Destroyed House
Marjan Teeuwen
Valiz
English, Dutch
Texts by Ernst van Alphen, Maarten Doorman, Ludo van Halem, Hans den Hartog Jager, Meta Knol and Wilma Sütö.
Softcover
160 pages
330 x 240 mm
2017
ISBN 9789492095374
Marjan Teeuwen creates large- scale architectural installations in buildings that are demolished after her interventions. She tears and strips, disrupts construction and structure and with the remaining material she builds a new artistic image. Based on these installations she realises autonomous photographic works. In her work the constructive force of building goes hand in hand with the power of destruction and decay. Floors are tilted or come straight down; walls are removed, completely or in part. Stacks of debris branch out through the building like a virus, covering all the walls, or are carefully ordered into architectural sculptures. There is no long lineage of artists who cut into or perforate buildings. Gordon Matta-Clark was the pioneer of transforming architecture into sculpture. Richard Wilson and Urs Fisher have also used this approach on occasion. Marjan Teeuwen chooses her own encompassing and radical method. Between 2016 and 2017 Teeuwen created Destroyed House in Gaza. By choosing to work in occupied territory she lets the local social context emphatically penetrate her work and the tension between the artistic and the political context comes to a head. By strengthening the artistic context she enhances the autonomous meaning of the work in this politically volatile region. Marjan Teeuwen – Destroyed House highlights the work in Gaza but also presents the other six installations in the Destroyed Houses series, plus the Archive series, she created since 2008. With extensive series of photos, this publication presents the polarity of Teeuwen’s poignant images: memory and amnesia; chaos and order; destruction and construction; falling and standing. The authors provide new perspectives on the art-historical, architectural, philosophical, and social meaning of Teeuwen’s work.
(source: https://www.valiz.nl/en/publications/marjan-teeuwen-destroyed-house)
About the Artist
Marjan Teeuwen (b. 1953, Venlo) is a Dutch artist based in Amsterdam. She attended the Academy of Fine Arts in Tilburg, followed by Academy of Fine Arts and Design St. Joost in Breda. In 2014 Teeuwen participated in a residency in Johannesburg, South Africa. Teeuwen explores themes related to architecture, reconstruction, loss, and memory through performance, painting, installation, and the photographic medium. Her work has been exhibited widely in institutions and is held in numerous private and public collections including ARCAM, Amsterdam; Museum De Lakenhal, Leiden; Nederlands Fotomuseum, Rotterdam; Museum Van Bommel Van Dam, Venlo; Stedelijk Museum, Amsterdam; Centraal Museum, Utrecht; and the Cisneros Fontanals Art Foundation, Miami.
marjanteeuwen.nl
(source: https://www.brucesilverstein.com/artists/marjan-teeuwen#:~:text=Born%20in%201953%20in%20Venlo,residency%20in%20Johannesburg%2C%20South%20Africa.)
About the Publisher
Valiz is an independent international publisher on contemporary art, theory, critique, design and urban affairs based in Amsterdam. Their books offer critical reflection, interdisciplinary thinking and often establish a connection between cultural disciplines and socio-political questions.
valiz.nl
(source: https://www.valiz.nl/en/#about_valiz)
