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Above: You had to peep into the windows to view the objects and
through the spaces between them, to view the performance (on May 6 and
June 2nd) or to look into the boardroom.
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Above:
Back view,
not visible to the public
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The windows were
filled with undeserved gifts. We wanted to involve others in the Dans
le jardin des beaux arts project in a variety of ways as well as playing
with the theme of inner and external space in and around the spaces of
this courtyard.
People from around the world posted us containers, which we have assembled
against the window panes as staging and decor. These elements from other
people's everyday lives formed the environment for the performances behind
the windows.
For some senders this was a conscious artistic act. Countless artists
around the world participate in Mail Art projects, and some of these posted
their choice of a container in the context of a conceptual statement.
Others, many not artists, simply sent or gave us containers. They were
also asked for a reason because we wanted people to think about what a
container is, apart from its utilitarian function.
The associations were many. We got a Philips lamp box from New Zealand,
but made in Indonesia, and someone's empty writing pad. Her container
for correspondence with others. A gold-coloured chocolates box from Siberia.
Some are items from their everyday lives, such as an English milk chocolate
drink. Others combinations of the exotic or other with the everyday such
as the container for houmous, manufactured by the archetypal English firm
of Sainsburys.
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The
containers are stacked on top of one another,
inside each other, and create spaces within spaces
against the matrix of the windows.
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Left
to Right panel by panel:
Top row: click on image
for other views
Five
year old pancake in a transparent CD case from Julie Penfold, U.K.;
Cambert cheese container -Patrick Collins, U.K.; ceramic eggshell-like
form -Joanna M. Paul, New Zealand; assemblage -Anne Nomrowski/Dietmar
Vollmer, Germany; Collage by Ninni Tang, The Netherlands; Photos of their
puppets and masks -Elena Ostrer / Peter Nilov, Russia; A Stage (for a
snail) by Jacqueline Wassen; Gold-coloured chocolates Container -A. Bourkhanov,
Russia;
Cloth snail by Jacqueline Wassen; Bottom
row:
Souvenir
de Roubaix (postcard) by Jacqueline Wassen; assemblage
-Anne Nomrowski/Dietmar Vollmer, Germany; Two small tupperware containers
from Tasmsin Clark, Canada, who wrote that they could stand alone or snuggle
together; A piece of glue-tack attached to a card from Melissa, U.K.,
along with a story about boxes within boxes, the smallest so small that
no microscope could view them. She told us that one of these tiny boxes
was attached to the glue-tack for easy handing; Blackbird
drawing by Trish Flannery, The Netherlands; (obscured by the figure) Box
of Matches from James Fisher Northern Ireland, who wrote the that box
was small like Northern Ireland but hopefully with the danger removed;
Peep-box by Geeske Harting, The Netherlands; Lightbulb container from
Joanna M. Paul, New Zealand; The Setting -a three-dimensional frame by
Sonja van Kerkhoff, Stairs for a snail by Jacqueline Wassen.
Click
on an area
for a closer view.
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Detail
of bottom right windowpane:
In
the top gap Tamatea's face is just visible as he crawls along the table.
In the bottom gap you can see one of Toroa's legs as he walks around the
table. Click on an image for more
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About
the performance >> |
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