IVES MAES. RECYCLABLE REFUGEE CAMP. IL GIARDINO SEGRETO

27.06.2004 – 08.08.2004, F.L.A.C.C., Genk (B)

After his “R.R.C. Project” was launched earlier in 2004 at Galerie Brigitte Weiss in Zürich, Ives Maes got the opportunity to exhibit more of it in the art institute F.L.A.C.C. in Genk, Belgium. As I had been involved for quite some time in the conception of that project, I helped him out a bit during the installation of the show, which included works that had been ex hibited in Zürich, new sculptural pieces as well as photographs and a great amount of superb  drawings.

A debate was organised as well, in which Mirta Demare, Johan Leestemaker and Emile Hrvatin participated while I moderated the talk. Demare is born in Argentina but runs a gallery in Rotterdam. As a trained architect she was involved in the planning of refugee camps in different parts of the world. Because of this background she was evidently well placed to comment on the “R.R.C. Project”. Leestemaker is a Dutch development consultant who has worked mostly in South-America and also supports a great deal of artistic projects in The Netherlands and Colombia. And Hrvatin is a performance artist from Ljubljana who shared at that time Maes’ interest in refugee camps albeit in a more socially related context.

Furthermore I wrote a long text about the “R.R.C. Project” in the hosting institute’s yearbook.