De overvloed aan constructiemateriaal in onze omgeving verwondert me. Als vanzelf kom ik daardoor ook veel in aanraking met de inrichting van de openbare ruimte. Ik observeer bouwputten, achtergelaten materiaal door wegwerkers, ik loop rond. Ik wil weten waar iets voor wordt gebruikt en wat de oorsprong is van onze materiële omgeving is. Binnen de geschiedenis zijn verschillende lagen aanwezig: sociale, politieke en ecologische. Ik ben geïnteresseerd in hoe de materialen deze lagen zelf kunnen communiceren, en welke rol ik daarin heb. Ik maak kunst om die lagen te onderzoeken, vragen te stellen en te delen.
Een materiaal, bijvoorbeeld hout, is een natuurlijk materiaal. Doordat we er mee bouwen wordt de organische vorm omgezet naar een industriële vorm in een specifieke maat. Efficiëntie en standaard spelen hierin een rol. Dit moment van transformatie van organisch materiaal naar industriële maat vind ik interessant. In mijn werk neem ik dit principe van transformatie over, maar dan op een niet gestandaardiseerde manier.
As long as it lasts Heerlen - Voor de productie van talloze producten die we in het dagelijks leven gebruiken, worden landschappen afgegraven voor de nodige grondstoffen. Bijvoorbeeld in Heerlen is er een groeve waar zilverzand wordt gewonnen. Dit soort uitgravingen die soms jarenlang en kilometers breed en/of diep plaatsvinden, zorgen ervoor dat het landschap op drastische wijze in beweging is.
Hoe we met onze omgeving en het landschap omgaan is ook terug te zien in het videowerk Assembly II. Dit werk is opgebouwd uit video’s die gedeeld worden op social media platforms zoals Instagram en TikTok. Je ziet aan de ene kant hoe grote machines het landschap bewerken. Aan de andere kant zie je hoe de mens soms de rol overneemt van machine, of ermee samenwerkt.
In reactie op de vraag “Where are we now?” is Luuk Smits ingedoken op dit soort veranderende landschappen. Hij is in en rondom de groeve in Heerlen op pad gegaan om de geschiedenis en van de plek te verkennen, waarbij verschillende kenmerken en verhalen zijn aandacht trokken.
In zandgroeves ontstaat vaak een meer. Het water dat zich in zo’n kuil verzamelt, verbindt zich op veel manieren met de ontwikkeling van zo’n gebied. Het desastreuze beeld dat de afgraving veroorzaakt, staat in scherp contrast met de voordelige gevolgen van het meer dat er ontstaat, bijvoorbeeld voor het plaatselijke ecosysteem en recreatieve doeleinden. Het werk in de expositie As long as it lasts van Smits richt zich op de complexiteit van de verschillende gevolgen van zo’n afgraving.
Het zandexploitatiebedrijf Sibelco dat een productielocatie heeft in Heerlen vertrekt in 2032. Er wordt tegelijkertijd nagedacht over mogelijkheden om het landschap te hervormen en herbestemmen. Zonder een uitspraak te doen over wat goed of slecht is, probeert Smits via zijn werk op een beeldende manier op te merken wat er gebeurd en hiermee ook vragen op te wekken. Zo zijn in de expositieruimte van Greylight Projects bijvoorbeeld het vlot ‘ZAND’ en het vlot ‘WEG’ ter plekke opgebouwd.
Want, waar gaan ze heen? Refereren ze aan een apocalyptisch toekomstbeeld zoals in verhalen als De Ark Van Noach? Of geven ze juist een idee over het nut van een plaatselijk meer? Of is het vooral een oproep om nieuwsgierig te zijn naar de herkomst van alledaagse producten? Volgen we via Smits zijn expositie de weg van het zand, of is het zand al weg?
