GrensWerte coumn 1

The artist Albert Van Der Weide has been appointed guest curator for GrensWerte for 2011/2012. The theme this year is Low-hanging Fruit. Albert will write three columns, describing his experiences in organising visual arts projects in the EUREGIO. Written straight from the heart, each column will be supplemented by a drawing – to represent what he is unable to express in words.

LOW-HANGING FRUIT 1.

I love art. Creating something from nothing is my daily work and my life’s work. As an extension of that passion, I am also a maker of exhibitions. Art teaches me to live life to the full. It teaches me – as far as that’s possible – to understand the world I live in. For me, works of art, and reflecting on these works of art, are primarily about acquiring knowledge. I have an intense need to share this knowledge with others. Which is why it’s so logical for me to position art in society. And that’s the context in which I fulfil my role as curator, as an author.

In my capacity as guest curator, I travelled through the EUREGIO. I drove across motorways and B-roads; walked across sandy paths; viewed landscapes, and talked to passers-by and artists in villages and cities. I visited museums, restaurants, bars, art colleges, universities and town halls. I took the train from Enschede to Münster and back again. Made notes of my unstructured impressions and followed my intuitive quest as an unleashed dog inspects new territory.

One day, during my wanderings, I had a simple experience that later turned out to be key in creating good and practical ideas. I was standing on the border between Gronau and Glanerbrug. I bent down in front of me and became aware that my feet remained in Germany while my head was in the Netherlands. However, when I later related this to the EUREGIO philosophy, I found myself not only on the border between two countries but also in the centre of Münsterland and Overijssel. 
The experience taught me that I had to think and work on different levels. And at the same time, I also realised that I should focus on a number of topics. Topics that are of importance for the EUREGIO and run parallel with my own interests. I wrote down a list of subjects. After each subject I wrote down the locations in the EUREGIO that I had visited. I also made an inventory of the artists that matched the subjects and whose oeuvre I considered important.

Based on the divided unity that is so characteristic of the EUREGIO, I came up with the plan that each project by an artist should be able to be viewed in both the Netherlands and in Germany. The same work, at different locations and in different circumstances, and we should call it a dialectical presentation model.

I discussed my vision and starting points with experts and advisers of GrensWerte, artists and intellectuals. Not out of any feeling of insecurity but to ensure a solid start. Ultimately, I was left with the following topics that I could work on with artists on location: border and unity, public management, religion and politics, and local/global art and theory.

The first artist I approached was Hieke Luik. She works in Enschede and Amsterdam and makes illustrations and sculptures that are created through the material and her manipulations of it. They are characterised by organic forms. We went to Glanerbrug and Gronau and I asked her to think about an artwork that reflects the idea of the border and unity. She conducted research into history, focussing particularly on the bridge between both villages and the prevailing notions about borders in the EUREGIO. Inspired by this, she made sketches and sculptures that will be presented in a form that has yet to be decided on. More about this in my next column.

Stay with us.
Albert Van Der Weide