Art in corona times 1. 2 May 2020, SinArts Gallery
From May 2nd 2020 onwards i started categorising photo reports about exhibitions in Villa Next Door under the header Art in corona times.
Art in corona times 4, 15 May 2020, Topp & Dubio
Art in corona times 7a, 4 June 2020, A.R. Penck, Kunstmuseum, The Hague
Art in corona times 11, 23 June 2020, Mazen Ashkar, 1646
Art in corona times 18, 29 July 2020, Janice McNab, Stroom
Art in corona times 23, 19 August 2020, Caravaggio, Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam
By that time the corona restrictions were already intensely experienced by the arts sector. These days Covid-19 is still there but the heaviest lockdown measures have been lifted, so Art in corona times will be history for the time being. Art in corona times started with a visit to SinArts Gallery . I hadn’t seen Alex Lebbink, SinArts’ gallerist, for quite some time and he had organised time slots for individual visitors. The idea was that the corona measures would be very temporary and that i would use the label Art in corona times for a few postings, just to see how galleries and other art platforms were doing during the crisis and after that it would be more or less business as usual. However, that proved to be quite naive. Corona became a way of life in which the arts were not seen as an essential need in life. At first artists and other professionals were more or less empathetic to that idea, but as the crisis went on and on, the government’s sheer lack of interest for the arts became a thorn in the flesh of many an art professional, especially after the health minister’s remark that if you cannot go to the theatre you might as well stay at home and see a dvd, as if there was no difference between the two. Last week i posted Art in corona times 101 with some extra footage of the interesting exhibition about Aad de Haas at the Chabot Museum in Rotterdam and that was the last one under the corona banner.
Art in corona times 29, 17 September 2020, Steamboat, Trixie
Art in corona times 34, 28 September 2020, Jessica de Wolf, Artist Support Fair, Quartair
Art in corona times 37, 13 October 2020, Robbin Heyker’s Birding Club, featuring Arjan Dwarshuis
Art in corona times 43, 7 November 2020, Simphiwe Ndzube, Nest, The Hague
Art in corona times 48, 30 November 2020, Sjimmie Veenhuis, …ism
For those who want to have an idea of what was on show during the pandemic Art in corona times is easily locatable in Villa Next Door.
Art in corona times 52, 14 December 2020, Ellen Yiu, A Finger in Every Pie, Royal Academy students’ pre-graduation show
Lockdowns etc are over now but that doesn’t mean the worries about this or any other virus are gone.
Art in corona times 56, 20 February 2021, Ingrid Rollema, PIP Den Haag
Art in corona times 59, 14 March 2021, Paul van der Eerden, Romy Muijrers, Galerie Maurits van de Laar
Art in corona times 64, 9 April 2021, André Kruysen, Galerie Ramakers
Art in corona times 68, 30 April 2021, Zhang Shujian, PARTS Project
Art in corona times 75, 11 June 2021, Marion van Rooi, Jan Wattjes, Luuk Kuipers, Quartair
Covid-19 may return with a more dangerous version, and an altogether new and equally or more dangerous virus may come. The question is not if it will come, but when it will come. The bird flu virus being one of the most obvious contenders in the real viral world. Another worry in the aftermath of corona is the questionable urge of authorities to control everything and everybody, if possible with modern technology. This urge is understandable as authorities of any political colour try to influence social processes for the benefit of society as a whole. However, even before the Corona crisis it has already been proven that this urge to control has turned against citizens, as a holy faith in the objectivity of modern technology, market forces and a reduction of the state to a kind of control device has replaced a democracy in which different opinions in society play a role. Villa Next Door is not the place to make a deep analysis about society, politics, the free market, modern technology, the influence of debilitating conspiracy theories, and a considerable chunk of society that rather believes in so-called alternative facts than in real facts, that prefers evil tales to science. However this is the framework – as i see it – in which art is made, seen and presented today in this country, and i want to be clear about the context in which i give you my reports about exhibitions and art in this blog. After all, you don’t have to agree, but you should know. Another worry is the new situation with the war in Ukraine. One might suggest i should replace Art in corona times with Art in war times. However, the Netherlands are at the moment not at war with any other country. Also, it should be said that another devastating war is going on in Yemen for seven years now. Although this is principally a civil war, it has become internationalised, with other countries in the Middle East intervening. The conflict in Ukraine may have a global significance, or rather, it will have, even if the war itself remains physically limited to Ukraine. That, together with the devils unleashed during the Corona crisis, will bring us interesting but also ominous times. So, in the mean time, i repost some pictures here of some highlights of Art in corona times.
