IVES MAES: THE RECYCLABLE REFUGEE CAMP PROJECT, Zurich (CH), 2004

IVES MAES. THE RECYCLABLE REFUGEE CAMP PROJECT

09.01.2004 – 28.02.2004, Galerie Brigitte Weiss, Zurich (CH)

Zürich has always been one of my favourite cities. I have a lot of contacts over there; nice people who do great jobs in the art world or in music. At the end of 2003, I was invited by Brigitte Weiss to curate an exhibition in her gallery, a modest space in the Aussersihl area.

At that time Ives Maes was initiating his “Recyclable Refugee Camp Project” which I regarded as a sound concept with lots of elements that I could relate to: the preoccupation with imaginary places and nature design, a critical stance towards trendy, so-called social works of art and a rather harsh but poignant irony. As I was discussing the project for some time with the artist, I thought it would be great to set up the first instalment of the R.R.C. in Switzerland, since that’s after all where the U.N. is based.

It would be the first work experience abroad for both of us and it turned out to be simply amazing. It was an immense effort but we had great times as well, checking out all the art spots in the city, wandering at night through the (in)famous red light district of Aussersihl with its colourful bars and venues and meeting very nice people. And of course installing a beautiful one-man show that ‘d be the start of an art project that grew over the four years to come.

Here’s the press text released on that occasion:

Der Kunsthistoriker und freie Kurator Tom Nys (geb. 1976, lebt in Leuven) präsentiert auf Einladung der Galerie den belgischen Künstler Ives Maes. Ives Maes (geb. 1976, lebt und arbeitet in Berchem/Antwerpen) zeigt in seiner ersten Einzelausstellung ausserhalb Belgiens sein neues Kunst-Projekt: Recyclable Refugee Camp.

Text by Tom Nys

Galerie Brigitte Weiss presents the first installation of the “Recyclable Refugee Camp”, a project by Belgian artist Ives Maes (born 1976). This R.R.C. – built in conformity with the regulations of the U.N. High Commissioner for Refugees – consists of structures such as living units, a multifunctional tent and latrines; all easily transportable and with a relatively low production cost. What is more is the fact that everything is made of biodegradable and recyclable materials, thus reducing the environmental damage caused by such a temporary station of people on the run. Eventually, most of this camp will disintegrate after a few years.

Along with these basic components, the artist plans the development of additional elements such as electricity-producing devices that make use of natural resources, relaxation spaces and a kindergarten with toys and educational instalments. The purpose is to improve the inhabitant’s psychological well-being, a function that is also notably present in the other pieces by their forms which are derived from art historical references: the living unit for example takes its form from African huts or Mario Merz’s dome-like sculptures, and the water well resembles Michelangelo Pistoletto’s Cinqo Pozzi.

Ives Maes developed his R.R.C. out of the artistic need to create an artwork that would be absolutely ethical in nature, well aware of the fact that this claim to hyper-ethicality would fail.

Maes began rethinking the ideas of social sculpture and politically engaged art at the instigation of the Progretto Arte manifesto and the concept of Unidee (The University of Ideas) by Pistoletto. R.R.C. was proposed to Pistoletto’s Cittadellarte-Fondazione (Biella, Italy) earlier this year and triggered an intense debate there. Because Maes culminates epistemological tools used in discussions on contemporary art – like interdisciplinary practice, aestheticism and the position of the artist in the “real” world – mixed with a set that befits academic discourses on global economy and politics, sociology and ecological concerns. This redundancy makes the work shift to an ideal and utopian construction, though it gleefully retains its perception of pragmatism.

The project thus arouses disturbance in the viewer’s mind and raises questions about the terminology uttered by self-declared socially aware artists. Moreover, in a clever way the R.R.C. lays bare their ambiguous position in trying to keep the core of their oeuvre deeply grounded in everyday life, while at the same time engaging in the introvert and comforting system we call the art world.

Another issue the R.R.C. raises, is the determination of a great divide between the utopian dream and reality. Maes truly beliefs in art’s function to offer a dream, or to provoke questions that point out the way to a partial realisation of it. Nevertheless, he is less credulous about a too far-fetched utopianism that ultimately will become ideological, thus destroying creativity.

It is also his concern that some artists dealing with political issues get stuck in a certain amateurism by their oft mentioned crossing of the boundaries of art into the fields of sociology, ecology, biology or other sciences. In this position their work will be read as naive dilettantism or uninteresting art, depending from what side it will be looked at.

One notices a hesitation from Maes’ part to fully agree with the contemporary urge to assimilate the art world with the “real”. What others may call art’s ivory tower, is for Maes a privileged position to creatively and often wittily pose critique not only on aspects of life at large, but also on the art society as well. In his eyes the expansion of its frontiers does not have to mean that those will be abolished in the end at all.

A thesis he proves perfectly well by his R.R.C., which encompasses not only the physicality of the sculptures, the preparatory drawings and texts, but also debates, round-table discussions and interaction of ideas with people involved in different fields. This is partly why the R.R.C. is likely to be situated in a discursive space with its epicentre in the art world.

More pictures at: http://www.likeyou.com/brigitteweiss/ives_maes_04.htm