THE HOUSE OF OUR FATHERS MCAM SHANGHAI SPRING 2016
The House of Our Fathers, Jan Lauwers, Museum M, 2013 Joeri Thiry
THE HOUSE OF OUR FATHERS JAN LAUWERS
THE HOUSE OF OUR FATHERS JAN LAUWERS Installation & Performance recycling project - 20m x 5m x 5m Jan Lauwers: I am building a house. A movable house. Every detail of the house is a non-functional work of art in its own right. A hospitable house. To which people are invited so they can signify something there. The biggest difference between work in the theatre and in the plastic arts is the use of the observer s time. In the theatre it is the maker that determines the time given to observe an image, whereas in a work of art it is the observer himself. I make use of the concept of the border image in my theatre work. This is an image which, as a result of my prolonging the normal duration of observation, has the time to penetrate the observer s brain. It then makes history in the observer s mind. It becomes a memory. At this point the distinction between a border image (in the theatre) and a visual work ceases to exist. If art does not penetrate the observer s memory it does not exist. In my work with Needcompany I am always experimenting with time. In the museum installations we put on performances lasting a whole day, and the observer decides for himself how long he wants to watch a particular action. The place (in this case a museum) and the action (theatre) are deconstructed by the subjectivity of the time involved in observing. So these deconstructions are the essential bridge between the two media I work in. History is always written by individuals and is thus never an objective report. What meaning does an individual history have in the face of history in general? Are we capable of writing a meaningful history? What would these objects signify if they were given a different history? This is the essence of the house. It is a confrontation with a past that is always changeable. So what does memory actually mean? Contemporary art history is determined entirely by politics. The influence of the art market and shifts in the affluence of our society, combined with the influence of religions, are greater than ever. What does this house signify in this context? The first construction (1 st version) of the house took shape at BOZAR (Brussels) in March 2007, for the RESTLESSNESS exhibition, which I created together with the curator Jérôme Sans. I built the first version using materials I found in the museum s waste containers (pedestals, wooden panels, glass cases, things every museum in the world throws away after an exhibition because it is much too expensive to store such things in a city). There were as yet no works of art of my own. I built the second version out of remnants I found in the cellars of the haus der kunst in Munich. It had the same dimensions, but now included several works of art. In the 1 st version there was a deconstruction of the twenty years Needcompany and in the 2 nd Needcompany s performers were invited to generate new material. These two versions provided the setting for marathon performances. Live performance, music and video work were created on the spot.
The House of Our Fathers, Jan Lauwers, KunstFestSpiele Herrenhausen, 2013 Helge Krückeberg
3 rd version After my father s death, I subjected his house, which by his absence had become a different house, to a thorough investigation. He had designed it himself and I was born and raised there. In the cellar, at the back of a rickety cupboard, was a glass preserving jar containing a human heart in formalin. No one had ever told me where this heart came from. On the top floor of the house was a glass bell-jar containing a 36 cm-long Egyptian animal mummy in the form of an inverted L. We took it to the local hospital, where my father had worked, and had X-rays taken of it. It turned out to be a young baboon. This is another object whose origins are unknown to me. These two objects have a history of their own that remains unknown to us, and this enables stories to take shape. For this reason I have given them a central position in my ideas concerning The House of Our Fathers. These objects have literally been torn out of their own past. The heart may come from the East (at that time, around 1950, numerous organs and skeletons were brought from India to Western universities for the purposes of study), while the baboon mummy was probably robbed from a grave in Egypt and smuggled to Europe. This third version was presented at the Kunsthalle Mannheim (16 th International Schillertage, National Theatre, Mannheim), Museum M (PLAYGROUND), KunstFestSpiele Herrenhausen (Hanover) and elsewhere. The House of Our Fathers, Jan Lauwers, haus der kunst, 2007 Miel Verhasselt
The House of Our Fathers, Jan Lauwers, haus der kunst, 2007 Miel Verhasselt
JAN LAUWERS & NEEDCOMPANY INSTALLATION Jan Lauwers NEEDCOMPANY PERFORMERS Grace Ellen Barkey, Jules Beckman, Anneke Bonnema, Hans Petter Dahl, Julien Faure, Benoît Gob, Sung-Im Her, Romy Louise Lauwers, Maarten Seghers, Mohamed Toukabri, Inge Van Bruystegem, Jan Lauwers, Elke Janssens et all. with live music by the performers Costumes Lot Lemm Production & Technique Marjolein Demey, Gwen Laroche, Bart Verschueren Sound Pierrick Drochmans A Needcompany production. With the support of the Flemish authorities. 3, 4 March 2007 - BOZAR, Brussels 17, 18 November 2007 - haus der kunst, Munich 3 10 June 2011 Kunsthalle Mannheim, 16. Internationale Schillertage, National Theatre Mannheim 3, 4, 5, 6 November 2011 Museum M PLAYGROUND, Leuven 14, 15, 16 June 2013 KunstFestSpiele Herrenhausen, Hanover 22 May 26 June 2016 McaM, Shanghai The House of Our Fathers, Jan Lauwers, Kunsthalle Mannheim, 2011 Wonge Bergmann
The House of Our Fathers, Jan Lauwers, KunstFestSpiele Herrenhausen, 2013 Helge Krückeberg
C-Song, Jan Lauwers, video work, 2001 Jan Lauwers
Little girl with her little hand in a little deer s ass, Jan Lauwers, light box, 2006 Miel Verhasselt
The Draughtsman s Room Jan Lauwers, Installation, 2007 Miel Verhasselt
The OHNO COOPERATION Conversation, OHNO COOPERATION, video work, 2007-2015 OHNO COOPERATION
Drawings, Jan Lauwers, 1997-2002 Maarten Vanden Abeele
Happy Face 2, The Draughtman s Room, Jan Lauwers, light box, 2006 Miel Verhasselt
Drawings, Jan Lauwers, 1997-2002 Maarten Vanden Abeele
God, Jan Lauwers, blow-up of Polaroid2003 Jan Lauwers
The House of Our Fathers, Jan Lauwers, KunstFestSpiele Herrenhausen, 2013 Helge Krückeberg
Last Guitar Monster, Jan Lauwers, 2009 Phile Deprez
The House of Our Fathers, Jan Lauwers, haus der kunst, 2007 Miel Verhasselt
Untitled construction, including The Moustache of Duchamp, Jan Lauwers, video installation, 1997 2006 Jan Lauwers
The House of Our Fathers, Jan Lauwers,Kunsthalle Mannheim, 2011 Wonge Bergmann
The House of Our Fathers, Jan Lauwers, KunstFestSpiele Herrenhausen, 2013 Helge Krückeberg
The House of Our Fathers, Jan Lauwers, Kunsthalle Mannheim, 2011 Wonge Bergmann
OH, Jan Lauwers, ceramic work, 2009 Jan Lauwers
NEEDCOMPANY Hooikaai 35 B-1000 Brussels tel +32 2 218 40 75 www.needcompany.org Artistic director Jan Lauwers Executive director Yannick Roman: yannick@needcompany.org Artistic coordination Elke Janssens: elke@needcompany.org General manager Eva Blaute: eva@needcompany.org Assistant to the executive director & tour organisation Toon Geysen: toon@needcompany.org Technique & Production Marjolein Demey: marjolein@needcompany.org & Gwen Laroche: gwen@needcompany.org