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SATELLITE SCULPTURE IMAGES

Zaanstad, Holland - the stored sculpture seen from the satellite - a satellite view of a dismantled sculpture stored along the river IJ in Zaanstad.

closer
victory - 1984|1987 & 2006 - painted steel - Zaanstad - The Netherlands

In 2000 the sculpture was dismantled and stored for a period of five years in order to enable me to find a new location and owner for it. The mayor at that moment did not recognize the sculpture as a successful site specific sculpture. This of course was not surprising to the art world in Holland - he is known for his lack of appreciation for contemporary art. His party (Partij van de Arbeid) has always seen art as something for the masses - to be understood by the masses. Together with his share of opportunism and populist nature, his new years speech was shaped: he promised the public (actually one man, mr. Schot, who had been writing letters for almost fifteen years to get the sculpture removed) to have the sculpture removed before his term in Zaanstad was over. So the stage was set for the tragedy. Protests from various artists' associations did not change its fate.

It was stored near the IJ River, waiting for a new location. At the moment of this writing there are two interested parties (weeshuis voor de kunst in Noord-Holland, a sculpture park in Indiana in the United States and The University of Missouri. Various architects, municipalities and universities have been interested in installing the sculpture. Costs of transportation formed the greatest problem though. Also the city of Bleiswijk in Holland was very interested in incorporating it in the high velocity railway line between Paris and Amsterdam. But this opportunity fell when the Prins Bernhard Cultuurfonds would not fill the last financial gap of nine thousand euros. The reason: they found it 'dated' a Dutch highbrow term used in advisory committees since the eighties to reject works of art which reflect the period in which they were conceived.