If you ever happened to visit Maastricht, make sure to also visit the bookstore Selexyz Dominicanen. This breathtaking store, by The Guardian even proclaimed the most beautiful bookshop in the world, is located near the Vrijthof in a 13th century Dominican church. According to a design by the architects Merkx+Girod has the beautiful Gothic interior been redeveloped. As well included an of Maaike Schoorel’s suggestive work reminding, restored fresco, which leaves the life of Dominican Saint Thomas Aquinas just barely visible. Coincidentally enough this month came the news that the current owner Selexyz now itself is threatened in its existence. Negotiations with a new investor seem to prevent however the same fate as Borders.

Selexyz Dominicanen, Maastricht.

Selexyz Dominicanen, Maastricht.

Selexyz Dominicanen, Maastricht.

Selexyz Dominicanen, Maastricht.

Selexyz Dominicanen, Maastricht.

The Bleeding Tomato – Graffiti Advertising – Advertising Graffiti (2012).

With some simple interventions makes Fabro the unsuspecting visitor completely question his assumptions. Just by turning a set of measuring staffs and ranging poles the Arte Povera artist makes clear how unstable and relative our scientific presuppositions are. How much everything depends on agreement and habituation. Prometheus stole the fire from the gods to give it to man, to inspire man with knowledge, with creativity, to let him transcend the animal. The non-animal visualizing constellation over here, of unnatural colors, processed marble and measuring staffs forms an unsteady whole though. Above is below. No clear x, y and z axes. Chaos reigns. Ultimately is nothing being measured. Even literally, here is the emptiness being measured.

Prometeo is part of the exhibition Augenspiel at the Maastricht Bonnefanten museum and runs until the 15th of January 2012.

Luciano Fabro – Prometeo (Prometheus) (1986-87).

Neon artworks are either static and have a constant message or as in the case of Bruce Nauman’s neons in the exhibit Extended Drawing are time based and work like a simple animation. Next to the immediate perceptible message of every highlighted part causes the character of the medium that every image also communicates an in-active message. Looking at works as Sex and Death are you as a viewer constantly aware of this imminent action. Next to the eye catching contrast between bright colors, simple and smooth shapes and the violent and sexual content, forms this latent threat, this compulsive act another element which pushes the unavoidable, uncomfortable effect of Nauman’s work to an extreme.

The exhibition Extended Drawing at the Maastricht Bonnefanten museum, with works by  Sol LeWitt, Robert Mangold, Bruce Nauman and Richard Serra runs until the 15th of January 2012.

Bruce Nauman – Sex and Death (1985).

Bruce Nauman – Sex and Death (1985).

Bruce Nauman – Sex and Death (1985).

Bruce Nauman – Beating with baseball bat (1986).

“Instead of organizing a formalized plan with violence as theme, it seemed more interesting to take the idea and just go with it. With the figure neons, the timing sequence is very important – it becomes violent. The pace and the repetition make it hard to see the figures, and although the figures are literally engaged with violent acts, the colors are pretty – so the confusion and dichotomy of what is going on are important too.“
Please, pay attention, please; Bruce Nauman’s words, p.374 (Talking with BN, Christopher Cordes, 1989).

“I still get tired of working on one idea, in one medium, for too extended a period and, in that sense, I divert myself by moving to something else.”
Brenda Richardson, Bruce Nauman Neons, Baltimore Museum of Art, 1982, p.29.

Immediately after visiting the exhibit MärklinWorld everything seems to look like a scale model. Every animal seems suspicious. Possibly fake, possibly a man manufactured version. We are living in a maquette. We are living in a computer model.

The expo provides numerous examples of the photographed reality which seems to pass for a model world and the staged model world that more and more looks like a documented reality. It’s particularly this represented reality MärklinWorld focuses on. The model as such is not the subject. MärklinWorld is the world we daily move through, the materialized artist impression of urban planning, the totally designed and produced living environment that takes over every part of our existence and the basically already staged reality of the media which only turns further into an illusory.

It is not surprising that the represented reality more and more gives the impression of a cloned reality, which in turn further deforms the notion of reality, as an endless recreation by means of an example of an example of an example…

MärklinWorld at Kunsthal KAdE Amersfoort runs until the 8th of January 2012.

Frank van der Salm – The English House (2010).

Michael Samuels – Rescue me (2003). Back; Oliver Boberg – Brachland (2004).

Maurice van Tellingen – Perron (2009).

Anne Wenzel - Heaven (2007).

Leonid Tsvetkov – Untitled (2011).

Krijn de Koning – (non)buildings and monuments (2011).

Eelco Brand – N.movi (2011).

Behind this fence is being worked on a new Utrecht Central. CU i see you in Utrecht.

