Submarine Wharf Closes Its Doors for 2011
After a busy summer the exhibition ‘The One & The Many’ by the Scandinavian duo Elmgreen & Dragset closed on Sunday 25 September after great success. No fewer than 18,000 people from the Netherlands and abroad visited the former Submarine Wharf on the RDM site in the Rotterdam docks. Public and press alike were enthusiastic about the immersive surrealistic experience. In the summer of 2012 the wharf will be transformed by Sarkis, the celebrated Turkish-Armenian artist.
Since the end of May the Submarine Wharf housed an exhibition that transformed the building into a large film set with a raw, grim atmosphere. Visitors were involved in a series of non-stop events six hours a day, performed and created by specially-trained actors from the Ro Theatre.
The exhibition in the almost 5,000 square metre shed was organized by Museum Boijmans Van Beuningen and the Port of Rotterdam Authority in association with the Ro Theatre. From the moment the exhibition opened on 28 May 2011 it was busy every day, hosting a total of 18,000 enthusiastic and sometimes almost intimidated visitors from all over the Netherlands and elsewhere.
Dutch Press over ‘The One & The Many’
Trouw: ‘As a visitor you are sucked into this surrealistic world to such an extent that at any given moment you no longer know what is real and what is staged.’
Elsevier: ‘It’s a kind of extended film set, in which visitors themselves have walk-on parts.’
NRC: ‘Once again the work of art absorbs me; again I’m that one against the rest. “The One and The Many”, indeed.’
Elmgreen & Dragset
The artists behind the large-scale project were the internationally-renowned Michael Elmgreen (Denmark, 1961) and Ingar Dragset (Norway, 1969). Elmgreen said, ‘What we found absolutely extraordinary was the huge effort made by the young actors.’ Elmgreen & Dragset have been selected to fill the Fourth Plinth in London’s Trafalgar Square in 2012. ‘The One & The Many’ in Rotterdam was their first major project in the Netherlands.
Artist 2012
After the start made by Atelier van Lieshout in 2010, followed by Elmgreen & Dragset in 2011, in 2012 it is the turn of the seventy-three-year-old Turkish-Armenian artist Sarkis Zabunyan, who lives in Paris and Istanbul. Sarkis’s work is described as mysterious as well as spiritual. The artist effortlessly blends African, Asian and European influences. His installation in Rotterdam can be seen in the Submarine Wharf from 2 June until 30 September. Sjarel Ex, director of Museum Boijmans Van Beuningen, and Nicolette Gast, curator of ‘The One & The Many’, will curate.
Joint Venture
Museum Boijmans Van Beuningen and the Port of Rotterdam Authority will be working together on a series of large-scale art projects until 2014. The Submarine Wharf on the RDM site is one of the initiatives designed to bring a wide audience into contact with the port. The exhibition was realized by the Port of Rotterdam Authority and Museum Boijmans Van Beuningen, thanks in part to a special contribution from the BankGiro Loterij and the City of Rotterdam.
Complete transformation for Rotterdam’s Submarine Wharf
Elmgreen & Dragset
The One & The Many
28 May - 25 September 2011
Precisely what is on show remains under wraps until the last moment. But there is no doubt that the Submarine Wharf is currently undergoing a surreal total transformation. This metamorphosis is the responsibility of Elmgreen & Dragset: a large-scale art project in Rotterdam’s harbour organised by Museum Boijmans Van Beuningen and the Port of Rotterdam.
The art duo Michael Elmgreen (Denmark, 1961) and Ingar Dragset (Norway, 1969) have created a vast exhibition featuring a specially designed block of flats, an abandoned funfair ride and numerous other elements. The exhibition ‘The One & The Many’ transforms the 5000m2 former Submarine Wharf into a deprived neighbourhood with a sinister atmosphere. These are the fringes of society: a tough underworld with dubious characters and shocking activities.
Thanks to the exhibition ‘The One & The Many’ this summer all eyes are once again focused on the RDM complex in Rotterdam’s harbour. Until 2014 Museum Boijmans Van Beuningen and the Port of Rotterdam are collaborating on a series of large-scale art projects in the Submarine Wharf. The series kicked off last year with Atelier van Lieshout’s exhibition ‘Infernopolis’, which De Volkskrant called ‘this summer’s absolute art hit’. The official opening of ‘The One & The Many’ will take place on 28 May. (Note for the press: press preview on Wednesday 25 May.)
It’s never too late...
