M HKA Ensembles

° 1959

Lives in Karlsruhe (), born in Nieuwer-Amstel (), lives in Amsterdam ().

Originally, Marijke van Warmerdam made sculptures using various materials like wood, plaster, metal, glass, textiles and rubber. Later she evolved towards a very diverse oeuvre, making use of video, photography, audiotape, silkscreen and even wrapping paper and stickers. In her many commissions and installations, the intangible plays a major role and concepts such as time and movement are experimented with. In her 16-mm. films this is made manifestly clear. She chooses and records images or sounds from life and sets them in motion. The treatment of, for example, a girl doing a handstand (Handstand, 1992) or a man under the shower (Douche, 1995), are repeated endlessly. It just goes on; nothing much really happens. There is no beginning or end, just the cyclic repetition. The films are set in a loop, beginning and end connect with each other. How long it takes before the exact image comes back into view is not apparent. This sets up a certain rhythm whereby the viewer comes under the spell of the ever-repeating image. Observation turns into staring. The repetition entrains enchantment, but also makes the action less relevant. Time elapses, but also seems to stand still, for there is absolutely no storyline. It’s about a process, not the telling of a tale. Although these short films are very close to reality, they nonetheless take their place in the domain of art, namely in the museum. They are projected on a white wall or a screen in the exhibition space, not in a darkened movie theatre. The projector, too, is always mounted in view. As viewer, you walk through the projections. The art work comes very close to reality; you almost enter this in-between land, but not quite.