Spotted in the shopping window of Utrecht comic shop Blunder this Che Guevara mashup with Donald Duck. One in a long line of Guevara mashups. Google these words and you’ll find out who has already been combined into a collage with the Argentine Marxist: George W. Bush, Osama Bin Laden, Steve Jobs, Cher, Barack Obama, John Lennon, Michael Jackson, Mickey Mouse, Darth Vader, Charles Darwin, Elvis Presley, Anna Wintour, Michael Moore and even Ronald McDonald. Who hasn’t been?? Analogy or contrast, or a vague mix of both. It doesn’t matter. Everything is permitted. No criteria.

Libertad Para Los Patos – Freedom For The Ducks.

Although the work is already six years old it looks as if it was just yesterday unveiled. A sign of strong art and a clear example of the art of art maintenance. Giny Vos has for this formerly totally anonymous municipal warehouse for salt, bankruptcy estates and the parks and gardens department developed a light sculpture consisting of 6,500 LED lights. After sunset is the contrast only really being maximized between the industrial area and the rather in Las Vegas expected enchanting light message. Every ten seconds terms follow one another that are derived from activities in this particular building and words relating to its immediate surroundings Westpoort. It’s particularly the unknown terms that cause another contrast of extra extra large size and sheer poetry.

For more wonderful work by Giny Vos visit her website.

Giny Vos – The Painted Chat (2005). ‘COWBOY LAND’.

Giny Vos – The Painted Chat (2005). ‘THE THINGS’.

Giny Vos – The Painted Chat (2005). ‘ZOOF BYE’.

Giny Vos – The Painted Chat (2005). ‘MOTHER TONGUE’.

Giny Vos – The Painted Chat (2005). ‘HEY SWEEPER’.

Giny Vos – The Painted Chat (2005). ‘FORKLIFT’.

Giny Vos – The Painted Chat (2005). ‘MOON LETTER’.

Electa Manuputty – Miffy Dress Up Doll (2011). Rutger Floor – Saudi Miffy Dress Up Doll (2011).

The disappearance of privacy and the now as well in the Netherlands announced burqa ban, are part of the same trend of openness. Openness is the new norm. You don’t have anything to hide, right? So why make a fuss about privacy? The question is which face coverage will be next. The beard? The motorcycle helmet? Or does this decision have nothing to do with security after all, and everything with xenophobia? Some people see in the burqa the concealing of your identity. For others, it means the expression of their identity. What do we choose ultimately? A neutral public space? Neutrality and objectivity don’t exist. Or do we choose a public space which again is a real public space. Where different manifestations, political / religious / sexual orientation can be openly expressed?

At the Amsterdam Felix Meritis is every third Tuesday of the month Felix and Sofie being organized. A philosophical lecture / debate night open to anyone with just the slightest philosophical interest. Last week this well attended meeting was dedicated to the free will. As an introduction the three guest speakers each unveiled their widely differing views in a brief discourse. After which a debate followed. The first speaker of the evening was Jan Verplaetse who in his words took the ‘radical view’  that man does not posses a free will and that from this one can conclude he is not to blame for his actions. Instead of blaming the other for their behavior Verplaetse recommends us to put ourselves in the place of the other. From there can possibly be tried by calculated influencing to make the other change his mind and his behavior. Bert Keizer‘s speech formed a counterweight to this as he confronted the public with the to date scientific elusiveness of the human mind. In other words an MRI scan can not read minds. Keizer declared to really experience a daily ongoing confrontation with an appeal to his responsibilities. A feeling of guilt that in his words, by no philosophical argumentation whatsoever can be eliminated. Keizer does for that matter correspond with the only argument that pleads for free will, which is essentially not a real argument, namely that everyone has the strong feeling to posses a free will. Maureen Sie was the third speaker of the evening and took a middle position by underlining the importance of an on reasons based acting in relation to our fellow man, while keeping in mind that a large part of our decisions take place outside of our free will, outside our conscious actions.

The Bleeding Tomato – Free Will (2011).

Self I agree mostly with Jan Verplaetse and must rationally admit that no free will is possible. Everything has its cause. So does my culturally / genetically determined behavior as an endless chain collision of cause and effect. Rationally speaking no one is to blame. It’s a pragmatic decision to subsequently still punish people for bad behavior. Otherwise society would degenerate into chaos. To whether or not completely relieve man from his feeling of guilt is difficult to answer. After all it is a powerful motivator for humans as social beings. Or positively formulated, you don’t want to live in a world without compliments, without reward, since you are not responsible for the good deed. Guilt and reward appear this way to fall in the same category of socially usefulness as punishment. Behind which only an illusion hides of an autonomous self…