Dejacopis @TheC_Amsterdam
The essence of things, the core of nature.
The quest for the capturing of the centre of life is what welcomes you immediately at the entrance of the second Temporary Stedelijk exhibition, in the form of Dan Flavinâs neon lights installation âUntitled (to Piet Mondrian through is preferred colors Red, Yellow and Blue), 1986.
Circles and lines as in the true representation of everything that exists and can be reproduced.
âMaking Histories: Changing Views of the Collectionâ is the first part of this 3 shows display aiming at renewing the relationship between the Amsterdamâs Museum of Modern Art and its discouraged audience.
Discouraged because the wait for the reopening feels endless and the public misses the incredible collection that the Stedelijk has been forced to shield during its long renovation.
Nevertheless, since the end of 2010, finally the old building is accessible again and thanks to Ann Goldstein, one can experience again what this museum used to be, even if only in the form of  small samples.
Therefore choosing the works of Yves Klein such as âLâAccord Blue (re 10)â, 1969, Â and âResonances (Mg 16)â, 1960, Â together with Henri Matisseâs âThe Parakeet and the Mermaidâ, 1952, presented in the first gallery, appears as a clear desire to go back to the roots of what we call now âModern Artâ.
The approaches of Klein and Matisse surely are different, but the works here mentioned have in common the representation of the centre of perception, as in the characteristic Yvesâ blue - this time spread in three dimensions thanks to sponges and stones - a golden surface that offers a perspective of what could be behind the first layer, and the elimination of any unnecessary figurative element and volume as in Matisseâs statement.
At the left and right of these first three works, you will find the founders of this movement and the most recent followers.
Piet Mondrian âComposition No. XVâ, 1913, is the first shining example of summarizing the chaos of the outside world (in this case, a view of Gare Montparnasse in Paris) in a perfectly balanced schematized frame that still contains all the sounds and the colors, if not even more than what your eyes can actually see.
Kazimir Malevich âSuprematist Crossâ, 1920, digs even deeper in scraping off all that is superficial to reach the most essential as in the âSupremeâ.
Jo Baerâs âUntitledâ, 1972, is its more contemporary associated and placing the works of the two artists at the extremes of the gallery, make the comparison more striking.
Brice Marden âMoradaâ, 1976, closes this section by celebrating the Spanish immigrants in New Mexico with three simple colors that enclose it all: Red, Black and Grey as in blood, darkness and the quest for the light.
The next gallery is where it all breaks down: Willem de Kooning âLarge Torsoâ, 1974, and âHostessâ, 1973, are the sculptural representation of the opposition to linearity and simplicity.
The shapes are impossible, fluctuating, refusing to be immortalized or frozen in bronze.
Barbara Bloom and her âThe Diamond Laneâ, 1981, show what happens when a project becomes the finished product, when the rules of creation and promotion get bended until they break to include almost every genre.
Shot as a trailer for a movie yet to be released (the video claims on March 4th, presumably 1981), âThe Diamond Laneâ has even been presented in theatres, amongst other announcements. Do not even attempt to define the kind of film it could have been; judging by the short commercial only, you could say it should have been a noir, a spy-story, a political action thriller, a philosophical journey. You could only surely say that it is the only trailer that does not give away nor spoil anything of the plot.
Turning linear tubes into movement with a witty twist, Bruce Nauman âSeven Figuresâ, 1985, appears as the most modern counterpart of the âbreaking the ruleâ pattern that is emerging through this section of the upper floor at the Stedelijk. Breaking the rule as in what is representing: group sex. Breaking the rule as in what neon signs were usually meant to be used for: shining a light and advertising. Here the light is blown upon a subject better consumed in the dark and private whereas now it is displayed and fully visible.
Advertising reemerges in the adjacent room, this time literally: Olivio Martinez Viera and the posters created for âLa Zafra de los 10 milionesâ. âEl 7â, 1970, is the most haunting for it bounces off the walls even in its candor and even if it is aiming at encouraging workers in producing more and more for no reason other than production itself.
âStand out, Be Deceptive, Get Stronger, Not Belong to Anyoneâ are only a bunch of the catchphrases and exhortations launched by Robert Berryâs slide projection âIt...â, 1971. Here, the other side of the industrial times is displayed by being over exposed, losing all its power.
It is difficult to draw a common ground for all the works exhibited in âMaking Historiesâ.
You could say it is a journey from linearity to fantasy, from the essential to the superlative.
