Nature, faith and commerce: curator Jan Hoet set the ninth edition of the Sonsbeek public art exhibition in the original park, a deconsecrated church and a shopping mall - Report From Holland

Art in America, Dec, 2001 by Diane Shamash

Europe has a long history of large-scale international public art projects. In 1949, Arnhem, a small, middle-class city less than two hours from Amsterdam, was the first municipality in Europe to host an open-air exhibition, in Sonsbeek Park. Originally planned as an outdoor triennial of European sculpture, Sonsbeek is now known for broader and more ambitious exhibitions that stepped outside the park, such as "Sonsbeek buiten de perken" (Beyond the Bounds), organized by Wim Beeren in 1971; Sonsbeek 86, organized by Saskia Bos; and Sonsbeek 93, curated by Valerie Smith.

Documenta was first staged in the small city of Kassel in 1955. But it was not until 1977, under the direction of Manfred Schneckenburger, that Documenta ventured outdoors to include site-specific works for the grounds of Karlsaue Park and other public sites. (1) Sculpture Projects in Munster, a latecomer initiated in 1977 (and held again in `87 and `97), further defined the ways in which artists working outside the confines of a museum could engage their surroundings.

What has distinguished Sculpture Projects in Munster and more recent European public projects is their ambition to integrate artists' ideas and works into the urban fabric. Sculpture Projects and subsequent exhibitions marked a radical shift from the outdoor placement of existing sculpture to commissioning artists to engage the various historical, spatial, demographic and social conditions of a city. Smith wrote in her catalogue essay for Sonsbeek 93, "Although there have been many outdoor exhibitions, few transgress the official and traditional relationship between sculpture and site. [In Sonsbeek], you have to eat a meal, take a cruise, go to jail, listen to the radio to experience and produce a work.... What we are witnessing is a move towards a mutual and creative dependency between artists and workers in other fields."

One would have expected "Sonsbeek 9: Locus Focus" (June 3-Sept. 23), organized by Jan Hoet, to take these ideas a step further, particularly because Hoet is known for a widely praised exhibition, "Chambre D'Amis" (1986), which set art works in a variety of spaces in private homes in Ghent; he also curated Documenta IX (1992).

Sonsbeek 9 was ambitious in scale and youthful in character (the average age of the 75 artists from 27 countries was 33). The participants were invited to "focus on location" in three distinct areas of the city. These included Sonsbeek Park itself, a lush 19th-century landscape, reminiscent of Olmstead's Central Park in Manhattan, a few blocks from the train station; the deconsecrated St. Eusebius Church in the city center; and the Kronenburg shopping mall, built in the 1970s, on the outskirts of the city in Arnhem-Zuid. While most artists were given the opportunity to choose their own sites within these three symbolic zones, they were not encouraged to transgress the boundaries of the designated areas or more broadly to integrate their works into the city.

At Sonsbeek Park, art works proliferated throughout its woods, thickets and ponds. Berlinde De Bruyckere's life-size stuffed horses, suspended like carcasses from the trees, were pure spectacle, drawing crowds around them. Made from polyester and horse skin with anatomical precision, the corpselike presences in a dark grove of trees also evoked Arnhem's wartime history.

Several pieces provided intimate views of nature. Michel Francois project, Mute Cinema, was a soundproof hut with tiny windows situated in a rustic cave; the windows allowed people to look out from under a small artificial waterfall. As spectators piled into this constructed cinema, they could watch, but not hear, the cascading water. Hermann Maier Neustadt and Lois Weinberger created more elaborate viewing machines for nature. Neustadt's sculpture, WD-Spiral Part One CINEMA, was a yellow fiberglass room projecting from a sloping site, which contained six chairs and included a large window. Self-consciously artificial, if not downright sci-fi, it provided a surprisingly tranquil chamber from which to view Sonsbeek Park's flora and fauna. Weinberger's work was essentially a narrow corridor that led to the trunk of a tree that was illuminated by a greenish light; the structure was reminiscent of Bruce Nauman's early corridor pieces.

The most humorous work at the park was Peter Santino's All Happy Now!, an artificial tiered hill, 65 feet in diameter and about 6 1/2 feet high, located along a busy street, nestled between the formal spaces of the park and a private home with an untended garden abutting it. Steeped in irony, All Happy Now! skillfully recast the remote earthworks of the 1970s as a grassy berm on a bustling city thoroughfare.

If artists struggled to compete with the allure of Sonsbeek Park's English-style landscape, they were further challenged to intervene in the religious and military iconography of Eusebius Church. Entirely rebuilt after World War II, the church is a museum of artifacts: tombs, sarcophagi, suits of armor and sculptures of parachutists line its walls, ceilings and underground spaces. With some difficulty, artists scrambled to find autonomous sites within the crowded venue. In Beverly Semmes's Petunia, a woman sat quietly in a chair, wearing what appeared to be a vast magenta dress that filled the chancel of the church. Periodically, the woman, who doubled as a security guard for the art work, separated herself from the massive oval of lycra, chiffon and nylon fabric on the floor and walked down the hall for a cigarette and coffee. Her ankle-length dress was not actually attached to the remainder of the fabric, and consequently she was able to depart effortlessly. The work created a striking image; had there not been other works hanging behind and above it, Petunia would have commanded the entire section of the church, creating a provocative counterpoint to the heavy, masculine architecture.