2010–2013: BAWAG CONTEMPORARY
Erik van Lieshout
Erik makes happy
1/12/2011—29/1/2012
BAWAG Contemporary presents new works by the Dutch artist Erik van Lieshout (born in Deurne, lives in Rotterdam) from December 1, 2011, to January 29, 2012.
At the center of the exhibition is the film Commission, created in 2011, which will be presented in an installation featuring sculptural elements, drawings, and adhesive films, shifting between stage, catwalk, and shopping mall. Van Lieshout received the commission for the film about Zuidplein, a shopping center in the south of Rotterdam, in 2010. Having lived and worked in this area for fourteen years and made several films there, including Respect, shown in 2003 at the Dutch Pavilion at the Venice Biennale, and Awakening (2005), van Lieshout approached the commission after returning from a several-year stay abroad, seeking a way to reconnect with this working-class district, home to several large immigrant communities.
The shopping center in Zuidplein, built in 1968, was one of the first in the Netherlands and symbolized a utopian vision of future wealth and urban harmony. Over the decades, however, the southern part of Rotterdam has become quite run-down. Zuidplein shopping center turned into a place for the poor and unemployed – a place to be avoided. At the same time, the city's administration focused its efforts on building representative structures along the banks of the Maas River that divides the city. With commissions awarded to star architects like Renzo Piano, Norman Foster, Álvaro Siza, and Rotterdam-based Rem Koolhaas, the district on the southern riverbank became a showcase for contemporary architecture. Zuidplein, however, lies too far south and has been politically and financially neglected. The mall management has made efforts to restore a positive image to the center by attempting to create safe conditions using 63 cameras and encouraging young people to move on.
In the summer of 2010, Erik van Lieshout temporarily opened a store in a former premises of the shopping center. Rather than simply selling goods, he used the space as a base to (re)engage with the neighborhood and its residents, engaging in direct and often very humorous conversations about origins, urban renewal, security, and consumption habits. Commission is a commentary on the socio-political powerlessness of people and art—and a search for a home. By examining the influence of figures such as Rem Koolhaas or the murdered populist Dutch politician Pim Fortuyn, the film serves both as a portrait of a place and as a half-skeptical, half-hopeful attempt by the artist to do social good. Commission deals with the failure of a utopia in its various phases and questions the possibilities of social participation in an urban world made up of marginalized suburbs, privatized spaces, and heavily monitored shopping malls. Zuidplein stands paradigmatically for how social life today is organized around the imperative to buy and how the global branding politics of large consumer brands determine access to or exclusion from these spaces, while social life is only simulated.
Curator: Christine Kintisch
Press: Christina Werner
At the center of the exhibition is the film Commission, created in 2011, which will be presented in an installation featuring sculptural elements, drawings, and adhesive films, shifting between stage, catwalk, and shopping mall. Van Lieshout received the commission for the film about Zuidplein, a shopping center in the south of Rotterdam, in 2010. Having lived and worked in this area for fourteen years and made several films there, including Respect, shown in 2003 at the Dutch Pavilion at the Venice Biennale, and Awakening (2005), van Lieshout approached the commission after returning from a several-year stay abroad, seeking a way to reconnect with this working-class district, home to several large immigrant communities.
The shopping center in Zuidplein, built in 1968, was one of the first in the Netherlands and symbolized a utopian vision of future wealth and urban harmony. Over the decades, however, the southern part of Rotterdam has become quite run-down. Zuidplein shopping center turned into a place for the poor and unemployed – a place to be avoided. At the same time, the city's administration focused its efforts on building representative structures along the banks of the Maas River that divides the city. With commissions awarded to star architects like Renzo Piano, Norman Foster, Álvaro Siza, and Rotterdam-based Rem Koolhaas, the district on the southern riverbank became a showcase for contemporary architecture. Zuidplein, however, lies too far south and has been politically and financially neglected. The mall management has made efforts to restore a positive image to the center by attempting to create safe conditions using 63 cameras and encouraging young people to move on.
In the summer of 2010, Erik van Lieshout temporarily opened a store in a former premises of the shopping center. Rather than simply selling goods, he used the space as a base to (re)engage with the neighborhood and its residents, engaging in direct and often very humorous conversations about origins, urban renewal, security, and consumption habits. Commission is a commentary on the socio-political powerlessness of people and art—and a search for a home. By examining the influence of figures such as Rem Koolhaas or the murdered populist Dutch politician Pim Fortuyn, the film serves both as a portrait of a place and as a half-skeptical, half-hopeful attempt by the artist to do social good. Commission deals with the failure of a utopia in its various phases and questions the possibilities of social participation in an urban world made up of marginalized suburbs, privatized spaces, and heavily monitored shopping malls. Zuidplein stands paradigmatically for how social life today is organized around the imperative to buy and how the global branding politics of large consumer brands determine access to or exclusion from these spaces, while social life is only simulated.
Curator: Christine Kintisch
Press: Christina Werner