Marrigje de Maar and Bert Teunissen
dal 2/3/2011 al 4/6/2011
Segnalato da
2/3/2011
Marrigje de Maar and Bert Teunissen
Huis Marseille, Amsterdam
Both artists travel to remote spots in the world in order to photograph people in their homes. They show how these people turn their houses into places where they feel at home, how simply and sparingly they may be furnished.
Marrigje de Maar
Red Roses, Yellow Rain
Existential Theme
Marrigje de Maar photographs the ephemeral world of the home, of being rooted. As she
sees it, the essence of this universal human value is mainly to be found inside a house.
Within its walls this could be anything from the space around the hearth, a living room, a
kitchen or the area where people sleep. De Maar seeks those striking and magical places
where families have come together for generations—where life has 'worn itself into' a
house. Modernity, style and status, folklore and even interior design are all, in her view,
subordinate to the revelation of this subtle weave that life and cohabitation have imposed
on these houses through the course of time.
Sphere of Activity
Remarkably, though, the territory that she has chosen for this investigation—China—is far
removed from her own Dutch culture. There she has photographed the interiors of
hundreds of houses. Now, after six years and five trips to China, Red Roses, Yellow Rain
represents a substantial group of work that has great social/historical as well as artistic value.
Though it may simply be a matter of chance, the timing of this project did coincide with an
unprecedented surge of new building by which China aimed, in a single stroke, to present
itself as a modern nation. While vast areas of housing in many Chinese communes were
being demolished in order to make way for the modern age and its contemporary lifestyle
and attitudes, De Maar found a surprising diversity of types and uses of classical living
spaces. There are stone and wooden houses, as well as the Mongolians' felt steppe tents,
called tepees or yurts. We also see a few examples of the most frugal dwellings, such as mud
huts and the minimalist urban-workers’ quarters consisting of a bed, a clothesline and a
chair. Never before has the worn and intimate character of household life in China, in all its
culturally hybrid forms, been revealed in such a direct manner.
Contrast or Culture Clash?
Regarded in this context, the photographs of Marrigje de Maar constitute a modest but very
distinct contrast. The lived-in antiquity that she shows us is, to our Western eyes, far more
fascinating than the posters of sterile paradises heralding new development in China. Her
defense of existential household values is certainly no obstruction to progress and the
accompanying status of luxury. About this she is very explicit.
Her work does give rise to questions. Just how important is a culture's link with the past?
And why, in fact, are Westerners so fond of looking at other people's interiors? In Europe
heritage, culture and history have become an integral part of our daily life. In southeastern
Asia the prevailing point of view is that culture, often construed as craftsmanship, can be
replaced and copied. From this East/West culture clash, the inspired yet highly critical
American Japanologist Alex Kerr saw the rise of a hideous 'Frankenstein' monster. Why,
when Asians modernize, can they not preserve that which has value? Kerr mentions several
causes. Partly due to its much more open language, he says, the West displays "fewer
discrepancies between modern and ancient culture." More importantly, there needs to be
time for this. "In contrast to Europe, however, change came to China, Japan and Southeast
Asia in a truly precipitous fashion. What is more, these changes were introduced from a
completely alien culture."
Will the tourist who visits China in the future have to make due with theme parks in a
pseudo-traditional style? 'No' is Kerr's quoted response of a Japanese Kabuki actor: "Kyoto is
beyond preservation. The next step will be re-creation." 'No' is Marrigje de Maar's response
as well. China has gone through so many drastic periods that, partly in view of the country's
sheer size, there will always be plenty left over.
Interior Photography
Not many, but certainly some very distinct interior photographers have shown work at
Huis Marseille over the years. Candid Höfer and Jacqueline Hassink, for instance. Like
Marrigje de Maar, they made the interior their 'core business'. Because the presence of
people in photographed interiors draws too much attention from the viewer, De Maar
considers the interior itself a portrait of an identity. This stands in contrast to the
photographs of Bert Teunissen, Eskö Mannikö and Dayanita Singh, who emphatically
situate their portraits of people in an interior.
