24 August–21 September 1997 / Casco HQ
Transit treats the space at Casco as a transit zone, to use the metaphor of airports and stations – with arrivals from different directions and departures to as many destinations. A place for meeting, communicating and interacting. The work of the participating artists can best be described as conversation pieces. They relate not only to the context of the exhibition space, but also acquire meaning through their relations with other areas. Transit raises the question about where the work really occurs: in public space, virtual space or imaginary space.
Hinrich Sachs’s projects rarely limit themselves to a specific place or space. Rather, they extend across public and private space, the exhibition space (art), the corporate sphere (companies, the media, consumer products), and the contemporary and the historical. In his work he combines different cultural domains in which language has a key role as a tool with which to communicate, to translate or to give meaning. Hinrich Sachs proposed two projects for Transit. Interest (piece) is a telephone search for the unknown whereabouts of the artist Ian Wilson who, in the 1970s, declared that his work from that moment on would only exist as “oral communication.” Present (piece) is a gift from Sachs to Lisette Smit and Mariette Dölle, the curators of the exhibition.
The works of Guillaume Paris seem to be hybrid products: ambiguities of cultures, sex, art and consumer products. In his ongoing project The New Perishable Gallery, images of people on supermarket packaging are treated as if they are unique individuals. Removed from the economical system the images behave as portraits in this perishable gallery.
Yvonne le Grand will present a sound sculpture based on one of the adventures of Nara Zoyd. Nara Zoyd is Yvonne le Grand’s alter ego; an avatar with no past, only a future, with the Internet as her home base. Navigators can expect a new episode of Nara Zoyd’s adventures and may correspond with her through the email. This correspondence leads to the creation of characters who are included in the series. From this arises a complex structure of fact and fiction, real and virtual presence, and changing identity.
The moment of perception plays a crucial part in the work of Asier Pérez González. This moment of significance is not fixed and is therefore determined as little as possible by the artist. Pérez González creates a number of parameters within which the viewer may experience the work. In Transit Asier Pérez González concentrates on the logistics of the exhibition. In the work Silver Opening he has placed advertisements offering people a free cocktail if they appear at the opening dressed in silver. Casco Plastic Bag distributes 5000 plastic bags with the Casco logo to various locations in Utrecht. Users of the bags hereby unwittingly become Casco’s promoters.
See:
Yvonne Le Grand, A Quest for Identity. Casco Issues #3
Guillaume Paris, H.U.M.A.N.W.O.R.L.D. Casco Issues #4
Hinrich Sachs, cover. Casco Issues #4
Asier Pérez González, Conversation with Hinrich Sachs. Casco Issues #4
Hinrich Sachs, Real Experiments #1
Asier Pérez González, Creating value. Casco Issues #5
Asier Pérez González, FUNKY BASKENLAND
Asier Pérez González, Real Experiments #4