Art in corona times 81a, 12 July 2021, Joseph Palframan. Royal Academy, The Hague
Art in corona times 82b, 26 August 2021, Farkhondeh Shahroudi. Sonsbeek 20-24, Arnhem
Art in corona times 88, 27 September 2021, Yaïr Callender, Kadmium, Delft
Art in corona times 95, 17 December 2021, Casper Verborg, Galerie Helder
Art in corona times 97, 21 January 2022, Yesim Akdeniz, Dürst Britt & Mayhew
Hope to see you soon in real life or in this blog, stay healthy and sane, and keep your eyes open!
Art in corona times 101, 16 February 2022, Aad de Haas, Chabot Museum, Rotterdam
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On the 25th of April 1974 – i remember it well – the military and the people of Portugal expelled the dictator Marcello Caetano, who fled to Brazil.
Anne Geene
Now the way was open for Portugal’s colonies to become independent and for the Portuguese state to wrestle itself from fascistoid military authoritarianism, a legacy of the Interwar period.
front Camille Henrot, back CPR
My father, a decent social-democrat, was delighted seeing it on TV and it was as if the revolutionary blood of his pre-war youth ran through his veins again in all its redness.
Camille Henrot
The revolution became known as the Carnation Revolution as red carnations were put in the muzzles of the soldiers’ guns by the people and by the soldiers themselves.
Camille Henrot
Red carnations – like red roses – are symbols of love and affection, and of socialism and as such of social justice.
Camille Henrot
For a flower with almost no fragrance (and with no thorns) this was quite something.
Mehraneh Atashi
It also reminds me of how at my mother’s cremation the undertaker had changed the red roses we as a family had ordered, for white ones, to our despair.
Gluklya
White roses are bland, without any love or passion. They represent an icy kind of virginity.
Gluklya
Quite different from, for instance, the whiteness of magnolias.
Gluklya
Magnolias represent or symbolise nothing in western culture as far as i know.
Rossella Biscotti
That may be because its name was used only from the 18th century onwards, a scientific name given by a Frenchman in Martinique.
Magnolias had their native range in the Americas, and were later on spread over the world as a decorative plant, and so the name of Magnol and part the history of French colonialism became household, without most people knowing it.
Milena Bonilla
But there is another *imperialist* story connected to magnolias.
Milena Bonilla
They belong to the oldest groups of flowering plants, which conquered the world during the Cretaceous, the age of dinosaurs like Tyrannosaurus rex and the likes.
Lily van der Stokker
Flowering plants became part of the ecosystem of the world that both cultivated such monsters as well as survived their demise.
Patricia Kaersenhout
Maybe magnolias would be a good symbol of survival.
Patricia Kaersenhout
They are not as intricate as orchids, not as passionate as red roses and it may prove difficult to put them in the muzzle of a gun, but they are simple, even a bit primitive. Isn’t that enough?
Patricia Kaersenhout
Can you be revolutionary and like flowers? That is the question.
front Maria Pask, back Philipp Gufler
Well, to many revolutionaries it was quite out of the question.
Philipp Gufler
But still, flowers are silent witnesses, and as symbols of almost everything one could think of, they are indelible in the history of human thinking and imagination.
It has a good and comprehensive introduction by Laurie Cluitmans and some text by the artists about their favourite plants and flowers.
Ruchama Noorda
There is so much text in it, that it would be superfluous for me to write a long article about it in Villa La Repubblica, although it would deserve it.
Otobong Nkanga
Instead here are some impressions of the show and some private musings which may or may not give you an incentive to go and take a look at the show yourself (as long as corona measures permit).
Otobong Nkanga
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Although the works are clearly made by three individual artists, they are presented as parts of a bigger philosophy.
There are no name tags in the exhibition and no titles, even in the accompanying booklet there are no references to individual works.
The visitor is welcomed in a vestibule via a stylish, formal entrance.
In the vestibule you can get acquainted with the styles of the three artists.
From the vestibule there are doorways with clear sightlines to some of the other rooms.
