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Bik Van der PolLiesbeth Bik (b. Haarlem, Netherlands;
lives and works in Rotterdam, Netherlands)
Jos van der Pol (b. Arnhem, Netherlands; lives and works in Rotterdam, Netherlands)
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Wednesday 8 April 2009, 00.00-23.59Band Rotunda, Albert Park, Auckland > Click here for the publication [PDF, 968KB] > Click here for details from the Public Programme Event > An interview with the artists on Ready Steady Go can be found here |
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Free speech is again under pressure worldwide especially since 9/11 when the state of exception came into being; giving the government the ability to transcend the rule of law in the name of the public good. The way this situation has played out in New Zealand is highlighted by the Electoral Finance Bill, which having passed into law in 2007, has just recently been repealed by the National government. Under this law, individuals or groups of New Zealanders faced restrictions on what they could say for or against a political party, and enforced fiscal restrictions on each political campaign. Critics called this bill an attack on free speech. At the time, Justice Minister Annette King dismissed these claims stating it only restricted speech that is paid for, not free speech. Contradictions abound within the all pervasive, present state of capitalism, which in itself is conversely under threat.
Today: Where is the line between a voice that is free and one that is censored? Is there a state of anticipation for much needed action, or have we reached a too-exhausted state for action to have agency? Could consciousness be re-engaged by meditating on the workings of time?
Activating a site in a state of waiting and anticipation, artist collaboration Bik Van der Pol tap the social and political histories of Albert Park, Auckland, focusing on the use of this city park as a place for raising awareness. Adjacent to the University of Auckland, Albert Park has often staged the radical gestures of the student community, centralised around the platform of the band rotunda. In particular this place was celebrated as a free zone in 1970.
Bik Van der Pol with the student community retraced this proposition to build a site that is suggestive of a free space, outside the complex feeding of capitalist co-option and manipulated thought, by employing the construct of time. Time itself was used as a material to sculpt a site that posits the potential for action to take effect and re-engage consciousness. After all a day is a proposition and a speculation.
Bik Van der Pol 1440 minutes towards the development of a site is commissioned by Laura Preston, in association with Elam School of Fine Arts
International Artist in Residence Programme, The National Institute of
Creative Arts and Industries, University of Auckland and ARTSPACE. With generous funding support from Mondriaan Foundation.
Biography
Bik van der Pol, Loompanics, Naked Life, Moca, Taipei, 2006/2007
Liesbeth Bik and Jos van der Pol have worked collectively as Bik Van der Pol since 1995. In vastly differing formats spanning installation, temporary public architecture, workshops, billboards, live collaborative events and publications they explore the potential of art to produce and transmit knowledge. Proceeding from an engagement with place, their working methods are based on co-operation and research, often involving direct exchange with their audiences and/or institutional partners. By these means they seek to 'activate situations' and create platforms for various kinds of communicative activities.
Whether by replicating a fully functioning copy of the ICA bookshop in an alternative cultural institution (The Bookshop Piece, 1996/1998); the construction of sleeping capsules (Capsule Hotels for Information, Dreams, Brilliant Thoughts and Other Things, 1999); the hosting of presentations and discussions by artists, critics, curators and architects using existing and built spaces in cities internationally (Nomads and Residents, 2000-07) Bik van der Pol engage with functionality, temporality and the processes of communication and negotiation present in specific sites to facilitate conceptual attention and contribute to constructive debate on place.
Recent projects and exhibitions include Plug In #28, Van AbbeMuseum, Eindhoven (2007); Models For Tomorrow, European Kunsthalle, Cologne (2007); Moscow Biennale (2007); Fly Me To The Moon, Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam (2006); Naked Life, MOCA, Taipei (2006); Secession, Vienna; Cork Caucus Cork (2005); Nomads in Residence, a mobile workspace for artists, Utrecht (2003), with Korteknie and Stuhlmacher architects. Publications include Catching Some Air (2002), With Love From The Kitchen (2005), the ongoing series Past Imperfect (2005, 2007), Fly Me To The Moon (2006) and The Lost Moment (2007).
Bik van der Pol live and work in Rotterdam.
