-Yes
-Yes
-Biennials try to tell me what is art, even if it isn’t that nice.

Ideal Media, Biennale Cuvee 10

I could mention several different things that have surprised me for this or that, for more or less logical reasons. Having to think of one I decided to choose this image. It is for me a beautiful image.

The image depicts a bridge and spectators on a ship’s deck looking at the surrounding landscape. It was certainly taken by someone that was also traveling on that ship.

What strikes me is the contrast between the intention of capturing an image of the bridge as a monument or a big remark of engineering and the simplicity that the moment seems to embed. The moment itself could be translated as an interruption, a break in order to be present and to look at what is to be seen. This is the reason why I like it. Though I do believe that several and diverse interpretations could still be drawn around it.

I found this picture at a second hand shop mixed with all different kinds of 35mm slides. I don’t know the author or where and when it was taken. At the first moment I thought about collecting this one and other slides of the same set so I could eventually later incorporate it as visual material on my work. This was the motivation that lead to an obsession, and that later ended with the decision of not using it as my first intention. Instead I decided to invite friends [and friends of friends] for evening sessions at the studio and present all the slides I had been collecting; then, sitting and listening to their comments.

Perhaps the author of this picture was an artist. Or perhaps these slides where assembled together and where once part of an installation of another possible artist that at a certain point of his life gave up of being an artist and sold all his work to a second hand shop. [And the list could go on and on] Several possibilities could be imagined in order to think of authorship and if this image has ever been part of the art world. If it did or not doesn’t change its meaning to me.

I do consider this image as art but not for the reasons I mentioned before, not because I like it. But because it was able to promote an encounter, exchange and somehow generate knowledge. Likewise, I think of biennials as empowered platforms to extend this same principle.

After reading this question I was thinking about my road trip to Morocco that turned out to be a road trip through Andalusia, Spain. After my passport was stolen out of our old camper van. In my mind I passed by the cultural buildings I had seen there: la Alhambra in Granada, la Mezquita in Córdoba and el Archivo del Indio in Seville. Interesting things. Cultural things. Nice things.

But not so exciting as the idea of driving to and in Africa! And now, instead of being true adventurers, we didn’t dare to leave our temporarily home on wheels anywhere else than at a camping site safely in between the white camper vans of hibernators. And instead of being in Morocco the only thing I could do was read about it.

So during our stay in Spain I read “Marokko achter de schermen” (Morocco behind the scenes) by Steven Adolf (correspondent for NRC newspaper) that deals with history and present day Morocco. It discusses subjects like the strongly interweaved corruption of mighty political figures and the suppression of the Berber people but also about the first travel reports, the hospitality of Moroccan people and couscous. And I have to say in the end Andalusia’s cultural heritage, of the time when the region was called Al-Andalus, did make up the disappointment of not being able to go there.

What I like about traveling is this strange position you have being a tourist. This vacuum of being there in real life but always at a sideline; never completely understand what is going on simply because you are a stranger. Unfortunately this, as I experienced can make you an easy target to get robbed. But on the other hand also local people recognize you and the question “where are you from?” has a low threshold.
Like a guy we met in a bar, who asked us where we came from, and told us in English he had been studying in Groningen at the Hanze Hogeschool and he had a lot of Dutch friends: Hans, Nienke and Dirk. We talked about nice places near Seville and that we had visited Aracena a small city one-hour drive from Seville what we really liked because of the green and hilly landscape. The barman became really enthusiastic because he happened to be born in the province of Huelva and told us in Spanish that the food there was great.

Our perception of great food, considering endless advertisement about Andalusian delicatesse: jamón, differs. As a hardcore vegetarian and food lover it was a pity but it came not as a surprise that Spain really is a meat country. Everywhere from the Carrefour to the local tapas bar you find a lot of meat. Especially hams of Iberico pigs, in this region. This billboard promoting an international congress about dry-cured ham! The idea these people talked three days about a pig’s cushion seemed kind of hilarious.

“Sí, más jamón” I replied “pero soy vegetariana”. We laughed and ordered another caña without tapa but with lasagna (verde).

These things are “nice” and they happen to be art. Some have been shown at biennials and others not.
Above works- are a selection from the works of Otobong Nkanga and Meschac Gaba.

Beware of beautiful surroundings. You may be overcome by a sense of melancholy which lurks in the spectacle of such beauty. The melancholy of its impossibility. The beauty of the individual parts, the trees, the grass – her seductive softness, which actually isn’t soft at all but prickly, full of ants and thorns, only the idea of softness – these stir up a longing for a memory in which the grass really is soft, really is green. The sadness has something to do with the impossibility of that memory.

Click here to view the embedded video.

A week ago I was asked for a publication to react visually on the question: ‘What do you like to look at?’I remembered this picture and thought it was just screaming for some pink.

Respond one question at a time, without thinking of the question that follows. You do not need to respond to all of the questions. If you do not like the question that follows, or if it does not suit you, do not go any further.

- Is there anything nice you have seen? (In a general sense, thinking of your experience, of what you have done, seen, read, or lived)

- Are you interested in knowing if what you consider nice is art?

- In which way can you relate the big biennials with the two previous questions?