September 5 – October 10, 2009 Glass and Ceramics Gallery BWA Wroclaw
Bas van Beek - l'enfant terrible of the Dutch design and its devoted critic and unmasker. He
describes the present state of the Dutch design and industrial production as “a circus” and “the
small bourgeois farce". His subsequent artistic projects are like musical covers. He plays with
existing objects and proves that the existing technological processes may be used for generating of the new forms which devalue the meaning of limited editions. At the same time, Bas van Beek
proves that the ready made concept which has been present in the contemporary art for many
years may be interpreted within the scope of design and architecture, as well.
Hyper Hybrids exhibition shown in BWA Glass and Ceramics Gallery in Wroclaw is the first
Polish retrospective of projects made within last ten years. The exhibition consists of two large
projects: “Prequels” and “Royal Rip-Offs”. The first one features 6 different variations on 10
existing vases which comprise of the known and previously unique objects and changed, mutated
pieces. The resulting ceramic creations resemble existing forms but at the same time they are the
contemporary mutants which aesthetic impression is increased by the use of harsh colours or
graphical comic-like decorations.
“Royal Rip-Offs” are the cheap reproductions of the works of more or less famous designers. The
process consists of the transformation, the partition of existing objects to copy well known
projects. It is meant to show the difficult situation of the design which is forced to schizophrenic
movement from “unique” to “mass production”, from “special” to “plain”, from “exclusive" to
“trivial”. Bas van Beek uses the projects of Hell Jongerius, Jan van der Vaart and Bernard Heesen,
among others.
The exhibition will also encompass his genuine projects for Pols Potten. "Hyper Hybrids” is a
presentation of the wide spectrum Bas van Beek’s art, showing him both as a scoffer and critic,
and the designer - the author of particular applied art objects. The presentation is addressed to all
those who are tired of the domination of big design names promoting more and more projects as
expensive as the contemporary art, the stars of product design who change into international
celebrities travelling between design fairs. Moreover, the “Hyper Hybrids” project forces us to
reflect on the lack of intellectual impulse in the mass scale production and the increasing
consumerism based on the false understanding of the uniqueness, elitism and exclusivity.
Agnieszka Kurgan (curator)