Marcel van den Berg en Erwin Thomasse
Marcel van den Berg en Erwin Thomasse
The new collection display Delinking and Relinking includes scope for a series of shorter projects. The museum invites artists whose work features in the Van Abbemuseum collection to reflect on the collection itself from their own standpoint or perspective. The first guests in this series are Marcel van den Berg (1978, Alphen aan de Rijn) and Erwin Thomasse (1972, Eindhoven).
Repetition
In the exhibition Van den Berg & Thomasse the artists give a critical reflection on the dominant culture of endless repetition. They see that the internet, television, but also in museums, the same information is perpetually recycled. This repetition perverts the meaning - the truth – of what is being said and made.
Street culture
Van den Berg & Thomasse both have a background in street culture, especially hiphop and graffiti. Van den Berg is inspired by the direct, expressive form of communication on the street. Thomasse refers to the playful way in which street culture criticizes existing conventions.
Borrowing art
Van den Berg and Thomasse also want their works to literally get out onto the street. To do so, they invite museum visitors to borrow their works for a period of time. If you would like to exhibit a work at home, work or school, send in a request by completing this form. You can hand it in at the main desk at the entrance of the museum or send it to info@vanabbemuseum.nl. How it works:
- After handing in the form, you will receive a notification and more information on the loan procedure via email.
- Your request will be assessed by the museum and the artists for safety, practicality and your reasons for wanting the loan. The museum can therefore not guarantee that all requests will be honored.
- The works can be borrowed from February to June 2022.
The work that can be borrowed are:
Marcel van den Berg, The Most Beautifullest Thing in this World, 2021
Van den Berg made 101 new paintings for this exhibition. They are all based on record covers of his personal music collection and are shown both on the wall and in huge storage boxes. Each work pays tribute to the music while offering a biographical portrait of Van den Berg through his music collection. You are invited to borrow one or more of these ‘records’.
Erwin Thomasse, Turn Panic into Magic, 2021
Thomasse’s work consists of five rhythmic pulsating light boxes with the sentence ‘Turn panic into magic'. The light boxes can be borrowed individually. As they spread out to different locations, they create a new network through which the boxes will silently communicate with each other across the distances between them.
