Have been visiting the Pililotti Rist exposition in Boymans van Beuningen. Pipilotti is a video artist. Her exposition is named ‘Elixer’. The exposition is called a video’organism’. Visitor are invited to participate in the organism: entering a sort of body in the semidark, lots of curtains. Plenty of rooms you are invited to lay down, you can watch the video’s projected on the ceiling, floor and/or walls. The ‘organism’ metaphor is suiting her art, which is very organic: a sort of sweet, LSD trip with flowers, trees, lots of Pipi herself and all supported with psychedelic music made by Pipilotti herself. You can get a pretty good idea watching this trailer. I liked ‘homo sapiens sapiens’ a lot, but I must say I got a little bit fed up with it aftter having seen 6 of the 9 installations. I got a little bit bored by the colourful sweetness.
But …… not half as much as I liked Saskia Olde Wolbers. The work of Pipi slightly reminded me of Wolbers work but than: Wolbers really impressed me. Actually, she was the first videoartist I ever liked. Until I have seen her work I associated video art with a boring symbolistic artist hocus pocus. Looking for hours at an empty chair or seeing a hand trying to catch mud over and over. More a symbol of the ‘unconventional anti-bourgouis’ character of the artists than a piece you might actually want to watch. Wolders work is not at all like that. It is mesmerizing. I guess it is influenced by dance and it has like Pililottes work a psychodelic, organic aspect. But the difference is: you don’t get bored. Actually, you can’t get enough of it. The reason might be that you get a lot of story in her work. It is like ‘alineating, empty story’ . But still … story. Drame, development. If you ever get the chance to see her, please do! You could watch this YouTube example, but it doesn’t do complete credit to her work