2014, 5 x 6 meters, height 3 meters, plexiglass, glass, wood, chandelear, a.o.m.
The Fifth Season installation could and can be placed in a variety of locations, both in- and outdoors and can be executed on different scales.
In these variable areas I then give people the opportunity to engage in a dialog.
In the installations I would like to organize different 'meetings' on a modest scale. These 'meetings' can be lectures, discussions and so on, but will all have a specific underlying question in mind. I will also organize dinners, so people can start a dialog in a restaurant setting. The idea refers to the world famous Four Seasons restaurant in New York, but more about that at a later point.
On a local level, I wish to involve the people living in the neighborhood of this installation by means of workshops and such. A place to interact between all sort of people and with all sorts of backgrounds. In a way, it's surely also a statement against the growing gap between people due to social media.
It is a modest attempt to gain some insight in these processes which might grow into a stage that can contribute and play a (small) part in the bigger whole.
Background
In my work I often make references towards modernistic architecture such as Le Corbusier's Unité d'Habitation or Rietveld's Rietveld-Schröderhuis.
What interests me most is the fact that modernism started out as a highly idealistic movement: by means of urbanism, architecture, art and design a brighter future would come about. Nowadays the social problems in impersonal areas of big cities, such as The Bijlmer in Amsterdam, is referred to to point out that modernism largely failed.
One of the movements within modernism is Bauhaus; this Weimar-, and later Dessau-based school was a source of creativity and ideology at the turn of the twentiest century. Architect Mies van der Rohe worked within the school for quite a long period before he departed for America. In the USA he designed a lot of iconic buildings that can be seen as the basis for modern day skyscrapers. And even though Bauhaus was known for its ideological ideas, the buildings Van der Rohe designed in particual the US had a strong capitalistic character.
It is this discrepancy between ideology and realization that interests me and I would like to revive the ideas and ideals of Bauhaus and modernism in these installations andsee whether those ideas are still relevant in this day and age.
The Seagram Building as inspiration
During a stay of six months in New York I studied The Seagram Building, one of the best known buildings which Van der Rohe designed. Right from the start the building housed the Four Seasons restaurant, destined for the New York elite. In the fifties artist Mark Rotho was commissioned to create a series of paintings for the restaurant, however when the paintings were displayed in the restaurant he was unpleasantly surprised. The work was nothing more than a decorative element in a space where the rich enjoyed their overpriced dinners. Rothko insisted they should be removed, and presently they are on display in the Tate Modern in London, where they are known as the Seagram Murals.
This story shows clearly this discrepancy between the initial ideals of art and what it eventually resulted in, a given that I would like to explore in this work.