translated and summarized by: Liz Wollner-Grandville,
300112: Bawag Contemporary Erik van Lieshout - Erik makes Happy
Bawag Contemporary
Erik van Lieshout - Erik makes Happy
01.12.11 until 29.01.12
Filming prohibited!
Last year, when Erik van Lieshout presented the shop that he once owned in the Rotterdam Shopping Center Zuidplein as an installation in the Gallery Kinzinger, it appeared chaotic and dirty: screws, old metal, dirt and other refuse was scattered between sloppy wooden displays and a huge Rem-Koolhaas portrait. The film the artist made back then is now presented at the Bawag Contemporary, and the installation, which he crafted especially for the film, appears much more orderly than the one at Krinzinger. He covered the floor with cheap carpets and the wall with equally cheap lettering – “mercilessly cheap”, “how much is your euro worth” and a quote by Rem Koolhaas’ stating that real luxury was not to buy anything; and it was this quote - like a thorn in one’s side - that he placed above the entrance of his Zuidplein shop.
In his film, Van Lieshout documents conversations with visitors to his shop, passersby and other shop owners. Some of them are like a pandemonium of xenophobic and extreme right-wing figures (he even had a poster showing the right-wing politician Pim Fortuyn in his shop - to attract people, as he explained); others reflect on the conditions under which cultural productions are created. The conversations in the video span across the contradictions of contemporary consumer spaces – with the mall manager justifying the complete video surveillance throughout the mall, while an employee in a cosmetic chain prohibits Van Lieshout from filming.
By Nina Schedlmayer
Bawag Contemporary
1010 Vienna, Franz Josefs Kai 3
http://www.bawagcontemporary.at
Opening hours: Daily from 14 to 20 hours
300112
BAWAG P.S.K. Contemporary
1010 Wien, Franz Josefs Kai 3
http://www.bawagpskcontemporary.at
Öffnungszeiten: täglich 14-20h
BAWAG P.S.K. Contemporary
1010 Wien, Franz Josefs Kai 3
http://www.bawagpskcontemporary.at
Öffnungszeiten: täglich 14-20h