In her photagraphies and folders
Joke Robaard treats the concepts of presentation and representation, their differentiation
from one another and dissolution into one another. In various economic, cultural
and social contexts, she investigates how groups and networks form. At the same
time, the rules and roles originally attributed to the individuals by an institution
are rescinded. The poses that Robaard assigns to the representants in her photographies
draw the gaze instead to the connection of appearance and the representation of
ideas and ideologies. In addition, art historical references to picture genres
- such as the group portrait - are repeatedly incorporated.
Joke Robaard, Stand-In Session 3, 2003
For the Secession Joke Robaard has developed a new project, Stand-In, which
depicts the evolved network of the artists association and its exhibition house
using various media - photography, video and a folder.
Joke Robaard, Stand-In Session 1, 2003
For a series of staged group pictures, the Secession chose (with the 'help' of
the diagram) seven representative persons from the Secession and three companies
that regularly work together with the Secession, and photographed them on site.
Whereas the characteristic environment, the empty exhibition hall and the reception
halls and working spaces clearly refer to the everyday self-understanding and
corporate identity of the companies, the photos resist the traditional language
of representation through the form in which the people are staged. The arrangement
of the people is based on a photo that Joke Robaard took about twenty years ago
with a group of friends and now repeats and varies in individual settings.
Joke Robaard, Stand-In Session 2, 2003
In her selection of people to be photographed, Joke Robaard followed a pattern
that is typical for her: from a list of all employees compiled by the companies,
she selected two persons from the beginning, two from the end and three from the
middle of the list. Similar to a colophon, the diagrams developed from this measure
the positions of the participants within the network. They are depicted in a folder
together with the photographs. With this Folder #43 Robaard continues a
working method she has practiced for many years. From an interest in making use
of her own artistic practice to establish dialogues and networks, she develops
small-format folders that provide a summary of her work in always the same format
as take-away objects.
Joke Robaard, Stand- In, In-Situ, Secession, 2003
As though to reveal and expose the photographic, what is seemingly eventful about
the frozen moment, Robaard shows what happens on the set in a video. The general
gesture of representation is thus, in a sense, reverted back to the group of individuals
themselves. The process of how the individual participants find the pose assigned
to them also reveals the discrepancy between an assumed attitude or role and a
different, personal self-understanding.
Joke Robaard, Stand- In, In-Situ, Secession, 2003
In addition to the project Stand-In, a selection of other folders, video
documentations and trailers of older projects is also on display. An essential
characteristic of the videos is that Robaard operates here with a certain concept
of work that is based on the idea of the active picture archive and repeatedly
allows for new versions adapted to each current presentation and exhibition form.
The conjoining theme of (self-) presentation, body language and the forming of
a group is also mirrored in the exhibition design. The stools designed in collaboration
with Arno von der Mark for watching the films not only predetermine a certain
posture, but can also be pushed together and formed into new arrangements again
and again. At the intersection of art, architecture, fashion and design, Robaard
thus stages complex panoramas, in which the various discourses are juxtaposed
as elements of equal value.
Joke Robaard, Stand- In, In-Situ, Secession, 2003
exhibition design: DRFTWD OFFICE ASSOCIATES (design team: Arno van der Mark, Tsugumi
Kanno, Gilbert Koskamp).
video-editing and camera: Maarten Theuwkens
diagrams and folder: Barbara Hermann
research: Martine van Kampen.
Joke Robaard, Stand- In, In-Situ, Secession, 2003
Parallel to the exhibition, an extensive documentation of Joke Robaard´s
projects since 1988 is published by Valiz, Amsterdam.
Joke Robaard, Stand- In, In-Situ, Secession, 2003
JOKE ROBAARD, born 1953, lives and works in Amsterdam
Exhibitions (selected): 2002 S(T)OCK, Casco, Utrecht, with students of Gerrit
Rietveld Academie; 2001 No Hortus is conclusus, Marres Centrum beeldende Kunst,
Maastricht; 2000 Fotobiennale Rotterdam; Revisiting the Readymade, Green on Red
Gallery, Dublin; 1999 Cut-off Suit, 20er Haus, Museum für Moderne Kunst,
Vienna; DEFILE, Festival a/d Werf Utrecht; 1996 White Suit, Museum Boijmans van
Beuningen, Rotterdam; Wet Suit, Stedelijk Museum Amsterdam
The exhibition has been supported by:
Mondriaan Stichting
