Translation from Russian to English

Newspaper: Culture (Kultura)
Issue no.: 12
Date: March 29 - April 4, 2001.
Section: Theatre + Palette

Article: A LAMBENT DUTCH HUMOUR
Conceptual performances of Luke van der Hoeven in Moscow

all spectators who have come to the exhibition
of van der Hoeven, suddenly became artists

The cultural relations between Russia and Holland does not interrupt, are neither in a thaw, nor in a frost, and neither nor at a period of global warming. Which confirms the creativity of Luke van der Hoeven, the artist from Amsterdam.

Luke van der Hoeven lives in Holland, in the country, struggling with water disasters over the centuries; after all, the most part of Holland is situated below sea level. The multi-kilometer dam Afsluitdijk with cascades surrounds the country from the north, since the end of twenties separating Amsterdam, situating on the coasts, already of the former sea gulfs of "inland sea" - Ijsselmeer and Markermeer , - from threatening disasters of the Atlantic. High dunes near the city The Hague protect the coast of La Manche for many centuries, and the water from numerous rivulets is pumped over here through dunes since the period of windmills. At last, the broad river delta formed in the south of the country by the Rhine , Maas and Waal, have been reliably protected by a huge complex of hydraulic engineering structures of the Schelde Deltaplan in the seventies - a plan for protecting the delta. But, forecasts related with the global warming, ice thawing in Greenland and reduction of ice shell of the Antarctic Continent, and also the vibrations of tectonic slabs in the North of Europe, threatens new experiences to the small country. About this, a new series of the Dutch artist has been exhibited in the Moscow studio "Art Life" situated in Bolshaya Spasskaya.

The series is called "Holland B.V." Speaking in Russian, it is something like "ZAO (JSC)" Holland".

In one of the paintings, a man in a business suit boisterously talking about something on the mobile telephone, watching the news, flashing on the portable TV screen. On the left hand he is wearing a "Rolex" watch. It would seem, that he is "packed" in a lace, so that with a comfort and with an extreme accuracy to identify himself in time and space. But the man in the painting is almost into the water up to his neck.

"The Water is coming. A little more, and the man will find himself as a helpless child in hands of all-mighty disaster", - says the Dutch painter. "And all these "toys" will not help him". Here the water is also a symbol of a certain completed development. "Holland B.V." is functioning as something like a high-tech corporation having a closed-type production cycle. And on the verge of the new millennium the people will be engrossed in thoughts: what is next?

The other canvas of the artist "Lips are dangerous" indicates the fragility of mutual relation of the people in the world of global communications. Lips of two characters are displayed in close up. Between them - a tense wire is clamped in teeth, on which, a tiny rope-walker balances. The rope-walker can fall, and then the man will not receive the message coming out from the interlocutor.

Luke van der Hoeven has also organized an original performance in Moscow. He decided to attach all the spectators who visited his Moscow exhibition introduce with his creativity. Together with his friend, Dutch artist Marc Marc, he organized a performance on the walls of the studio "Art Life", which has named "Models". On each working days of the exhibition of Luke van der Hoeven, a podium posing with (artist's) models was arranged in the center of the hall and all visitors received pencils and papers for drawing, even everybody were provided with drinks and snacks necessary for long-continued creative process.

Correction by Marc Marc:
It was Marc Marc and Sergey Malutin who organized the 7 days model action.

"As a compensation for the means, spent by the Dutch", - speaks, the curator of the studio Sergey Malioutin with a smile - "each of the participants of the performance has to present the organizers from the Netherlands two sketches".

"We have chosen the works which are very different in style". "In Spring they will be displayed in the Russian graphics exhibition in the gallery "Art-Agat" in Amsterdam"

Author: Iskander Kyzeev

Photo:
Caption: all spectators who have come to the exhibition of van der Hoeven, suddenly became artists