Sound performance at the Stedelijk Museum in Amsterdam. Mazda 323F + sound system on sidewalk. In collaboration with Pieter Willems.
There is a chill that hides under a bright autumn sun and a cold that cloaks the bones. Our hands hold onto the metal ferry rail as we sail for land off shore. The frosty waves catch sunlight, twist and divide before us. And behind us, we view a wall like the bow of a boat in pursuit. There it lies, the head of Manhattan, a glass cliff raised from the sea. An orange sun fractured on its surface and water at its feet. The wind gusts the scent of sea and muffles the urban roar left behind. Before us, much like horizon’s border, rises a drop of land crowned by threes. We are on course to an island for a secret meeting in the lee of traffic and concrete.
The ferry docks in a symphony of metal pressed and squeaked driftwood. Here vessel and land steadily fuse as we shelter in a mechanic cradle of cables, steel, wood and rubber tires. In awe of the unexpected, the sudden crossed divide and a time-frosted site, we disembark reminiscing explorers’ destinies. Few words are shared as our eyes pronounce excitement and like a log slowly set to motion, we venture roundabout the island. A gradual hullabaloo rises from the procession, unsure where we are heading, overwhelmed by impressions and subsequent ideas. We find ourselves passing a historic backdrop encrusted with Victorian splendor. It is a sunny game that presents us this succession of novel imagery. A sublime hike from a pioneer’s point of view.
Arches passed and roads amble bend; brown, golden leaves yield and drift while wandered through. This dream-like stroll presents the divine, a poem writing itself. And we keep walking into a thought unfolding, never solid, yet never lost. When we dare speak about a moment, then here the essence of such experience has been cornered and captured. Promptly it has surfaced, seas that have been traveled by generations of cultures. We smile at each other or stare in magnitudes. And there we go like leaves blown by the wind, twisting, turning, past walls of the bygone, the breeze of day and the rays of midday. Our eyes blink in our salt, sun blazed faces to grasp all once again, but better, and then we head for a shelter where words will surround us.
Here the edge of the moment could be recognized, where it lays waiting for our thoughts. With much pleasure and generosity we share impressions gathered as we warm ourselves on hot drink and spirits. A memory, composed of atmosphere, scent and visions now sculptures itself with words we find. And we agree that whatever has occurred in the hour past, is a solid composition we have been offered. A screenplay written as we wandered around. Indeed, there are scenes that have crept into thought to run from action to end. The paragraphs and chapters of this story and the span, which has clutched the event, we catch into time of being there together.
After a while we return, facing the cliff of mirrors, wind and waves buzzing in our ears. Behind us the line much like horizon’s border and the moment in memory we found there. Eventually we all gather at departure and divide like the thoughts we have knotted together. We bless life’s improvised moments and are well aware how memories come to exist.
text originally written accompanying a performance of Melik Ohanian (Performa 2005)
After interviewing several magicians who all had a well developed routine with one or more animals, Elmyr de Hory was selected to perform his act with four doves, however with the handicap of leaving his doves out of the act. As such a doubled illusion, that of the illusion of magic paired with the illusion of mime.
An overview of my collected objects on wheels installed at .”Tijdelijk Verblijf” in Oud Rekem (Belgium). Here more info.
As of today, my site has been slightly remixed and refreshed. So I took out some selected projects, which I belief suit the highlight better. As a first move, updated documentation of Highlight (the work). This exhibition was installed at the BOZAR (former PSK/PBA) in Brussels. It combines my first periscope sculpture, designed together with Onco Tattje, and the architectural spines chased with a 1 cm wide mirror line. All in all there is about a kilometer of mirror lines stuck onto the walls, steps and pillars, creating a dynamic drawing into and onto the monumental space.
For I AM NOT A STUDIO ARTIST the first show at the new Istanbul art center SALT (formerly know as Platform Garanti), I was asked by curator Vasif Kortun to propose a work in memory of artist Hüseyin Bahri Alptekin (Ankara, 1957 – Istanbul, 2007). Hüseyin and I had become friends in 2002 when I first exhibited in Istanbul and stayed in frequent contact, planning works and collaborations, until his tragic death in 2007. Our time in Stockholm in 2003, at IASPIS, where we teamed up with New Zealand born curator Simon Rees, is especially memorable for all the hedonistic exploits we shared. Researching the works of Hüseyin, which have been well documented and archived by SALT, I came across a series of photo’s depicting lace curtains blowing in the wind titeled Melancholia in Arcadia. The series of photo’s set in several corridors inside what seems to be an abandoned school, immediately fascinated me. I was struck by the frozen movements and cinematographic quality of the sequence. It reminded me of how, when my grandfather died, according to tradition, we had to open the curtains to let his soul out. Knowing how, when one thinks there is a ghost about, one usually notices a curtain swaying, as if set to motion by a passing soul, I decided crate an installation of frozen curtains, forever blowing in the wind. Technically this project turned out to be very delicate, so although the pictures posted here show the work as it was intended to be, I am not sure how the work looks today…
As Suspension of Disbelief starts at the Rotterdam Boijmans museum, DILZIS at the Istanbul Rodeo gallery ends. Here some images of DILZIS een precast of Suspension of Disbelief.
