A sculpture realized in collaboration with local inhabitants and based on the form of a book (Spinoza’s Ethics). Also functioning as a pavilion and stage for a daily theatre performance, philosophical and art historical lectures and workshops on performance art for children. Inside a/o a Spinoza-library, a Bijlmer-documentation centre, an internet café, an exhibition space. Outside a bar and the Spinoza-car.
The Bijlmer Spinoza Festival is Thomas Hirschhorn’s third ‘Presence & Production’ artwork in public space. He will be on site (present) for the whole duration of the ‘festival’, and throughout that time he will be producing every day. Of course, Hirschhorn could not possibly set up a large-scale project of this kind on his own. He enlisted the assistance of numerous people. ‘Can I do The Bijlmer Spinoza Festival in cooperation with the inhabitants of the Bijlmer, beyond success and beyond failure? Because: doing an artwork in public space is never a total success, but also never a complete failure’. This question embraces two key aspects of the project: on the one hand, the idea of a work of art being created by and for the people living in the neighbourhood, and on the other hand, an attempt to put art and philosophy quite literally, actively, in the public eye.
Hirschhorn believes in what he calls ‘the friendship between Art and Philosophy’. He is a great fan of Spinoza. Spinoza’s ideas about subjects like religious freedom and freedom of expression are still highly relevant today. More specifically, Hirschhorn’s artwork is a sculpture based on Spinoza’s Ethics. But it is also a pavilion that will be a temporary beacon and a nexus of activity. It will host a constant stream of diverse goings-on: lectures and debates, radio and television broadcasts, workshops, and the daily performance of the Spinoza play, written especially for the occasion. There will be a Spinoza museum and library, a Bijlmer documentation centre, and an internet corner. All this is organised in close collaboration with international philosophers and art historians, and more importantly with people living in the immediate vicinity.
Thomas Hirschhorn
1957, Bern, CH. Lives and works in Paris, FR
Hirschhorn started his career as a member of the communist graphic artists’ collective Grapus in Paris. To this day, his work reflects his activism and strong commitment to social change. He became known most notably for large, temporary installations of disposable materials such as cardboard, foil, tape and plastic. He made most of these site-specific sculptures outside the galleries, in the public space. Hirschhorn’s watchwords are ‘Presence & Production’. This means that the focus of his work is on the process of its creation – frequently together with local inhabitants – and that he is always present, not just during the production stage, but during the entire period that the work is in place. He is driven by an underlying belief that in every human being there is a place for art and philosophy. His combination of ‘high art’ and ‘high ideas’ with a low tech installation in the public space is one of the unique aspects of his work.
