Ter observatie | Intensive Care [… in the state of the art(s)]

- download the invitation (pdf) –

The project Ter Observatie | Intensive Care [ … in the state of the art(s)] occupies – for the duration of the exhibition – the calm and intensity of a closed circuit with room for research and precision, where attention is focused on questions concerning matter and mass, language and translation, defining and confining, communication and meaning.

With building elements  originating from a variety of sources and disciplines, often referring to intuitive insights, inspirational research or literature by, among others, Claude Levi-Strauss, Emily Vanderpoel, Bruno Taut, Oliver Sacks and Herman Gorter, an organic and sensitive domain has been created in which Hannah Dawn Henderson, Marianna La Rosa Maruyama, Ronald Schelfhout and ligteringen/derooij share their proposals and questions with the visitors.

On the basis of the prototypes and proposals that are presented, the exhibition encourages, for instance, the creation of new mutations or clearer definitions of light and color, power and gravity, collecting and researching, the dynamics, possibilities and limitations of language and authorship, the nature of portraits, adventure and interaction in the arts.

“It is, I think, absolutely impossible to conceive of meaning without order. There is something very curious in semantics, that the word ‘meaning’ is probably, in the whole language, the word the meaning of which is the most difficult to find.” – Claude Lévi-Strauss, Myth and Meaning

You are very welcome at GEMAK to experience the development phase of this project (17–30 April), to
attend the official opening (1 May) and subsequently of course to visit the exhibition (until 23 May).

About Marianna La Rosa Maruyama – A Listener (*), 2015

Performance | Installatiie

Marianna Maruyama presents the first ‘reading’ of “A Listener”. Dealing with issues of authorial voice, translation and the recorded voice, Maruyama joined up with contemporary Ethiopian philosopher-writer O’Tam Pulto for this work-in-progress. Maruyama’s drawings and book display accompany the written work. As in previous projects, the artist asks how texts cross cultural settings, how they are heard from a distance, and who make up the listeners. 

Amsterdam-based artist Marianna Maruyama (California) deals with orientation and voice, specifically loss of position as it relates to loss of voice. She is currently working on the second edition of TRANSLATION IN THE DARK, a translingual publication series playing with translation as a conceptual artistic practice. 

(*) Earlier working title: Fry me a coffee, dear