SITUATION // THE ORGANISATION_office
// EDWIN STOLK // HMK {HotelMariaKapel}
Edwin Stolk creates what he calls 'situations'. These 'situations' are
most of the time temporary and created within the possibilities and
means of a certain location. Stolk has affinity with the ideals of the
situationists, a restricted group of international revolutionaries founded
in 1957 and dissolved in 1972; they advocated experiences of life being
alternative to those admitted by the capitalist order. For this purpose
they suggested and experimented with the construction of situations,
namely the setting up of environments favourable for the fulfilment
of such desires.
In
January 2011 Edwin Stolk founded 'The organisation' which is
operating embedded from within the contemporary organised society, reacting
on the dominant influence of what philosopher Gilles Deleuze describes
as the 'Society of control'.
With
the 'Society of control' Gilles Deleuze describes the contemporary
society as the society where 'big bother is watching you'. These control
societies control the population with new technologies, a change from
a 'disciplinary society' where the individual was continuously located
within one closed environment or another, each having its own laws.
The concept behind 'The organisation' is to create a platform
of expertise and collaboration between people from all levels of society,
to realize, promote and facilitate events, happenings, actions, lectures
and debates reacting on and questioning the contemporary organized society.
To achieve this 'The organisation' tries to use the available
infrastructures, new technologies, without being highly dependent and
categorized by the 'Society of control'
With
the situation in the HMK chapel, Stolk is realizing a temporary fictive
office, the suggestion that you physically can enter 'The office'
of 'The organisation'. 'The office' is providing you
the temporary infrastructure of a secure and recognizable office, a
clear logo, tables, chairs and waiting room. The same elements all organisations
are using while serving the 'Society of control', to make you
believe in them, to generate trust and commitment. In real life
'The organisation' is nomadic and not restricted to one fixed location.
There are no employers, but known as well as anonymous members. Communication
goes through internet with their private computers on different locations.
Meetings between members could take place everywhere, from existing
offices after closing time till the public library.
During the residency of Stolk at HMK {HotelMariaKapel} he works in the
real office of the HMK organisation. This way Edwin Stolk uses opportunities
he has as being categorized and defined as an artist. By presenting
'The office' in the old chapel he creates connections between
systems of control and order, the religious past and the contemporary
controlled society. With an embedded attitude he organizes a situation
in an institutionalised art space, connects and collaborates with companies
from the market and generates attention for 'The organisation' which
aim is to operate outside the art context, reacting, reflecting and
questioning critically the contemporary structures dominated by the
'Society of control'.
http://theorganisation.tk/
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