[Nettime-nl] SMART Project Space | Artists Present : Marc Bijl & Yvonne Dröge Wendel | Friday, November 14, 20:00

["SMART Project Space" <info@smartprojectspace.net>]

SMART Project Space | 1e Constantijn Huygensstraat 20, Amsterdam

 



ARTISTS PRESENT.
A series in which artists present their work.



Location: SMART Cinema
Price: free admission





Friday November 14, 20.00 hrs. 



Marc Bijl

Artist statement: Politics are fiction, art is real and we are all going to die.
The sculptures, installations and interventions by Marc Bijl are based upon social issues and their superficial image or myth. His wall graffiti is barely distinguishable from genuine subversive political slogans. Taking icons from (recent) art history and mixing it with counter-cultural movements such as Punk, Gothic and Anarchism, Bijl explores how these political statements function, not only through their content, but also by their formal appearance. 

In his recent exhibition at Smart Project Space, Bijl appropriated the poem Prayer of the Ignorant by Multatuli, published in 1860 (Multatuli inspired emancipatory movements such as freethinkers, socialists and anarchists), these sentences were spray-painted over the walls from floor to ceiling. The words encourage us to evaluate the society we live in and to think about an alternative. In the middle of the space a tower of crates - filled with Molotov cocktails - emit the heavy smell of petrol that at once provokes and challenges the transgression of ethical values. We are offered the possibility of concluding with our own convictions whether we are correct or whether we ought to rethink our opinions.


Bijl's practice has strong parallels with Colin Wilson's The Outsider (1956) 'The Outsider's case against society is very clear. 

All men and women have these dangerous, unnameable impulses, yet they keep up a pretence, to themselves, to others; their respectability, their philosophy, their religion, are all attempts to gloss over, to make look civilized and rational, something that is savage, unorganized, irrational. He is an outsider because he stands for truth' Bijl infuses his work with social and political desire, leaving the viewer in a state of perplexed anxiety.



Yvonne Dröge Wendel 



In one of her projects, Yvonne Dröge Wendel devised an enormous black ball seamlessly covered in felt and filled with air - measuring 3.5 meters in diameter - which she has set on a trajectory through different European cities. Collaborating with people from the local community, Dröge Wendel lets the ball roll through the city, allowing people on the street to interact spontaneously and push it of their own initiative. She creates a powerfully dynamic ball game that is at once mesmerizing as it controls the human masses on the street. Dröge Wendel's object is devoid of meaning and function, an entity that is of neutral significance and acts as an interface, a collector of stories that arise from the people who have contact with it. The potential of the black ball lies in the performative relationship between the public and their interaction with the object. 

 

 

 

For information please contact Genee Presta genee@smartprojectspace.net 


SMART Project Space | www.smartprojectspace.net
Exhibition Space & Cinema: 1e Const. Huygensstraat 20  
Opening times: Tues-Sat from 12.00-22.00, Sun from 14.00-22.00 hrs.
Mail to: P.O.Box 15004, NL-1001 MA Amsterdam
Phone: +31 20 427.5951
Fax.: +31 20 427.5953
mail: info@smartprojectspace.net

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