THE ART OF REMEMBRANCE

THE ART OF REMEMBRANCE

Paintings,Collages,Marionettes and Installations by
Marianne van den Bergh

Exhibition: May 1-30-2015

Hours of Operation: Friday, Saturday and Sunday
12-6 pm and by appointment
 
Opening: May 1st from 5-7pm
 ​
Performance:May 4th at 9:00pm and 9:30pm

MLB Art-Talk: May 17th from 12-2pm


 ‘Descending’:
 The marks indicating the measurements on an old cutting table have transformed into a stairwell. At the top, we glimpse a plaid skirt, white hair and hands gripping the stairwell.
    It appears to be a long climb down and a long way back.The stairs creak under the weight of her memories. This piece is a portrait of the artist's mother; a tribute to her mother,a Jewish Holocaust survivor.
 This is but one of the many exceptional works that will be up for display in the MLB gallery throughout the month of May. Also featured: an elderly, American veteran who tells his story in a short marionette performance accompanied by a musical ensemble named “Accordéon Mélancolique”.
 Marianne van den Bergh completed her training at the State Academy for Visual Art in Amsterdam (1965-1970). Several years later, she moved to New York City. Now, she divides her time between these two cultural hubs.
 The complexity of war recurs as a theme in van den Bergh's work as she creates spaces to tell its stories and moments to honor freedom.
 
 Van den Bergh captured her own post-Holocaust mourning in her series "To the Grandparents I Never Knew" (1981-1984). In her current exhibit, she addresses war, remembrance and freedom on both a personal and universal level. Her mixed media works tell the stories of diverse victims of war. In three of her paintings, we see a letter, written by her mother in 1945 interspersed with a mix of pastels, collage and gouache on paper.
  This work represents "the survivors". A video-installation tells the story of a present day refugee: a young girl, a stowaway who is sailing from Misrata,Libya to Lampedusa,Italy in a cardboard box. She makes up part of "the unstoppable stream of refugees" who the artist's mother witnessed at a packed train station during the liberation of 1945. Situating this contemporary stowaway in the context of this 1945 letter reveals that the "stream of refugees" the artists mother witnessed is, indeed, ultimately "endless" as it is still ongoing.
 Using traditional marionette techniques she studied in Prague as well as influences of various modern art movements, van den Bergh created "The Loyal Bureaucrat” and "The Liberator", a now elderly American veteran in a wheelchair. In a brief performance, van den Bergh brings to life this man's memories of the sea and of the war.  


 For more information:
 www.mlbgalerie.nl
 www.mariannevandenbergh.com
 www.4en5meiamsterdam.nl
 www.theaternadedam.nl


MLB Galerie
Witte de Withstraat 32A bg
1057XZ Amsterdam
The Netherlands