Fri 12.04 → 18:00-… Sat 13.04 → 11:00-18:00 Sun 14.04 → 11:00-18:00
Visually elaborating the peculiar relationship between ‘Free Willy’ and Jean-Michel Basquiat’s persona in ‘Downtown 81’
Van Wijk clarifies their similar overlapping of different realities (e.g. the movie’s bottom line radically changing Keiko’s life and Basquiat filmically anticipating his artistic career, rise to stardom and departing) via the assemblage of multiple mechanisms and items ranging from graffiti and guitars mimicking the whale’s jump to freedom, to motor boat engines and salt water.
As exemplary for his practice, all those elements are rearranged by interlinking sounds, footage and situations in a seemingly self-operational system. An installation haunted by the ghosts and stories of bygone eras and creating proximity between those parallel universes, a mechanism in which each medium is the message.
Just like contemporary technology, it remains unclear how the work is mechanically designed. However, these invisible mechanics and electronic connections become revealed and almost tangible once the machines are operated and different noises are made between different hinges and joint structures. While van Wijk’s authorship is undoubtedly evident in the intertwining of all these different elements, it feels as if they embark on a journey on their own.
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