As long as it lasts - Zo lang het duurt / As long as it lasts Tijdelijke interventies 2020/2022 Het maken van dit werk begon in 2020. Met materialen uit bouwcontainers op straat bouwde ik deze werken. Tijdens het bouwen aan de tijdelijke sculpturen vroeg ik mij af; Wanneer is iets een bruikbaar materiaal om mee te bouwen? Wanneer is iets afval? Vaak stonden de objecten die ik maakte er maar even, ingestort door de wind, een mensenhand of beide, keerde het materiaal weer terug naar waar ik het vond. Nu bijna twee jaar later heb ik de werken, in een andere vorm terug gebracht naar de plek waar ik ze opgebouwd heb. Met een nieuwe selectie gevonden materialen, ook weer uit containers. Het heeft een grappige verwijzing naar die borden die neergezet worden wanneer ergens een nieuw bouwproject begint, met een foto van hoe iets eruit zal komen te zien. Op deze manier suggereert het een terugkeer naar waar het begon. Toen als stip op de horizon, voor nu iets om naar terug te kijken.
Assembly - During a residency at ZK/U Berlin (Centre for Arts and Urbanistics), a new work was developed that respond to the site of ZKU in its state of transformation. During his working period, Smits explored the (de)construction of the building, with an interest in tracing the journeys of the materials used. His research has taken him to discover origins ranging from Berlin and China to Ukraine. As well as to recognise the different techniques and materials used over time, from the building’s advent as a train station in 1890 to its more recent renovation in 2012. During this time, he became more interested in the act of investigation itself, dealing with questions that proved difficult to uncover.
Assembly I recuperates and brings together disparate materials collected from ZKU, which represent each phase of the building's history. Such includes, amongst others, metal beams formerly constituting rail tracks; metal piping from beneath the former loading dock; wood from the former roof, re-used to reinforce concrete moulds; and commonplace plastic sheets, used to pour concrete in the fabrication of the new building. Here, Smits approaches artmaking as a thinking space, to explore, test, create, question, and play with materials and the distinct information and intelligence they introduce. The work is installed as a permanent installation on the façade of the building atop a metal beam used to support the roof of the building.
Assembly II - Assembly II, 2022
Video Installation
Culminating from the artist’s residency at ZK/U Berlin (Centre for Arts and Urbanistics) were two new works responding to the site in its state of transformation. A film installation, Assembly II introduces questions around global labour practices, brought into conversation with the construction site of ZKU. In the process of making this work, for example, construction was halted as a result of shifting geopolitical relations. Material such as steel, that would ordinarily be sourced from Ukraine, was unable to make its journey to Berlin as a consequence of Russia’s invasion. This is one of many stories that can be told through the artist’s study of materials, processes, and site.
Installed in and amongst the construction site, Smits created an environment for the film installation that utilized the objects and materials used for the construction. A piece of tarp was stretched across a metal fence to create a screen for the projected film. Beyond the film itself, flood lights were placed in various areas drawing parallels between the footage of the film with the material surroundings and status of the site itself. The film itself presents a collage of found footage collected by the artist over the past year, usually distributed as 15 second clips on social media. The clips come to overlap, and intertwine different geographies, modes of production, extraction, labour conditions, and techniques.
Together, Assembly I and Assembly II express the inherent global-ness of the local, with the materials used at ZKU deriving from fabrication sites, construction processes, and labour forces across the world.
Assembly II - Culminating from the artist’s residency at ZK/U Berlin (Centre for Arts and Urbanistics) were two new works responding to the site in its state of transformation. A film installation, Assembly II introduces questions around global labour practices, brought into conversation with the construction site of ZKU. In the process of making this work, for example, construction was halted as a result of shifting geopolitical relations. Material such as steel, that would ordinarily be sourced from Ukraine, was unable to make its journey to Berlin as a consequence of Russia’s invasion. This is one of many stories that can be told through the artist’s study of materials, processes, and site.
Installed in and amongst the construction site, Smits created an environment for the film installation that utilized the objects and materials used for the construction. A piece of tarp was stretched across a metal fence to create a screen for the projected film. Beyond the film itself, flood lights were placed in various areas drawing parallels between the footage of the film with the material surroundings and status of the site itself. The film itself presents a collage of found footage collected by the artist over the past year, usually distributed as 15 second clips on social media. The clips come to overlap, and intertwine different geographies, modes of production, extraction, labour conditions, and techniques.
