[RE]CLAIMED ARTSPACE - Contemporary Art Project

3 artists from Zwolle NL, undercover as artistic wolf in commercial sheep’s clothing.

[RE]CLAMED ARTSPACE - De filosofische betekenis van het project. — [RE]CLAIMED ARTSPACE – -English version – **click on image or here.**

03-01-2023- THIS IS ACTUALLY ART. The (RE)CLAIMED ARTSPACE project started a year ago and is literally about recapturing art in public space.

With this project, artists; Marit Otto, , Corine Aalvanger and Herbert Alfonso questioned the position of the visual arts in a world literally flooded with physical and digital images, personal branding, infotainment and commercial companies suddenly popping up in all kinds of timelines. All conceived and created for quick image consumption.

They wondered if this like factory, has become a hostile environment for more complex imagery?

Online, there seems to be almost no room for second-guessing, and no deeper layer. Images must be instantly understood and trigger action. Visual art seems at odds with this with images that demand attention to be understood or appreciated.

With this project, Marit, Corine and Herbert cast a glanced into a (dystopian) future and, en passant, address various ethical questions.

They crawled into the skin of 3 (actually 4) fictional companies and hid a socially critical message in an advertising message, art disguised as advertising.

I.G.C.Industries starups - BLOOD SWEAT TEARS- KRACHT.VOER.- INPHONE — I.G.C.Industries starups – BLOOD SWEAT TEARS- KRACHT.VOER.- INPHONE

The commercial sheep’s clothing. I.G.C. INDUSTRIES and the three startups with their signature products have sprung from the minds of the 3 artists. I.G.C.(In God’s Chair) Industries is the so-called investor, and the platform where the 3 companies raise their profile with their product. I.G.C. is a, fictive, company that balances on the edge of propriety and quite violates ethics with some regularity. The board members and CEOs, Marcha Suikerberg, Sandra Jobse, Sander Pichai and Tim Kok, bear names referring to top Silicon Valley executives. Here you can, fictively, pay with your data under the slogan ‘Data is the new currency’, a so called, new economic philosophy that they themselves say is diametrically opposed to data protectionism.

With the platform I.G.C. Industries- the so-called - Start Up- investor- they questioned the behavior of companies acting purely for profit, profit and power before people and planet.

I.G.C. also mirrors and reflects our own behavior- how ethical are we when purchasing products?

INPHONE, is a concept by Marit Otto: this dubious Phone company pushes the boundaries of privacy, algorithms and age restriction. INPHONE primarily serves itself, then the consumer but certainly not ethics and decency. Always connected for free and online forever in exchange for unlimited access to your data. Future thinking avant la lettré.

KRACHT.VOER, is a concept by Corine Aalvanger: it delicately plays into the fast-rising food market with its CCP3 food pill – flash delivery, a festival feeling is never far away. The meatpill comes in three animal variations: chicken, pig and cow. Just pop it in! A magical idea for when food, itself, simply gets too much for you….

SWEATSHOP COUTURE, een concept van Herbert Alfonso: The product Blood Sweat Tears presents itself as quite gory, quite unethical and distasteful but certainly the way to success if this company is to be believed. A cult hit from the States bearing the slogan ‘We don’t talk about other people’s blood sweat and tears, we just use them’.

[RE]CLAMED ARTSPACE -concepten- producten : INPHONE- BLOOD SWEAT TEARS- KRACHT.VOER.

“With this socially engaged project, we wanted to make an artistic and philosophical contribution to this rapidly changing society. In this project, the relationship between commercial and autonomous visual language is at odds. We wanted to investigate how these extremes that have a lot in common relate to each other, also questioning the audience’s viewing habits with regard to visual art. Do the art will lose it betwixt all this visual violence or will it remain (gladly) seen?’said Marit, Corine and Herbert.

|RE|CLAIMED ARTSPACE manifested itself everywhere but especially in Zwolle. The project manifested itself online via its website: https://igcindustries.nl/ (no longer online) and under the name IGC.industriesofficial on Instagram, and as Marcha Suikerberg (CEO) Twitter and Linkedin.

[RE]CLAMED ARTSPACE – de sociale platforms. *click on photo for video*

According to the artists, this made them part of a global village online, but as artists living and/or working in Zwolle, they also want to engage in a visual dialogue with the Zwolle audience. They did this by distributing the product posters and the publication at various Zwolle locations but also by folding the online communication more and more towards Zwolle. “It was no easy task, despite the sometimes disturbing content of the posts, to elicit neither positive nor negative reactions from the public” they note in retrospect.

Publication and manifesto. In December 2022, the publication was issued by the name |RE|CLAIMED ARTSPACE, which was also be distributed exclusively in Zwolle (2000 copies). In this publication (still online) you will find, among other things, a centerfold manifesto in which Marit, Corine and Herbert engage with their thesis and they also elaborate on the social impact they believe commercial imagery has on the viewer in a reflective piece.