Archipel platform at Marres Currents #4: Running Time, Marres Centre for Contemporary Culture, Maastricht 2018/2019.

Archipel

This work was commissioned and shown at Marres, House for Contemporary Culture, Maastricht (NL) during the group exhibition Marres Currents #4: Running Time, running from december 2016 until january 2017 and curated by Bas Hendrikx and Barbara Cueto

Thanks to Valentijn Byvanck, curators Barbara Cueto and Bas Hendrikx

(2017) Installation: plateau of islands, sand, water, wood, pigment, variable dimensions, postcards, set of 3 (16 x 11 cm)

Archipel is a project created for the Currents #3 exhibition at Marres, Centre for Contemporary Culture, Maastricht (NL). Inspired by ‘phantom islands’, fake islands added intentionally to 19th and 20th centrury worldmaps by companies in order to avoid plagiarism, a cluster of three fictional islands was created using sand, pigments, and water. Idiosyncratic and melancholic names given to remote islands by explorers throughout history, such as Possession and Loneliness, were the starting point for this fictional cluster of islands. These sand islands were then photographed and made into postcards. During the exhibition ‘Marres Currents #3’ visitors were invited to write a postcard from a fictional island, tricking the recipient into believing these places were real. Over the course of two months, five-hundred postcards were sent all over the world, manifesting the existence of these fictional islands.

Visitors writing postcards from fictional island during Marres Currents #4: Running Time, Marres Centre for Contemporary Culture, Maastricht 2018/2019.

Visitors writing postcards from fictional island during Marres Currents #4: Running Time, Marres Centre for Contemporary Culture, Maastricht 2018/2019.