It is refreshing to spot a new trend in dutch design, from the worldly famous stark Rietveldâs âAluminium Chairâ, 1942, to the hyperbolic and dreamy heater âHeatwaveâ, 2006, by Joris Laarman, from the fragile and glacial âPerles dâArtisteâ, 2010, by Manon van Kouswijk  to the strong and regular âMomentopiaâ, 2008, by Jiro Kamata. Â
Yet, it is a journey that has some bumps in the road and confusion creeps in when trying to make sense of the curatorial aspect of the exhibition.
Two galleries though make it all up for this and they have been especially reserved for two original pieces created for the newly opened Stedelijk by the Art world sensations Piero Golia and Nairy Baghramian.
Nairy pays her homage by âdecoratingâ the space with fluctuating metal painted tubes (âBeliebte Stellenâ, 2011) that are all illusions. These are not airy, light, floating arrangements. They are as heavy as the history of this museum. Nevertheless the paint gives all of the tubes a plastic quality, as an homage to the future art that will be displayed here and will give these walls a new coat.
Piero Goliaâs âDouble Tumble (or the Awesome Twins)â, 2011, focuses instead on his perceived specularity of the structure of the museum and celebrate its symmetry with an installation that sends you back to an era when the noise of a movie projector was deeply intertwined with excitement and fun. Here two of them actually shoot on opposite walls, two sides of a same film, displaying what a camera catches if hanged on a plane looking at the sky.
Goliaâs work has here the quality of an attraction out of a Luna Park: slightly old fashioned, purely mechanical, simply magical in its naivety.
Temporary Stedelijk 2 offers other two shows as well:
âTV asâŚâ and âRecollectionsâ.
The first one is a panoramic throughout all the works of Art that were aiming either at or against TV.
Here, starting from the installation by Jan Dibbets, âTV a Fireplaceâ, 1969 to Nam June Paik âTV-Buddhaâ, 1974, what the visitor encounters is mostly a trip down memory lane where this medium was the most important and influential. A time when the dangers of such permeating presence were mostly unknown or yet to be fully understood by the public.
In 2011, such a panoramic view appears outdated, in the message and in the artworks themselves. Nevertheless the lesson learned for TV should be applied to the new media as well, now basically fully replaced by the Internet, social networks and game consoles.
Still taken mostly from an aesthetic point of view, âHomage to Stanley Brownâ, 1984 from Name June Paik and âAre You Afraid of Video?â, 1984 by dutch artist Servaas, are powerful examples of the perfect combination between video, sculpture and politics.
The one work that goes beyond TV itself and still appears as fresh as 30 years ago, is Joan Jonasâ âVertical Rollâ, 1972.
The utilization of such a common issue like the skips appearing during broadcasting, here matched with an broken audio, make up for an extremely rhythmical, contemporary and hypnotic dance.
At the end of âTV as...â you can witness one of the new acquisitions from Stedelijk: Paul Chan â6th Lightâ, 2007. This installation is truly a masterpiece.
You stare at the floor through a projected window that is open to the destruction slowly floating around on the outside. Yet you are shielded.
You experience the catastrophe of a world where unintelligible shapes are falling from the sky; here and there you might recognize one object as very familiar, but still you are powerless even if protected. It is a frightening, moving and enchanting piece at the same time.
âRecollectionsâ is instead a deliberate attempt at reconstructing a lost memory of the museumâs past, mixed with the exhortation to search for the missing pieces.
This show is based on the displaying of elements from two exhibitions that happened in 1961 and 1962, in order âBewogen Bewegingâ (Hectic Movement) and âDylabyâ.
Both were collective efforts to create a new way of experiencing the museum and Art itself.
âBewogen Bewegingâ was aiming at unveiling the playfulness of movement in the new works from, amongst others, Marcel Duchamp and Jean Tinguely, while âDylabyâ (a play in words: Dynamic Labyrinth) was a true physical participation of the audience and the artistsâ works.
What emerges is a fantastic feeling of a place where history was truly in the making: simply looking at a picture where Niki de Saint Phalle, Robert Rauschenberg, Per-Olof Ultvedt, Daniel Spoerri, Martial Raysse and again Jean Tinguely, smile together with Sandberg, is a treat.
âRecollectionsâ brings you back to a period where taking chances was certainly not so risky, but surely, like any experiment, difficult enough and considering the accompanied negative reviews and a skeptic public, both the mentioned shows are to be reckoned as stepping stones for the the courage expressed and the doors they have opened.
One can only hope that the Stedelijk will take example from its own history to push the envelope further into new realms of what, using the words of herman de vries, âis about expressing awareness or the process of becoming awareâ: Art.
http://www.stedelijk.nl/
http://twitter.com/#!/stedelijk
http://www.jobaer.net/
http://www.jorislaarman.com/
http://www.jirokamata.com/
http://www.pierogolia.com/main.htm
http://www.paikstudios.com/
