Going Glocal in the visual arts

Glocalisation is a portmanteau of globalisation and localisation. By definition, the term “glocal” refers to the individual, group, division, unit, organisation, and community which is willing and is able to “think globally and act locally.”
Wikipedia

 

Glocal Affairs, Ines den Rooijen, ’15000 centen’, Hedah

 

The Glocal Affairs – Where Are You visual arts manifestation encompasses a number of different, and often unusual, events across the Meuse-Rhine Euroregion, with the city of Maastricht as its main location.

Besides exhibitions, the programme is rich in intriguing lectures, performances, tours and concerts, lasting until November 30, 2008.

First of all Glocal Affairs is a multi-location exhibition featuring 100 visual artists linked to the Meuse-Rhine Euroregion. The concept behind the exhibition focuses on the mutual relationship between global and local perspectives in the contemporary art field.

Because of its geographical location within a Euroregion, Maastricht is used to dealing with cross-border initiatives. With Glocal Affairs, curator Jean Boumans moves away from the usual – political, linguistic or geographic – approach to the topic and focuses on its artistic dimension.

Nowadays artists, as common people, think and work globally: we are continuously beaten over the head with news and facts from all over the world. We are compelled to dialogue everyday with other cultures and communities.

Some artists find inspiration in their own culture and geographical location to meditate on the “global village”. Using traditional techniques, they sometimes choose very local subjects to reflect about themselves, their family background or their private history.

Others turn to specific, local, traditional values from a different culture, and either confront them with their own, or simply present them to the public.

But it’s not just a question of geography. Their refined sensibility helps artists to interact with global themes. Most of the artworks featured in the exhibition reveal a deep reflection about general and universal themes, such as the search for identity, the complexity of relationships between cultures and the strong need to belong to a specific culture.

In response to the concept of the exhibition, the artists have created site-specific works and installations.
By covering their daily realities through photography, performances and interviews, artists act locally, yet the message they transmit is often universal.

As a result, Glocal Affairs can be actually read as a pattern of relationships between global ideas and issues, and local artists and venues.

Maastricht: at the heart of Glocal Affairs
The exhibition is spread out over various cities across three different countries: in Maastricht, Heerlen, Roermond, Venlo, and Venray in The Netherlands, Aachen in Germany and Liège in Belgium.
In every city the works of art are displayed not only in museums and art centres, but also more unusual venues such as universities and temporary locations. In Maastricht, all six venues are concentrated in the city centre.

Maastricht, who might soon decide to bid for the title of Cultural Capital of Europe in 2018, has a special motivation in supporting this type of initiative. Indeed, the high quality of the artworks, the complexity of the concept, and the scale of the manifestation, can only improve the city’s cultural image.

The Timmerfabriek
Exhibiting more than 60 artists, the main location of Glocal Affairs is the huge, historical, brick building along the Boschstraat known as the former factory “Timmerfabriek”. Here, a number of installations, videos, photographs, paintings, and sculptures are scattered throughout the enormous space.

Upon entering the building, a small and quiet room to the left hosts delicate prints by Birgitta van Drie (Amersfoort, 1974).

Glocal Affairs, Birgitta van Drie, Print, Timmerfabriek

 

Further up on the ground floor the Dalemans Brothers (Jan and Gilbert Dalemans, Bondo, Congo, 1958 and Maaseik, 1968) have placed two screens running two different film recordings at the same time: the first film shows the “Maasfee election”, an initiative by the Dutch and Belgian provinces of Limburg in the 1960’s to appoint a female cultural ambassador to promote the Limburg identity. Young white girls are portrayed during their presentations and the final election. Sometimes the camera zooms in and one can witness deep feelings painted on their faces. The second film is a clip from an old home-movie dating from the same period and shot in Congo. People with traditional clothes and ornaments from Congo are looking directly into the eye of the camera.

 

Glocal Affairs, Dalemans Brothers, ‘Maasfeeverkiezing’, Timmerfabriek

 

The juxtaposition of these two different environments make us reflect about cultural values and the pressure that Western countries sometimes push on others, by imposing their criteria and traditions.

Another interesting work on the ground floor, perhaps less political, is offered by Suzan Drummen (Heerlen, 1963): four gemstones, mirrors, and glass ensembles displayed on the floor, like four fantastic, sparkling animals seducing and disorienting the visitor. First you try to look at a single, brilliant piece of pink glass, then you need to take a step back, in order to see the entire, decorative tangle of colours and lights: “This dividing line between being able and unable to comprehend something is an exploratory thread running through Suzan Drummen’s work”, the artist’s page explains.