Driftwood - Driftwood, 2022
Temporary installation, Framed photograph
Luuk stayed in our bunker for two weeks in the beginning of February 2022. It was during a time of heavy storms that brought a lot of materials on to the beach. He went 'beachcombing' and researched two materials that derived from ships: driftwood and paraffin. He experimented and worked with both materials and we chose to work with the driftwood for the bunker art collection. He photographed the installation and framed the photograph himself in multiplex. Its is now on display in the bunker for all our guests to see. Making it the first artwork of a collection that will grow every year with each residency.
Thanks to the work by Luuk we became even more aware of the man made type of materials that ends up in the sea on a daily basis. The Cocondo Artist in Residence is made possible bij de Erfgoedlijn Atlantikwall of the Provincie Zuid-Holland
Drive-by - During a six-week-long residency at SIGN Projectspace in Groningen, the Netherlands, the artist was invited to carry out a spatial intervention on the former sugar factory terrain in the city, where the residency was sited. With an interest in connecting the past, present, and possible futures of the terrain, the artist chose to locate his intervention on the road running around the land, connecting its various areas through usage and across time. The road connects, for instance, former water basins, as well as areas used for the release of residual water from the sugar production, which would be deposited, with present-day agricultural school, and a dog training field.
Very often nature has to make way for humankind and its constructions. Another level can be added as well: After all, nature and its elements can also be seen as spatial disruptions for humans. What does the relationship between nature and humankind look like? What or who is a spatial disruption? Do the polystyrene blocks inherently form a contrast to the serene landscape, or are they more closely connected than one would initially assume?
“I see it [the journey of the van] as a dance,” Luuk says while he gazes at the path in front of us: “a dance between nature and humankind.”
The above text is an excerpt from a text written by Floor van den Heuvel, who has maintained a dialogue with the artist throughout the residency. Spatial Disruptions was organised by SIGN Projectspace, Groningen and funded by Gemeente Groningen, Mondriaan Fonds.
Interviews and work-in-process can be viewed here: https://sign2.nl/events/spatial-disruptions/
From 119m below to 152m above - It was during a walk through the historic center of Maastricht that the artist came into contact with a wall of composited marlstone, a variety of rock that’s typical of the region. Photographing the wall marked the starting point of an investigation into the city, as carried out through the act of re-tracing; understanding the city through the development of one material’s history. Known as the Limburg marlstone, it was, for the most part, deposited during the Cretaceous geological era that lasted from around 66 to 145 million years ago. Today, the material resides underground in an expansive quarry network, where it is extracted for various uses throughout the city of Maastricht and region of Limburg. From 119m below to 152m above examines the coexistent make-up of the city’s urban and rural landscape through the lens of this material. It does so primarily through performative action, which is here documented and manifest as an installation comprising video and photography.
This work was produced during the RURBAN Masterclass; Landscapes on the Move at the Jan van Eyck Academy in Maastricht. Thanks to Fer Rouwet, the Elisabeth Strouven Fund, Stichting Kanunnik Salden / Nieuwenhof, the Prins Bernhard Cultuurfonds, the Mondriaan Fonds, the municipality of Maastricht and the province of Limburg.
Subsonic Train - This work consists of a installation of aluminium objects and a sound installation by composer Yota Morimoto. The objects were made during a residency at Rucka in Cesis, Latvia, and focused specifically on the experience of a train cutting through the Latvian landscape. In Rucka, a small town of about 18.000 inhabitants, there is an unusual relationship between machine and nature. The smell of oil hangs in the air mixed in with the smells of flora and fauna surrounding overgrown tracks. The silence of the rural landscape loudens and intensifies the smallest of details that usually go by unnoticed, whose amplification stands to compete with any such man-made intervention. Attuning to the sound of the train within this landscape distinctly meters an experience of time passing and of orientation.
The aluminum objects encompass an experience of this contrary relationship; beaten with a hammer over various tree stumps, the materiality and rhythm of the train comes to be embedded in close relationship of difference and harmony with the nature that surrounds it. Having collated an extensive library of recordings in Rucka, capturing an audible experience of the landscape, Smits embedded the objects with speakers inviting Morimoto to collaborate in realizing the artwork’s score. In response to this invitation, Morimoto created a programmed loop system where parts of the sound recordings of a conversation about the landscape are randomly ordered and played and recorded and played again.
This residency project was funded by Mondriaan Fonds