New work by Elmgreen & Dragset is also on display elsewhere in Rotterdam. At midday on the same day as the opening in the Submarine Wharf – Saturday 28 May – the work ‘It’s Never Too Late to Say Sorry’ will be unveiled on the Coolsingel. The work consists of a glistening display case on a dark granite plinth, housing a polished stainless-steel megaphone. Each day, just before midday, a person will appear, open the door in the case and remove the megaphone. At exactly twelve o’clock the person will exclaim through the megaphone the short and simple phrase: ‘It's never too late to say sorry’. This ‘performance / sculpture’ will be performed daily in Rotterdam for at least a year. The work was commissioned by Sculpture International Rotterdam.
Highly praised
Elmgreen & Dragset have worked together since 1995. They live in London and Berlin. Their art works express their critical relationship to Western consumer society. In 2006 the duo produced the widely praised exhibition ‘The Welfare Show’ at the Serpentine Gallery in London. In 2009 they presented ‘The Collectors’ at the 53rd Venice Biennale and in op 2010 ‘Celebrity – The One and the Many’ at the ZKM in Karlsruhe. In 2003 they won the prestigious ‘Preis der Nationalgalerie für Junge Kunst’ and in 2009 they received the ‘Special Mention’ at the Venice Biennale. Elmgreen & Dragset have been selected to create a sculpture for the ‘Fourth Plinth’ in Trafalgar Square in London in 2012.
Turbine Hall versus Submarine Wharf
More than 20,000 people visited the Submarine Wharf in 2010. The press and the public compared the Submarine Wharf from 1937 with the Turbine Hall at Tate Modern in London. The Submarine Wharf in the RDM complex is one of the Port of Rotterdam’s initiatives to bring the public into closer contact with the harbour.
This exhibition in the Submarine Wharf has been organised by the Port of Rotterdam and Museum Boijmans Van Beuningen, with a special contribution from the BankGiro Loterij and the Municipality of Rotterdam.
Elmgreen & Dragset to create art project in the Submarine Wharf
In 2011 Museum Boijmans Van Beuningen will once again host an exhibition in
Rotterdam’s harbour. The museum and the Port of Rotterdam have chosen Elmgreen
& Dragset to create next year’s presentation. The Scandinavian art duo, best known
for their Prada shop in the desert at Marfa, Texas, will create a hallucinatory
experience in the Submarine Wharf in the summer of 2011. The exact details of the art
project will remain confidential until the last minute.
Following the successful exhibition by Atelier Van Lieshout last summer, Museum Boijmans
Van Beuningen and the Port of Rotterdam have invited Elmgreen & Dragset to transform the
Submarine Wharf in the summer of 2011. To maximise the element of surprise, the exact
nature of the exhibition will remain under wraps and the former Submarine Wharf will be
inaccessible to the public until the opening on 28 May.
Elmgreen & Dragset
This will be Elmgreen & Dragset’s first solo exhibition of the Netherlands. Michael Elmgreen
(Denmark, 1961) and Ingar Dragset (Norway, 1968) will create an installation that will entirely
transform the Submarine Wharf, resulting in a highly alienating effect. It will provide a totally
different experience to that of Atelier Van Lieshout’s exhibition Infernopolis.
The internationally respected artists are known for their desert Prada shop and their
presentation at the 53rd Venice Biennale, where they transformed two pavilions into an art
collectors’ house in which macabre events had occurred. The exhibition will be curated by
Nicolette Gast, a member of the Port of Rotterdam’s Art Committee.
Art in the harbour
The Submarine Wharf was built in 1937 and is comparable in size to the Turbine Hall at Tate
Modern in London. Last summer Rotterdam-based Atelier Van Lieshout showed a large
number of sculptures in the exhibition entitled Infernopolis in the 5000m2 space. More than
20,000 people attended the exhibition. The Dutch newspaper De Volkskrant described it as
‘The undisputed art hit of the summer’.
The Submarine Wharf is one of the Port of Rotterdam’s initiatives to bring a broad public into
contact with the harbour and to improve the quality of the harbour area. The Submarine Wharf
is part of the former Rotterdamsche Droogdok Maatschappij (RDM) at Heijplaat. The RDMcomplex
is a pearl in the harbour. This early-twentieth-century industrial heritage is currently
being redeveloped with a focus on education, culture and innovative businesses. The Port of
Rotterdam and Museum Boijmans Van Beuningen have initiated the ambitious project of
inviting contemporary artists with international reputations to create an exhibition or art project
in the Submarine Wharf for five years.