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THE LAST ACQUISITION - Turning the sculpture park into a performance
A performance by Paul Hendrikse in collaboration with Martin Nachbar, Lilia Mestre, Nikolaus Gansterer and Alphonso Lingis.
Friday 7, Saturday 8 & Sunday 9 September 2007 at 14.00 and 17.00.
Middelheimmuseum, Middelheimlaan 61, 2020 Antwerp
www.middelheimmuseum.be
About the project:
In 1950, an open-air exhibition of sculptures was held at the Middelheimpark in Antwerp. Until that time, the park was completely devastated. During the war the occupying force used it as a shunting-yard for military vehicles. After the war there was a strong wish to build up and renew things and people went to any lengths to make the park a suitable venue for the exhibition. The number of visitors exceeded all expectations. As a consequence of this, the city government, headed by the socialist mayor Lode Craeybeckx, decided to set up an open-air museum for sculpture, the first one worldwide.
The museum nurtured great ambitions. In imitation of Venice, that hosts the most important biannual exhibition in the South of Europe, Middelheim organized biannual manifestations that could be said to match that in the South. Most open-air biannual exhibitions for sculptures - such as London and Arnhhem - were short-lived. At the end of the 1960s fine art had changed so drastically that manifestations no longer seemed suitable platforms to a new generation of artists. This is when the white cube came into being. Middelheim, however, continued to host biannual manifestations until the end of the 1980s. And yet, when the museum purchased a number of installations in 1993, when Antwerp was European cultural capital, it changed course. Exhibitions and smaller projects became part of the permanent collection and the policy was to purchase contemporary art from that moment on.
In 2007, more than five decades after the Middelheim was established, fine artist Paul Hendrikse takes the initiative to add an artwork to the collection. Leitmotif of his performance is the question whether the whole of the collection can merge in one single work. Can one work, albeit it one that consists of several disciplines, sum up an entire collection? Is it possible to fully grasp language, gesture and history when decades have gone by? Is it necessary to relocate sculptures and change history and find new contexts to give them new life and new meaning?
Language: English
Admission: free, please book via: middelheimmuseum@stad.antwerpen.be
This production was made possible with the help of the Jan van Eyck Academie Maastricht (NL) and the Middelheimmuseum in Antwerp (BE).
Short bios of participants:
Paul Hendrikse (NL, 1977)
is fine artist. He studied in 's-Hertogenbosch and Antwerp and was researcher at the Jan van Eyck Academie in Maastricht from 2005 until 2006.
Martin Nachbar (DE, 1971)
is choreographer and dancer. He studied at SNDO in Amsterdam and PARTS in Brussels, among others. In the past few years he made the solos Ausflug and Verdeckte Ermittlung and worked in collaboration with Les Ballets C. de la B., Meg Stuart, Thomas Plischke and Jochen Roller.
Lilia Mestre (PT, 1968)
is choreographer and dancer. Recent work includes: Beyond Mary and Joseph, Unnoticed and Slow down the passions. She collaborated with Vera Mantero, Hans Van Den Broeck, Mette Edvardsen and others. With Davis Freeman she set up Random Scream in 1999.
Nikolaus Gansterer (AT, 1974)
is fine artist and initiator of the Institute of Transacoustic research. He is co-founder of The Vienna Vegetable Orchestra. From 2005 until 2006 he was researcher at the Jan van Eyck Academie. Currently he is artist in residence at AIR Antwerpen.
Alphonso Lingis (US, 1933)
is philosopher, writer and translator. In 1982 he made his debut with Excesses and he further wrote Libido: The French Existential Theories (1985), The Community of Those Who Have Nothing in Common (1994), Foreign Bodies (1994), Dangerous Emotions (1999) and Trust (2004). He was the first one to translate work by Merleau-Ponty and Levinas in English.
A performance by Paul Hendrikse in collaboration with Martin Nachbar, Lilia Mestre, Nikolaus Gansterer and Alphonso Lingis.
Friday 7, Saturday 8 & Sunday 9 September 2007 at 14.00 and 17.00.
Middelheimmuseum, Middelheimlaan 61, 2020 Antwerp
www.middelheimmuseum.be
About the project:
In 1950, an open-air exhibition of sculptures was held at the Middelheimpark in Antwerp. Until that time, the park was completely devastated. During the war the occupying force used it as a shunting-yard for military vehicles. After the war there was a strong wish to build up and renew things and people went to any lengths to make the park a suitable venue for the exhibition. The number of visitors exceeded all expectations. As a consequence of this, the city government, headed by the socialist mayor Lode Craeybeckx, decided to set up an open-air museum for sculpture, the first one worldwide.
The museum nurtured great ambitions. In imitation of Venice, that hosts the most important biannual exhibition in the South of Europe, Middelheim organized biannual manifestations that could be said to match that in the South. Most open-air biannual exhibitions for sculptures - such as London and Arnhhem - were short-lived. At the end of the 1960s fine art had changed so drastically that manifestations no longer seemed suitable platforms to a new generation of artists. This is when the white cube came into being. Middelheim, however, continued to host biannual manifestations until the end of the 1980s. And yet, when the museum purchased a number of installations in 1993, when Antwerp was European cultural capital, it changed course. Exhibitions and smaller projects became part of the permanent collection and the policy was to purchase contemporary art from that moment on.
In 2007, more than five decades after the Middelheim was established, fine artist Paul Hendrikse takes the initiative to add an artwork to the collection. Leitmotif of his performance is the question whether the whole of the collection can merge in one single work. Can one work, albeit it one that consists of several disciplines, sum up an entire collection? Is it possible to fully grasp language, gesture and history when decades have gone by? Is it necessary to relocate sculptures and change history and find new contexts to give them new life and new meaning?
Language: English
Admission: free, please book via: middelheimmuseum@stad.antwerpen.be
This production was made possible with the help of the Jan van Eyck Academie Maastricht (NL) and the Middelheimmuseum in Antwerp (BE).
Short bios of participants:
Paul Hendrikse (NL, 1977)
is fine artist. He studied in 's-Hertogenbosch and Antwerp and was researcher at the Jan van Eyck Academie in Maastricht from 2005 until 2006.
Martin Nachbar (DE, 1971)
is choreographer and dancer. He studied at SNDO in Amsterdam and PARTS in Brussels, among others. In the past few years he made the solos Ausflug and Verdeckte Ermittlung and worked in collaboration with Les Ballets C. de la B., Meg Stuart, Thomas Plischke and Jochen Roller.
Lilia Mestre (PT, 1968)
is choreographer and dancer. Recent work includes: Beyond Mary and Joseph, Unnoticed and Slow down the passions. She collaborated with Vera Mantero, Hans Van Den Broeck, Mette Edvardsen and others. With Davis Freeman she set up Random Scream in 1999.
Nikolaus Gansterer (AT, 1974)
is fine artist and initiator of the Institute of Transacoustic research. He is co-founder of The Vienna Vegetable Orchestra. From 2005 until 2006 he was researcher at the Jan van Eyck Academie. Currently he is artist in residence at AIR Antwerpen.
Alphonso Lingis (US, 1933)
is philosopher, writer and translator. In 1982 he made his debut with Excesses and he further wrote Libido: The French Existential Theories (1985), The Community of Those Who Have Nothing in Common (1994), Foreign Bodies (1994), Dangerous Emotions (1999) and Trust (2004). He was the first one to translate work by Merleau-Ponty and Levinas in English.