Holland Festival 2008
dal 30/5/2008 al 20/6/2008
Segnalato da
30/5/2008
Holland Festival 2008
Westergasfabriek, Amsterdam
Hans Op de Beeck has now created Location (6) - a monumental installation intended for the Westergasfabriek in Amsterdam. The Westergasfabriek is a former gas works that has been turned into a thriving multifunctional cultural center. This artwork draws on Op de Beeck's interest in manmade vistas, as well as his fascination with melancholic barren spaces devoid of human life.
Curators: Joselina Cruz and Matthew Ngui
On 31 May 2008, the new installation “Location (6)” by Hans Op de Beeck will premiere as part of the Holland Festival in Amsterdam.
Visual artist Hans Op de Beeck has now created “Location (6)” (2008) – a monumental installation intended for the Westergasfabriek in Amsterdam. The Westergasfabriek is a former gas works that has been turned into a thriving multifunctional cultural center. This installation-art creation draws on Op de Beeck’s interest in manmade vistas, as well as his fascination with melancholic barren spaces devoid of human life.
His new work is a worthy successor to the sculptural installation “Location (5)” (2004). This particular installation was earlier on display in the Municipal Museum in The Hague and the Art Unlimited exhibition in Basel, Switzerland and has now been given a permanent home at the Towada Art Center in Japan. “Location (5)” is a pitch-black “mockup” of a motorway fast-food restaurant looking out on a deserted motorway (highway) in the dead of night.
The new installation “Location (6)” is based on a similar principle: the viewer is inside a building and is looking out at the wider world – in this case, a vast expanse of land stretching out as far as the eye can see. The exterior space has once again been created in the form of a monumental landscape sculpture with an incrementally manipulated perspective (perspectival trompe-l'œil). Visually speaking, however, “Location (6)” is almost the opposite of its predecessor. Through a hallway, the spectator reaches an observatory with a panoramic window offering a view of an imaginary desolate snowy landscape. Everything basks in white light and is shrouded in a fog. The whole place has an ephemeral, almost immaterial feel about it that invites viewer to gaze into the near-nothingness.
Hans Op de Beeck
The multi-disciplinary oeuvre of the Belgian visual artist Hans Op de Beeck (b. 1969) consists of sculptures, sculptural installations, multi-media works, videos, animation films, drawings, photographs, publications and stage designs.
Hans Op de Beeck conceives and builds contemporary fictional urban and household locations and scenes sometimes featuring human characters that viewers feel very familiar with. These include both secluded spots suitable for inner reflection, as well as crowded areas populated by sometimes inept characters shedding light on our own present-day lives; our dreams and ambitions; and how we look upon time, space and each other.
His work has been shown at numerous exhibitions including Reina Sofia (Madrid), Tate Modern (London), Scottsdale Museum of Contemporary Art (Arizona), Towada Art Center (Towada), ZKM (Karlsruhe), MACRO Future (Rome), The Drawing Center (New York), the 6th Shanghai Biennale (Shanghai), Kunstverein Hannover (Hanover), Whitechapel Art Gallery (London) and P.S.1 (New York).
The best opera, dance, music and theatre from the best performers all over the world - that's the Holland Festival. The Holland Festival is the biggest international performing arts festival in The Netherlands since 1947. Visit the festival in June 2008 in the Amsterdam venues.
The Holland Festival is the annual trend-setting, innovative and adventurous high point of the cultural season in Holland. Since it was founded in 1947, the Holland Festival has aimed to present topical and innovative achievements in the dramatic arts - music, opera, theatre, dance – both in the most classical sense and experimental. This formula leaves room for productions and makers who have demonstrated their abilities and already made their name, as well as audacious and unknown artistic expressions by theatre makers who are often young and (still) undiscovered. The festival is a podium for about 30 productions in 80 shows. The Holland Festival also incidentally includes the visual arts and film in the programme.
The Holland Festival aims to offer an international programme with a broad base extending as far as more popular genres such as pop music and entertainment. It also aims to breakthrough the artificial division between "high" and "low" culture.
The Festival also wants to provide a conscious contribution to erasing the boundaries between the different (dramatic) arts, such as "music", "opera", "theatre" and "dance". In practice, it becomes apparent that many productions presented by the Festival cannot easily be labelled. "The future is with impure art: the pure concert, the pure show and the pure exhibition are increasingly facing problems. They no longer offer room for artists to present themselves." Festival visitors have to be surprised, in a little sense, with combinations of arts they have not seen before.
The Holland Festival will take place during the entire month of June in Amsterdam’s top cultural venues. Main venues include Het Muziektheater, the Stadsschouwburg, the Westergasfabriek and the Muziekgebouw aan ‘t IJ.
Hans Op de Beeck's Venue
Westergasfabriek / Haarlemmerweg 6-10 / 1014 BE Amsterdam, the Netherlands
After its presentation in Amsterdam, the installation will travel to the Singapore Biennale (11 Sept. – 16 Nov. 2008). Artistic Director: Fumio Nanjo. Curators: Joselina Cruz and Matthew Ngui.
The artist is represented by Xavier Hufkens, Brussels; Galerie Krinzinger, Vienna; Galleria Continua, San Gimignano and Beijing; as well as Galerie Ron Mandos, Amsterdam and Rotterdam.
Preview: 31 May 2008 (by invitation only)
Westergasfabriek
Haarlemmerweg 6-10 - Amsterdam
Daily from 12 noon until 10:30 p.m.