What’s The Point? /catalog
An exhibition curated by pietmondriaan.com
(Simon Kentgens & Michiel Huijben)
March 12 – April 18, 2010
Excerpt from catalog with text by Irene de Craen
Since having a studio is no longer a requirement for the artistic profession (also referred to as the post-studio era), many artists leave the restrictive, claustrophobic space of the studio and venture out into the world to create their work.
In the case of Eric von Robertson’s Traveller (2010) the artist doesn’t even make a new work, but simply intervenes in the already existing work of another artist (giving a whole new meaning to the term ready-made). On the back of a poster showing part of Duane Hanson’s life-like sculpture Traveller it reads: ‘On March 12, 2010, Eric von Robertson will embark on a series of excursions to find Duane Hanson’s displaced Traveller. This search continues in the months or years to follow, until all four sculptures have been encountered.’
By conducting a search of the missing sculptures today, after Duchamp, is about asking questions. Von Robertson becomes a traveller, mimicking as it were the original, but does he then also become a work of art? And does he, by intervening into the works of Duane Hanson, such as changing the batteries of the watch of one of the sculptures, also partly become the author?
As minimal as the interventions of Von Robertson are in Traveller (you just have to believe the artist actually does what he claims to do), some of the works on show are even for the trained eye – almost impossible to recognize as works of art…
It is about infiltrating into the usual and asking unusual questions that can change our perception of the everyday. Through the eyes of these artists art seems to be one giant unanswerable question, and by that rule, the question really does become the work of art.
