You are looking at an artwork named ‘ExLibris’, a new project of artist duo work#art, part of workheart Foundation. ExLibris is an installatie in other words: the work is not isolated. The location is influencing the work, while the environment get’s colored by the image. You see: this garden is suddenly a showroom. A big difference compared to the time the monastery nuns were living here. Time also plays a role in a different way: the image is changing constantly.

That change comes in phases, at two different places : actually historic sites. Both in Kampen and Elburg work#art lets rise and rust a tree. Both trees are made of body-iron and tailpipes of cars, and the foliage consists of a complete encyclopedia. So, a tree of books. Here in Elburg that stage is reached now. The young shoot of this tree, which until recently was here, has been showed with her seeds in Kampen. There, in the former Synagogue, it starts with a new series of encyclopedias.

What’s happening with a tree when it’s artificially elevated to an image? And also gets a meaning as ‘Tree of Knowledge’.

It’s quite a difference: a tree inside or outside. And the used material is not intended to art processing at all. Books, not intended for wind and weather, remain to winter outdoor such as now in this garden. Books to browse but not intended as a foliage. What will happen with it? At least it comes on both places to totally different processes.

Both art projects refer to each other from many more angles and perspectives. Also you contribute to this with yours. If you will come in contact with other viewers of the trees on both places, you can follow, with the “own” tree in front of you, what is currently happening with the tree at the other location.
Sometimes it happens via livestream, but you can also use your own contacts via twitter, facebook .. There’s a possibility in the cellar of the museum. You can actually write with pen and ink or with a granger on a slate. Anyway, we are glad with your comments.

ExLibris is an integrated artwork. That means, it’s not just a relationship with the environment but also with you as a viewer. What do you see and what do you experience? You are the connecting link.

The encyclopedia is called:Oosthoek

for the last phase ‘ExLibris Exigo Ricordato’, Douwe wrote a poem called

‘Far East revisited’

no sense in
what this is about
or.. where it had begun

each perspective recedes
and hurls in letting go
spreading shivering shadows
it ripens like wildlife grabbing for
release

assuming grip

and over and over again
a read out hand
turns the pages
and silence flows in ink

beyond memorable knowing
trappings of future tense
slumber lifelong

14 januari 2012 © Douwe Buwalda
translation Bert van der Sluijs

 

ExLibris Exigo Recordato
rightly back again

While today the images are absent, ExLibris has found a permanent exhibition site in the former Convent Garden of Museum Elburg.
After leaving the tree from the Garden of Lust, her seeds ended up in one of the beds there. Here they follow their inexplicable way. ExLibris Exigo Recordato nice to meet you!