The architecture works very well. Made with a modest but elegant wooden framework the “villa” looks very open, with communicating rooms.
The dialogue of the works differs per room, just as rooms have different functions in a house.
As a whole the “villa” works as a body, or a spacious set of brains.
Although there are paintings, drawings, some ceramics and even a video, textiles have a prominent place.
There are different aspects like reflections on art history, the accumulation of ideas and drawings, the corporeality of language, the sensitivity of shapes etc.
Altogether it is a wonderful presentation of three very able artists in an environment that clearly invites the mind to wandering and gives a sense of safety to do so.
It’s all the more a shame that institutions like Nest are still not allowed to open, while commercial galleries are open to the public, albeit under strict conditions.
Platforms like Nest are just as able to take care of the safety restrictions as commercial galleries.
In the mean time i was happy to be invited by Nest to have a look and i hope that, as soon as the lockdown restrictions are lifted, you will be able to see this show, which has been constructed with so much care and enthusiasm and which – i must say – is very inspiring and sympathetic.
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Co-operating artists have become a real feature in present day art.
One might think this is a result of the corona pandemic, but in fact the tendency is going on already for quite some time.
The ways of co-operation are quite different, as are the motives.
However, there may be overall motives for co-operation.
First of all there is the basic reason that there is strength in unity.
Strength is needed in times when the art market has become a circus corrupting the real value of art, when artists, as a result, are taken even less seriously than before, and when their works are seen as commercial, disposable products.
As such there seems to be a sense of safety in numbers, even if the numbers are just 2 or 3.
There may be stylistic reasons too.
In the Post-postmodern era stylistic differences have become less of an issue than before in modern art history, and artists seem to be more willing to see each other’s qualities and learn from them, in spite of differences in background or even age.
In an era of crises (world crises in health, ecology, climate and human intelligence) some artists just don’t see the point in being an autonomous genius, and obviously there is an audience who finds this interesting in one way or another, otherwise there wouldn’t be so many communal artistic initiatives on offer
Architect Donna van Milligen Bielke has designed a home, even a villa, for three artists to show their work at Nest.
The three artists, Mila Lanfermeijer, Ana Navas and Evelyn Taocheng Wang are close friends and let their works communicate with each other and with the public, in the belief that their works and ideas will strengthen each other.
The idea is not that their individual works are not convincing, but rather that combining their works will advance their own creativity and thinking, and indeed that of the viewer.
For the second time this year i report about an exhibition at Nest which is unfortunately temporarily closed because of a corona lockdown.
Müge Yilmaz
Müge Yilmaz
However after the two weeks lockdown (if not extended) it will be open to the public again.
Müge Yilmaz
The show is shared with CBK Zuidoost in Amsterdam.
Müge Yilmaz
I haven’t seen the exhibition at CBK Zuidoost and i don’t intend to.
Müge Yilmaz
As for the one at Nest i must say it’s a bit austere, as if something is missing.
Müge Yilmaz
As for the contents of the show: if you would be reincarnated, or rather reborn, somewhere in the near future, how would you think the world would look like?
Brook Andrew
And do you suppose that you will recognise in a positive way and with some pride the things you are fighting for in this life?
Brook Andrew
You may say you are not the fighting type.
Brook Andrew
That’s all right, don’t worry, but then you should realise that all your thoughts and actions now have consequences for the future, whether you intend it or not.
Brook Andrew
Will that future be paradise or hell, or will it be something in between?
Brook Andrew
Will you be reborn as yourself or as somebody else in another continent?
Brook Andrew
Raul Balai
Statistically there is a big chance you will be reborn poor and that you have to grab what you can from day one onwards not just to earn a living, but just to be alive, to live.
Raul Balai
Even if you are reborn as your own trusted self in the place where you are now, how will it look like?
Raul Balai
Recently people in this country applauded health workers for their epic role during the first wave of the present pandemic, but a structural and substantial recognition of their importance failed to materialise.
Simphiwe Ndzube
In fact many workers in our world are indispensable for our daily consumer requirements: the miners who dig for basic materials, the farm workers who pick our fruits, the truck drivers who bring products from one end of the continent to another, the deliverers who bring us the products to our front doors, like pizza couriers.
Simphiwe Ndzube
Maybe artist Raul Balai would love to liberate them from present-day slavery and serfdom.