From a photographic point of view, Marrigje de Maar's works are little masterpieces, in
terms of their chiaroscuro—having been taken with only the scarce sunlight cast in—but
also in terms of their spatial quality. Any use of flash or electrical lighting would have
affected both the color intensity and the spatial quality. It is particularly this critical balance
of light and shadow which makes her work so extraordinary and which moreover places her
work in a characteristically Dutch artistic tradition.
Biography
Marrigje de Maar (1944, The Hague) was trained as a sociologist, and later as a photographer
as well. In 2004 she received the Lucie Award in New York and, in that same year, was
among the winners of the Zilveren Camera. Her work has been exhibited at the Nederlands
Fotomuseum Rotterdam, Foam Amsterdam and at the Finnish Museum of Photography in
Helsinki. She has participated in group exhibitions at the Victoria & Albert Museum,
London, and the Bonnefantenmuseum in Maastricht.
Her work is represented in various collections within the Netherlands and abroad.
For further information, see: www.takeadreamforawalk.com
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Bert Teunissen
Domestic Landscapes Travelogs
In 2006/2007 Bert Teunissen exhibited in Huis Marseille for the first time with roughly
sixty photographs from his Domestic Landscape archive, which then consisted of 250
images. Now this archive is about fifteen years old and comprises visual material from nearly
every country in Europe. It is a personal archive, based on Teunissen's passion for peasant
life and especially for the way in which daylight sets its tone. His specific focus is the semi-
darkness in these rural dwellings which causes the inhabitants and furniture in them to
become a graphic entity. Both the exhibition and the publication Domestic Landscapes
(Aperture, 2007) received considerable attention and publicity at that time.
Lesser known yet equally intense are the photographs made by Bert Teunissen on his way to
the locations. Travelog consists solely of travel impressions in black & white, taken with a
hand-held camera. Rich in contrast, this is an almost filmic account of being on the road.
The work is being shown at Huis Marseille for the first time and in connection with that of
Marrigje de Maar. Travelog is not so much an archive, as Domestic Landscapes is, but rather a
collection of Teunissen's impressions while travelling and being on vacation. It could
perhaps be described as one immense photographic sketchbook, which began in 2003 with
his first trip to Japan. From that point on, he simply continued. Bert Teunissen has proven
to be a born collector: not only of photographs, archive material and these snapshots, but
also of handmade tools, household goods, preserve jars, preserved food. Literally everything
related to his trips is meticulously listed and stored away. For this modest exhibition
Teunissen arranged his photographs and diary excerpts by trip, his ultimate aim being to
produce a complete series of travel books with them. For the exhibition he hopes to have
finished the first two volumes of his eighteen planned publications. As an anthology
Travelog is so pure that the intensity of observation and the dynamics that abound in it have
a strong symbiosis with the works in Marrigje de Maar's exhibition.
Biography
Bert Teunissen (Ruurlo 1959). In 2008 the book Domestic Landscapes, A portrait of
Europeans at home, ed. Aperture, New York 2007 and Kerber Verlag Bielefeld 2007, was
granted the PDN's Annual Photography Award and the Prix de la Photographie, Paris.
The exhibition Domestic Landscapes began at Huis Marseille in 2006 and travelled to The
Photographers' Gallery in London, Aperture Gallery in New York, Museum Haus Esters in
Krefeld and the Contact Photo Festival in Toronto. The European Cultural Foundation made
the completion of the Domestic Landscapes archive possible. See also:
www.bertteunissen.com
Publication
Marrigje de Maar / Red Roses, Yellow Rain, including texts by Els Barents and Marrigje de
Maar; publisher Hatje Cantz 2011; ISBN 978-3-7757-3001-3.
Bert Teunissen, Travelog parts 1 and 2, published by the artist
Image: © Bert Teunissen, On the road
For more information on our exhibition program and other activities, please contact Wannes Ketelaars: +31 (0)20 531 8980, info@huismarseille.nl
Opening
The exhibition will be opened by Anna Tilroe (art critic for de Volkskrant, author and curator
of Sonsbeek 2008) on Friday 4 March 2011 (5 - 7 pm).
Huis Marseille, Museum for Photography
Keizersgracht 401, 1016 EK Amsterdam
Opening hours: Tuesday - Sunday, 11.00 - 18.00 h (closed on Mondays)
Entrance Fee: 5 euro - Adults, 3 euro - reduced