Following the yellow brick road

There is one question that keeps popping up – why does art have to be so hard to explain and so simple to look at? This question reappeared yet again after I read press release announcing the start of a new project titled Surveillance. Do we really need to use as many words as possible to describe something as simple as the sovereignty of public space and ownership of the streets? Or is it that simple? With less words and a lot of action, Lotte Geeven and Yeb Wiersma are inviting you to explore this subject through one month long project Surveillance.

The project team has its headquarters in the West gallery but the actual project will take place outside of gallery’s walls, in parts of two districts that are surrounding the gallery – the Stationsbuurt and the Centrum. In the next month, from 16 March until 16 April, Lotte and Yeb will intervene in this space following a script composed of seven “life & site-specific acts”. Visitors will not be able to distinguish the fine line between the acts that challenge the controlled establishment and the reality in which habits and characteristics of the city reside.

The script will slowly unfold creating series of images and movements that are relating to “the street at a fundamental level”. Various acts will be announced and compiled on the blog Surveillance. Although the first act titled Isaac’s Principles was scheduled to start Saturday 16 March at 18:18 hours in the West headquarters, some preparations were already made in the form of 1 kilometer long line of pure gold that has been installed or drawn in the streets of The Hague. Is that the border of our dynamic space and what are Isaac’s Principles devoted to – Newton’s Mathematical Principles of Natural Philosophy, Asimov’s Laws of Robotics or something else? Tickling the curiosity!

Lotte Geeven finished Rijksakademie in Amsterdam in 2009. Since then she is trying to observe and translate the society into poetic large-scale installations, objects and photographs. Her approach is described as anarchistic and refreshing. Yeb Wiersma walks in the garden of visual art, journalism and essays and creates through research and fieldwork. Her field of activity is often situated in ‘urban’ nature. Wiersma  studied at the Gerrit Rietveld Academie in Amsterdam and subsequently at the Cooper Union in New York City.

Galerie West, Groenewegje 136, Saturday 16 March 2013, 6:18pm. Closed on Sundays.