Over grenzen, de menselijke maat (About frontiers, the human dimension), Arttrium, Home Office and Ministry of Justice, The Hague

In the 4th edition of the Aftrap (Kick-off) series (with works by artists who recently graduated from the Royal Academy), the communal exhibition space Arttrium of the Home Office and the Ministry of Justice shows works by five artists. The Home Secretary says in his introduction in the exhibition guide that artists are trying to “connect”, which would be quite appropriate to the present Dutch presidency of the European Union. Well, anyway, the curators organized a show with very different artists under the banner Over grenzen, de menselijke maat (About frontiers, the human dimension).

The show opens with an installation with video Stay Connected by Janine Terlouw about the religious aspect of communication by smart phone.

The way to heaven seems to be easiest when “liking” a lot.

More provocative is Menno de Bruijn’s presentation Money, Politics and Bananas. He shows the world around soccer which is much bigger than the game itself.

Apart from the raucous fun it is a world full of politics, money, rudeness, solidarity, passion and cruelty.

He also collected pictures from conflict areas in the Middle East with people wearing football shirts.

Even in that way football is linked to politics.

Pierfrancesco Gava shows two visual essays on the language of power with Pope Francis and President Obama as main protagonists.

I just hope the civil servants working in the ministries have enough time to see and hear these videos during their lunch breaks.

Inês da Costa’s presentation called In Between is a visually attractive documentary installation about having lived in different countries and feeling “in between”.

There are banners composed of the flags of these different countries, booklets and wooden chests full of the questions one may have about belonging while having moved from one country to another so many times.

Elise Sothys’ work has been shown more often on this web log. Her last presentation was at the GEM, which was quite impressive. In this case the presentation of her work is quite modest, but it is appropriately the end feature of the show, giving the whole a more general meaning about man searching for truth and redemption, almost beyond communication but also, to an extent, connecting.

The five artists are well chosen but presented in a problematic space. Starting with Terlouw and ending with Sothys gives the idea of a story, but one could argue about the way the other works are presented within the sequence of that story and the gallery space.

[Click on the pictures to enlarge]

Bertus Pieters

The one thing you never sing of or hang in a tree, Works by Brigitte Spiegeler, Saskia Tannemaat & Monica Winnubst, ARTtrium, Home Office & Ministry of Justice, The Hague

The new Home Office and Ministry of Justice (Turfmarkt 147) share a public atrium in which art exhibitions are organised. It’s called ARTtrium. The space itself

is not an easy one to show works of art in. It has the formal anonymity of a public space and as such it can easily force the works of art to be as formal and anonymous. But the exhibition programme has bravely tried to resist that.

At the moment three artists show works on the theme of fragility or vulnerability. In a tragic way

this has become topical at the moment with the Malaysian airliner disaster in the Ukraine in which nearly two hundred Dutch nationals perished. As such it puts this exhibition in another context where it may bring some comfort in one way or another. The blue works of

Brigitte Spiegeler may give a view on both infinity and vulnerability of thought. The more

expressionist works by Saskia Tannemaat show the intricacy of human relationships and its irrational and fragile architecture, while

Monica Winnubst’s works show how perseverance and tenderness can go together.

A reflection of a work by Spiegeler in a work by Winnubst.

From left to right curator Nicole Donkers and the artists Brigitte Spiegeler, Saskia Tannemaat and Monica Winnubst.

There are two weak points: the ARTtrium has no web page (and it really needs one!) and the title of the exhibition is too long.

After signing the condolence registry, i left the building under the guard of Per Kirkeby.

(Click on the pictures to enlarge)

 

Bertus Pieters