‘Amikejo: Iratxe Jaio and Klaas van Gorkum’
Laboratorio 987, MUSAC, León, Spain
9 Abril–12 June 2011
The Basque/Dutch duo Iratxe Jaio and Klaas van Gorkum have taken the woodturning hobby of a retired factory worker – Gorkum’s grandfather, Jos van Gorkum (1911–1996) – as the point of departure for a self-referential exploration of the notion of artistic production. Central to the exhibition is a selection of around 30 objects made by Jos van Gorkum which the artists have been able to locate in the homes of family members, friends and former neighbours across the Netherlands – photographs of these domestic settings are also included in the exhibition. Jaio and van Gorkum have also been learning how to use the original lathe on which these items were made, connecting their own labour as artists to the spare-time activity of a pensioner. The by-products of this process are incorporated as the supporting elements of the platform on which the original objects are displayed. In addition three monitors show a corporate film of the Lips Propeller factory where Jos van Gorkum worked before his retirement; the original lathe being used to make some of the 49 legs which support the platform; and the scanning of magazine clippings, sketches and templates of different wood-turned objects which had been collected in a cigar box by Jos van Gorkum.
Foto: Imagen Mas. Cortesía MUSAC, Museo de Arte Contemporáneo de Castilla y León.
