DMM: Verbeke Foundation January 28, 2022

Pegelli (Pieter) and darosa (Leo) inside the Wind Egg Incubation Tunnel


The official title of this Dyxum Mini Meet is 'DMM: Verbeke Foundation January 28, 2022'; perhaps a more appropriate title is: Pieter and Leo in Wonderland, and what they found there.

Today, January 28, 2022, we visited the Verbeke Foundation, a most extraordinary place, a true Wonderland! This is what Verbeke says about it:

“Our exhibition space does not aim to be an oasis. Our presentation is unfinished, in motion, unpolished, contradictory, untidy, complex, inharmonious, living and unmonumental, like the world outside of the museum walls. You will find no flamboyant sensational buildings here but rather a refreshing, unpretentious place to look at art and a subtle criticism of the art world.”

Please join us on our exploration of this magical world, in Kemzeke, Belgium, just across the Dutch/Belgian border in Flanders.

darosa wrote: Pegelli (Pieter) and darosa (Leo) inside the Wind Egg Incubation Tunne

Great shot Leo and Pieter.

pegelli wrote: Thanks for the company Leo, and I don't think this will be our last visit, we haven't seen it all yet.

Likewise Pieter, as a matter of fact, having seen all wide angle shots I made yesterday, I feel an urge to visit again today, this time with a (short) tele.

More introduction to Verbeke. After passing Pieter's entrance gate, you walk into the following remarkable construction:

da01 Artchive for the Future, 2010, Jacobus Kloppenburg
a7riv + Venus Optics Laowa 15mm F4 Wide Macro

There's quite a story attached to this 'container building'.

Born in Amsterdam in 1930, Jacobus Kloppenburg reflects the ideal of the "homo universalis" as an artist, designer and musician, as a man of many talents and profound learning. Although his works are found at the Stedelijk Museum in Amsterdam, it is his "Artchive for the Future Trashethical Litterarture" project that garners the most attention. Located in his Amsterdam studio, this completely unique archive grew, over the course of several decades, into a "Gesamtkunstwerk", a total artwork. This bizarre construction, made up of objets trouvés, furniture and images, became the victim of renovation efforts in the late 1990s.
In the 1990s, extensive renovation work began in Jordaan and many of the old houses were converted into luxury apartments. The rental contracts for the two houses rented by Kloppenburg were terminated and, despite interventions by artists and well-known personalities, the collection was improperly cleared into 13 containers on October 14, 1997. The Museum Schloss Moyland, which has 60 drawings by Kloppenburg in its collection, initially agreed to accept and exhibit the "Artchive". However, since neither Kloppenburg nor the museum could bear the costs of clearing and renting the containers, they remained on the premises of the city of Amsterdam and were partly broken into and looted until the 52,400 kg of material from the collection were disposed of as garbage in 2008.

A small part of the collection was saved and is on display at the Verbeke Foundation in Kemzeke, Belgium, near the Dutch border. On the photo you see the 'Pavilion', aptly made of containers, that houses the collection.

Mmm, very nice start!

da 02 Is it alien? Is it alive? Is it an egg? No, it's a Blob!

a7riv + Venus Optics Laowa 15mm F4 Wide Macro


If you want one too, here's some information:

BLOB VB3
overview
Client: VB
Location: Kemzeke
Realization: 2007 – 2009
Design team: David Driesen, Tom Verschueren, Thomas Denturck
Engineer Techniques: AD&C
Photography: Frederik Vercruysse
Size: 20 m2
Publications


The design dmvA made for the office of XfactorAgencies, as an extension to the house, was relentlessly rejected by local building regulations. Used to working with limitations and blurring these boundaries at the same time, dmvA responded by designing a mobile unit, a blob. As a mobile construction and holding a high dose of art, it skirted around the strict building codes. The builder AD&C worked 18 months on this project, resulting in this smooth looking egg.

Started by building a timber frame, covered it up with a stretching material and plastered with polyester. Shaped by sanding the polyester time and time again. Inside, the space was built up with niches, lighted by leds. The space in between the outer in inner shell was filled up with PUR insulation. This space-egg houses all necessary items one could possibly need; bathroom, kitchen, lighting, a bed and several niches to store your stuff. The nose can be opened automatically and functions as a kind of porch. You could easily use this mobile unit as an office, a guestroom, a reception, a garden-house, or whatever you want to.The material used is polyester, sizes are like a big caravan and it can be moved to any place you like.


Energetic concept
As Flanders is known as one of the most built over regions in the world, sustainability is here indissolubly linked to intelligent utilization of land. Small mobile house entities may respond to the lack of open space and green.

Flexibility means sustainability
No fixed constructions but movable dwelling objects which can be grouped on the outskirts of towns and villages. One of the initial concepts was the ecological and energetic aspect of the design of the Blob VB3. This search led to a compact and organic form, shaped like a drop and constructed with an inner and outer skin of polyester. Service facilities like kitchenette and sanitary as well as storing and techniques were placed in between. The space left was injected with polyurethane foam. The well-insulated walls, the light reflecting colour white, as well as the unfolding segments (cupola and nose), which allow light entrance without direct sunlight on the glazed parts behind, contribute to this well-energetic concept.

Art foundation Verbeke in Kemzeke (www.verbekefoundation.com) bought the Blob in 2011.

I like this shot. A bunch of lit and strange items, perfectly framed and the somewhat dark sky wraps it up wonderfully. TFS Master Leo   

MichelvA wrote: I like this shot. A bunch of lit and strange items, perfectly framed and the somewhat dark sky wraps it up wonderfully. TFS Master Leo

Thanks Michele! Everything is strange at the Verbeke Foundation, but some are more strange than others :-) Watch that video!