Glocal Affairs, Suzan Drummen, Installation, Timmerfabriek

 

Also in this location, Liesbeth & Angelique Raeven (Heerlen, 1971) use an entire room to exhibit different parts of a video documentary based on the life of a young Asian girl who is obsessed by the size and measurements of her body. An interesting and unusual way to reflect on personality problems in our modern society.

 

Glocal Affairs, Liesbeth & Angelique Raeven, ‘The Height-of-Vanity’, Timmerfabriek

 

Finally, also worth mentioning are Aline Thomassen’s watercolours (Maastricht, 1964), Peter Koene’s contorted figures (Berg en Terblijt, 1952), and the funny “interiors” created by German artist Claudia Breuer (Aachen, 1970).

 

Glocal Affairs, Aline Thomassen, Watercolours, Timmerfabriek

 

Glocal Affairs, Claudia Brauer, ‘Kase’, Timmerfabriek

 

Glocal Affairs, Peter Koene, Installation, Timmerfabriek

 

Hedah: a polyhedric organisation
The Glocal Affairs tour continues with Hedah , an artists’ organisation which has been running an autonomous experimental exhibition space at Brusselsestraat 114 since 1995. In a quiet courtyard a low-rise building hosts the work of Dutch artist Ines den Rooijen: besides an installation placed at the entrance of the building, videos of her performances and projects – always linked to border explorations set out in public and private spaces – are screened on monitors and a big projection wall.

 

Glocal Affairs, Ines den Rooijen, ‘8000 Kilo Servies’, Hedah

 

On its website the artists’ group says that “a characteristic feature of Hedah is the ability to think things through in terms of the practice of art itself, which is displayed in all its multitude of shapes and forms. […] Hedah is the perfect venue for projects which cannot find a home in the regular art circuit – a refuge which offers time and space for experimentation”.

In fact, in addition to the main space – where the organisation’s offices are also located – Hedah proposes two other unusual exhibition spaces, hidden in the streets of the city centre. In Sint Nicolaasstraat video works by Laurent Dupont-Garitte are shown in an empty apartment, apparently in construction, while in Capucijnenstraat the artworks by Marie Zolamian & Antoine Van Impe (Beirut, Libanon, 1975 and Namen, 1979) are displayed behind private windows.

Other locations: ’t Brandweer, B32, and the Gouvernement
From fire to arts: further down the Capucijnenstraat, ’t Brandweer hosts a huge mix of paintings, collages, videos and installations by Ray Moon and Oscar Creemers. The former fire brigade barracks are now the public exhibition space of the Stichting Ateliers Maastricht (SAM).

 

Glocal Affairs, Ray Moon, ’t Brandweer

 

B32 is an independent initiative for young artists, offering a space for experimentation and creativity. Located on the Bourgognestraat, the large venue gathers harsh artworks by Niels Savelkouls. Private photographs from the Internet became the raw material for his art research: “The photographs – often shared through the ignorance of the owner – change from private property to collective property with just one click of a mouse. Voyeurism or cultural phenomenon? In any case, the accidental viewer finds himself confronted with the lives of his ‘neighbours’ – whether those living next door or a family living on the opposite side of the Pacific Ocean”. The collected pictures are combined with film stills from television programmes, in order to create an unreal, alienating effect on viewers.

At the Gouvernement headquarters on the banks of the river Meuse,visitors are invited to get acquainted with a selection of seventeen artists, all fresh graduates from art academies in the Meuse-Rhine Euroregion (with a majority of Belgian artists). Many different art techniques are on display: from photography (Elodie Ledure’s architectural images are very clear and fascinating), to paintings and drawings (especially notable is the work of Hilde Overbergh).

 

Glocal Affairs, Elodie Ledure, Apnée , Gouvernement

 

Other poetic and attractive artworks worth mentioning are Gloria Russotto’s ‘Pages d’or’ and Jean-Michel Sarlet’s ‘Air de famille’.

 

Glocal Affairs, Gloria Russotto, ‘Pages d’or’, Gouvernement

 

Glocal Affairs, Jean-Michel Sarlet, ‘Air de famille’, Gouvernement

 

Yet it is perhaps Cathérine Koziel’s poetic installation entitled ‘Livre and l’ivresse’, in which the artist resorts to word-plays to “conjure up new and alternative images”, that best captures the essence of the Glocal Affairs visual arts manifestation:

 

Glocal Affairs, Cathérine Koziel, ‘Livre and l’ivresse’, Gouvernement
 

“As soon as the reader opens the book, the story begins. It begins again. And again.”

 

By Saramicol Viscardi

 

Saramicol Viscardi is an Italian art critic and writer. She lives in Maastricht since July, enjoying arts and cultural events.

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Glocal Affairs Maastricht
Source: Stuvi TV Maastricht