Swide Magazine by Dolce&Gabbana

This has been a full month for contemporary art around Europe: from the Venice Biennal, to Art Basel, probably you've been missing a smaller but really interesting event, that's happening in Rotterdam, until September 25th.

After "the Collector" at the Danish Pavilion for the Venice Biennale in 2009, artists duo Elmgreen & Dragset,  are coming to the fore again, with another spectacular installation. Its name is The One & The Many, and for the project they've been turning a huge, disrupted place, The Submarine Wharf in Amsterdam (more than 5000 square meters!), into a degraded suburb. 

The new installation is featuring: “a full scale apartment block, a public toilet, street lamps on cracked paving, a parking lot with a worn out stretch limo perched on top of a pile of bricks, flickering neon advertisement boards and a functioning Ferris wheel from which the audience can peak into the apartments of the tower block while taking a spin.” Let’s see what the artists themselves are willing to tell about their latest work!

How have you been inspired from the space of the Submarine Wharf?

The Submarine Wharf itself is so enormous that you loose sense of scale in there - it is a space, but it practically feels like you’re outside.  It is also a rough space, with paint peeling off the walls and a bumpy concrete floor.  These features inspired us to treat it as a an outdoor environment.

What kind of place have you re-created for The one and the many?

At the Submarine, we have made a generic public space. The paradox is that the word ‘public’ makes no sense any more. It is invaded by commercial interests, authoritarian planning and regulations...

 How does the landscape from your Ferris wheel look like?

The whole installation is like an abandoned film set. The inhabitants of the apartment block we show have very few resources  and very little space.  They escape from it surrounding themselves with talent-shows on tv, chat-rooms on the internet, magazines, home entertainment and so on.... 

Your installation seems to put on the light of some hidden (and negative) aspects of ours society. Do you feel alone and isolated in this society? How important are these issues to you?

As we've already said, sadness, loneliness, melancholy… maybe are not the hottest topics today, but to us they feel utterly relevant.  It takes more than a tweet to deal with though, that’s why we do exhibitions instead.
Elmgreen & Dragset will also display a public performance sculpture It’s Never Too Late To Say Sorry, located at the nearby Coolsingel. The sculpture consists of a carefully designed  museological display case containing a polished megaphone on a granite pedestal. Every day, a man will appear at the display case, open the door, take out the megaphone, and scream: “It’s never too late to say sorry”. This performance will be repeated at 12:00 sharp, every afternoon, for one year starting on the day of the opening! 

You are still in time to get there and be inspired to say sorry to someone you should!  

Written by Gilda Manfring 

Credits: Scandalosa Gilda  

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