Category / Reenactment

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#105

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Paris (FR) Palais de Tokyo, Octobre 16 2024, (With Guillaume Désanges, président du palais de Tokyo)

Twenty-eight blocks stacked into a “staff,” which gives the work the suggestion of a utensil, refer to diversity, connection and perception.  The complexities of independent observation, the beauty and necessity of all kinds of diversity,  the joy of connecting with the cosmos, nature and fellow humans!

Diversity is my starting point in 2011. The work ‘barre ronde de bois’ by Andre Cadere gave me the idea of stacking colored blocks into a staff. 

I appear in public with a staff to both present my work and commemorate André Cadere (1934-1978). He would have turned ninety this year.  His performances breathe a pleasant autonomy and are a response to his diagnosis of exclusionism in the art market.

The 28 blocks are not glued together but temporarily connected to a staff.

Each staff has a difficult-to-unravel organization and is more or less related to the surveyor’s red and white pole. The surveyor who maps earth’s surface without judgment: The art of seeing in pure form!   

A lot has remained the same since I made my first staff in 2011. First of all: the ecstasy of making; the sawing and assembling, the sanding, painting and overpainting the elements  until a chord emerges. 

While at first I was proud of not getting the wood from a construction store but cutting it myself in the forest, now I am happy because beavers throw long pieces of tree into the river for delivery to my studio.  

 

 

 

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#103

Staff # 103 is on show at PanAmsterdam Artfair till Sunday december1 2024, Contour Gallery booth 25

 

March 23 2024, Otterlo (NL), Kröller-Müller Museum, With Hans Eijkelboom, the artist and staf #103  

André Cadere  

Every artist stands on the shoulders of many predecessors.   Through their artworks, I came to see the world better. In this almost endless line, there is one artist who is easily recognizable in my work. 

André Cadere was active between 1970 and his death in 1978. At that time you could have come across him at an opening with his mobile sculpture, his “barre ronde de bois”.   Andre Cadere wanted to draw attention to the exclusivity of the art world by infiltrating these institutions with his own art.
Initially, I only wanted to ‘steal’ the form of his sculptures. It soon became apparent that it was also necessary to continue his work by breaking into institutions, just like Andre Cadere did. Because institutions are perhaps even more hermetic now than they were in the seventies.
 
The mobile sculpture in my hand I call staff. The wood of this staff (#103) was felled by beavers and delivered to my studio by the Rhine River.  Staff #103 is in a private collection. 

André Cadere would have turned 90 this year. 















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# 52 Christiana’s Sceptre

Christiana’s sceptre (staff # 52) is  on display at Contour gallery in Rotterdam until 18 July 2025
It was on show at photo London, Somerset House, Strand May 15- May 18 2025. Contour Gallery Booth D15

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

For Christiana, photo 18 x 25 cm. 7 x 10,6 inch

 

In 2014, I read an interview with Christiana Figueres, the president of the upcoming 2015 Paris Climate Conference. She spoke about the enormous responsibility she carried, despite having almost no real power. To help symbolically bridge that gap, I spontaneously decided to visit the UN office and offer her (or her assistant) a scepter. However, I was stopped by UN security and couldn’t deliver it. It was fascinating, though, to see the scepter on the X-ray scanner. Six years later, I met a woman who truly had both power and responsibility — and I took this photo.

 

# 52 Christiana’s Sceptre, 2014, 43,7 inch  125cm

 

 

X-ray by UN-security.
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Into the Wild

A sculpture by Frank Bezemer consists of separate parts that are connected to form a staff, antenna or a scepter. The antenna is ideal for receiving signals from the cosmos. The staff is the perfect tool to directly connect with mother earth.

Ans Verdijk goes into the wild with staf # 94 (The wood for this staff was felled by beavers. Then delivered by rivers to the artist’s studio.)
Staff # 94 158cm private collection
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Mother & Child

On view in Museum van Alle Tijden, Oeffeltseweg 21, 5835 BB Beugen

July 4 2021 – September 5 2021. 24/7

Inspired by the medieval polychromatic wooden sculptures of mother and child, Frank Bezemer explores contemporary relationships between mother and child. ( Anneke with staf # 97, also known as maatstaf II, and Taeke with staf #14 )

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Fai del bene e sii felice

Fai del bene e sii felice. La massima del filosofo olandese Baruch Spinoza è messa in pratica ogni giorno da Maria. Molto tempo fa i suoi antenati hanno abitato nella grotta alle sue spalle. Nel giardino crescono albicocchi e anche giovani ulivi. 7 febbraio 2020

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Maria Salvatori con il bastone n. 24, nel suo giardino assieme ai suoi polli.  

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Staff # 24.  139 cm  54 inch

Also known as: For Raymond Hains I

< # 23   >  # 25

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Passages 2024

Welkom op mijn studio op zaterdag 13 en zondag 14 april 2024 

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Speciaal voor buurtbewoners is er de tentoonstelling  P a s s a g e s georganiseerd met werk van mijn collega’s en mij.  

 U kunt op zaterdag 13 en zondag 14 april 2024  tussen 11.00u en 17.00u komen kijken naar de binnenkant van het gebouw en de kunstwerken die er gemaakt zijn.  En desgewenst in gesprek gaan met de kunstenaar. 
(meer informatie over de foto getiteld: Study! onderaan in cursief.) 
Entree € 5,-   Dobbelmannweg 5 6531KT Nijmegen.  
 
Especially for local residents the exhibition P a s s a g e s has been organised with works by my colleagues and me.      You can come on Saturday 13 and Sunday 14 April 2024 between 11am and 5pm to see the inside of the building and the artworks created there.  And engage in conversation with the artist if you wish. 
 
Entrance fee € 5 ,-
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About the photo titled Study! read more below

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The photo shows the door to my studio.  From the left to the right: Two toddlers in memory of the former kindergarten, Emeritus Professor of Educational Studies at Radboud University Theo Bergen reenacting the statue on the frontside of the studio-building,  and a delicate balancing staff # 31.

The building in which my studio is located has a statue of Johanna de Lestonnac on the front facade. She has a book in her hands, to emphasize the importance of education. Johanna de Lestonnac was a woman who began educating girls in Bordeaux in the 16th century.

The building was part of a large Roman Catholic complex, with a church, a rectory, a cemetery, a convent and a variety of schools.
The building was originally built as a boarding school for girls. Then in 1931 it was transformed into a kindergarten. And in 1989, the building was converted into studios for artists.

 

 Staff # 31