Simphiwe Ndzube
In his work he succeeded to an extent: pizza couriers are honoured with shrines and candles in a chapel of cardboard boxes.
Simphiwe Ndzube
But does honouring somebody in that way really improve his/her life?
Simphiwe Ndzube
The show may give you some stuff for thought.
Simphiwe Ndzube
However, not all works are as eloquent as one might hope for.
Simphiwe Ndzube
Simphiwe Ndzube
Where for instance Müge Yilmaz’s work doesn’t really match its good intentions – in spite of its nice details –, the enormous blown up spirit by Brook Andrew and the lucid installation by Simphiwe Ndzube both have the power to immerse you in their worlds in only one blink of an eye.
Simphiwe Ndzube
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As i have written already some reflections about the exhibition in VLR, i leave you here with some pictures, which, i hope, will inspire you to go and take a look yourself.
When i visited the gallery last week the government was just giving a press conference about new measures and recommendations to contain the spread of the virus.
Mimosa Echard
Mimosa Echard
Mimosa Echard
Shanta Rao
The next day Nest, the museums and many other exhibition platforms closed their doors.
Shanta Rao
Maya Rochat
Maya Rochat
In a way there is a link between the spread of the virus and its consequences, and the works shown in Fluid Desires.
Maya Rochat
Maya Rochat
Maya Rochat
Maya Rochat
As Nest says on its website: “…concepts that had been carved in stone for decades, have now started to flow. Notions like time, space, reality, nature, the object, human and the object-man relation.”
Maya Rochat
Maya Rochat
Maya Rochat
That quotation seems to suit the present more than ever.
Maya Rochat
Maya Rochat
Maya Rochat
Maya Rochat
Nest is always trying to give reflections on the present in its shows, but it couldn’t have imagined when planning this particular exhibition – and neither could curator Nanda Janssen – that the present would be as fluid as it is now at this very moment.
Maya Rochat
Maya Rochat
Maya Rochat
There is nothing predictive in the show – artists can’t predict the future any better than you or me – , it is just that the world itself has taken these works into the very fluid present and has given them a new value.
Shanta Rao
Hicham Berrada
Hicham Berrada
Hicham Berrada
On one hand it is regrettable that the show was closed down early, but on the other hand that seems to have become an action that is part of the show.
Hicham Berrada
Hicham Berrada
Hicham Berrada
In the mean time the show is very interesting and it is staged aesthetically as usual.
Hicham Berrada
Jérôme Robbe
Jérôme Robbe
Jérôme Robbe
That “as usual” has however been taken over by a radical and extremely fluid move of nature itself.
Leonid Tsvetkov
Leonid Tsvetkov
Leonid Tsvetkov
The aesthetics of beauty is no match for the radical aesthetics of life and death.
Leonid Tsvetkov
Jérôme Robbe
Jérôme Robbe
Jérôme Robbe
In the mean time some pictures of the show may give you some reason for reflection.
Jérôme Robbe
Marie Maillard
Marie Maillard
Reflection is our best tool for the present and for the future, especially during this kind of imposed Ramadan period.
Marie Maillard
Shanta Rao
Shanta Rao
Shanta Rao
So i decided to present some extra pictures of this, by now, invisible show.
Shanta Rao
Shanta Rao
Shanta Rao
If you are puzzled about the pictures i refer you to Nest’s website which gives you some extra information about the different artists.
As I have written quite extensively about the show in VLR i leave you here with some impressions and with a warm recommendation to visit the exhibition.
Alexis Blake
Alexis Blake
Köken Ergun
Köken Ergun
Köken Ergun
Patricia Kaersenhout
Bas de Wit
Bas de Wit
Bas de Wit
Bas de Wit
Bas de Wit
Bas de Wit
Bas de Wit
Bas de Wit
Bas de Wit
Shana Moulton
Shana Moulton
Shana Moulton
Jenny Lindblom
Jenny Lindblom
Jenny Lindblom
Jenny Lindblom
Jenny Lindblom
Jenny Lindblom
Jenny Lindblom
Jenny Lindblom
Jenny Lindblom
Jenny Lindblom
Goiffon & Beauté
Goiffon & Beauté
The Rodina
The Rodina
left to right, Suzie van Staaveren, Christian Jankowski and Bas de Wit
Villa Next Door 2 