChris de BuegerHans van Bentem & IrisPiet DielemanPepijn van den NieuwendijkJan van MunsterMarius LutJan van MunsterMarlene DumasLorena van BunningenTomas RajlichMarius LutLorena van Bunningen
To celebrate the re-opening of institutions for the visual arts during the current crisis, and to take part in the national on-line Unlocked/Reconnected project, PARTS-Project reconnects with an installation by Pim Voorneman.
Pim VoornemanPim Voorneman
The physical installation at the gallery is in three parts, but the sounds of it can also be experienced partly on PARTS’ website.
Pim VoornemanPim Voorneman
As the installation should be very much experienced on the spot, it would be a serious spoiler to tell you any of my experiences with it; it is better to visit it yourself (which i’d highly recommend).
Robert HolyheadRobert HolyheadMarijn van Kreij
Additionally some works from private collections are on show as well.
The second leg of the tour leads along the permanent exhibition about Mondrian and De Stijl and the great solo show of Lucassen.
Bart van der Leck
Of course the KM is famous for its Mondrian collection, works by other De Stijl artists and their contemporaries.
Piet Mondrian
Usually i take that exhibition for granted.
I’ve seen it a few times, it’s good to know that it’s there and that’s it.
Piet Mondrian
As following the Mondrian Route means it is obligatory to see the De Stijl & Mondrian section, i took the opportunity to check if my favourites are still there.
Again, under the tranquillity of the Covid-19 measures at the museum, it was a great joy to see these works in all their preciousness again, without the pressure of any other visitors who may disturb your attention.
Bart van der Leck
After all, art watching is an egotistic activity.
Bart van der LeckVilmos Huszár
At best it’s you and the work of art, and nobody in between or around.
Piet MondrianLucassen
However, i couldn’t spend much time there as i needed time for the Lucassen show. Reinier Lucassen (1939) has built an impressive oeuvre of paintings.
LucassenLucassenLucassenLucassen
He started in the 1960s as an artist who combined elements of figurative and abstract art and of high art and consumer culture, like other artists in the Netherlands and Belgium, usually called Nieuwe figuratie (New Figuration).
LucassenLucassenLucassenLucassen
In the case of Lucassen it has become an art intermingled with the beauty of the banal and the absurd.
LucassenLucassenLucassenLucassen
Lucassen’s work is also linguistic, as such it may be even more mysterious to a non-Dutch speaker than it is for a Batavophone.
LucassenLucassenLucassenLucassen
As usual in these big shows at the KM there is an overload of works.
LucassenLucassenLucassenLucassen
The works are not presented chronologically.
LucassenLucassenLucassenLucassen
To an extent, that works, as mutual correlations between the paintings of different periods may become clear.
LucassenLucassenLucassenLucassen
On the other hand, after watching intensely (which is now really possible!) for some time, one gets the idea of getting a bit dizzy of all these different voices that shout, sing and whisper at you.
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To be short about visiting the KM at the moment: it is now possible to really look at the works intensely, or even reflect on them while looking, which is great and unique for this period of the crisis.
LucassenLucassenLucassenLucassen
However, as the exhibitions are quite big – apart from Navid Nuur’s, although his is big in its reflective content – you need to plan ahead what you really want to see.
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Otherwise you may not fall victim to the Covid-19 virus but to the Stendhal syndrome.
Villa Next Door 2 