Eric van Hove – Mahjouba IV v1 prototype – 2022 (artist multiple), Mixed media (13 Materials): brass-plated steel, brass, nickeled silver, paint, mahogany wood, plywood, tin, recycled aluminum, cowskin, factory-made mechanical components, factory-made electronical components, foam, 4KW electric engine and 3D-printed Polyethylene Terephthalate. Size:180x75x130cm, Weight: variable (65 kg) Courtesy the artist, (photo: Fenduq)
Ugochukwu-Smooth C. Nzewi – Éric Van Hove’s ‘Living Art’, in Fenduq, Jap Sam Books, Holland, 2019.
Launch Event for the Mahjouba 100 Collector Edition:
1-54 Art Fair Marrakech – https://www.1-54.com
February 9th, 5 to 6pm
@ Riad El Fenn – https://el-fenn.com
Eric van Hove – atelierericvanhove.com
STILL FREE
I started developing the performance and series Still Free when the lockdown ended.
We all left our homes – a gesture shared by all who inhabit the planet in 2022. In this contemporary pandemic, societies performed an exercise familiar to painters for a long time. That of existing within the “creative bubble” of the studio.
In 2020 and 2021, I did a lot of drawings and paintings related to “isolation & social media” and “collective hysteria”, themes much more specific than the most common ones in my paintings. When I realized that these subjects dealt with the individual bubble space versus an active social space, I decided to do an exercise sitting at the opposite end of the individual experience and isolation.
Just like the idea of the caterpillar that goes through the enclosure of the cocoon to be reborn as a Mariposa.
Thus, this summer, I reactivated the form of the performance “African Industrial Revolution” – in which I drew portraits in public spaces of people I believe to be relevant to this revolution – in this new format, “STILL FREE”. It is in everything the same as the first one but on 100 x 70 cm sheets where I silkscreen a leopard skin and the words that give the performance its title.
It is a performance that celebrates the beauty of free thinking.
The first performance took place at the electronic music festival Sónar Lisbon (April 2022), the second at Cape Verde Cultural Center (May 2022), and now I will present the next one in London (October 2022).
Francisco Vidal Paço d’ Arcos September 14, 2022
Francisco Vidal’s performance will be taking place on the following date:
Date: Thursday 9th February Time: 2:00 pm to 4:00 pm [VIP day only by invitation]
Date: Friday 10th February Time: 2:00 pm to 4:00 pm [VIP day only by invitation]
Date: Saturday 11th February Time: 3:00 pm to 5:00 pm [Public day]
Address: Outdoor kiosk, La Mamounia Avenue Bab Jdid Marrakech, 40040 Morocco