M HKA Ensembles

'Only for pleasure and beauty' - Panamarenko

Panamarenko has made some radically intelligent and peace-loving art. In 1968 he typed a 3-page text, folded stencilled copies of it and put them in envelopes which he distributed in the course of an action. The title says it all: Reservaat: Eksperimenteel Centrum voor Vrije Samenleving (Reservation: Experimental Centre for Free Cohabitation). The first line is very expressive too: Voorstel tot het bekomen van een stuk grond, vrij van handel en industrie (Proposal for the acquisition of a piece of land free of trade and industry). For this purpose, energy is the first requirement, and that can be derived from wind and water power. This proposal interweaves nature, modernity and a light touch. Airships collide cheerfully in the air, the residents themselves provide a closed-circuit radio and television system, and fruit and vegetables and exotic and native animals go together with homes in practical materials where everyone will take care of themselves. Omdat een gezamelijk tewerkstelling altijd konflikten teweeg brengt (Because collective employment always leads to conflict). This quest for a free space is also expressed in The Aeromodeller and Scotch Gambit. Panamarenko conceived both craft as mobile homes in which to be able to travel around freely.

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