Maarten De Vrieze
22Hz.HOTEL / a worker's timeline
22Hz.HOTEL / a worker’s timeline is a continuation of a project that Maarten started at the port of Ghent. There, he talked to truck drivers from Macedonia. He created a physical place where they could park their trucks and started a film in which he follows the truckers. In Zwankendamme, he shows a montage in which he follows the beekeeper Ljupjo. In the context of the village, which lies next to but also encapsulated by industry, he continues the conversation about the place of foreign workers in our landscape.
Maarten De Vrieze on the neighbourhood, his creative process, and the tour he will give around his work.
I am always interested in who is represented and cared for in society and who is not. For me, Zwankendamme is a kind of bubble. Over the years, it has completely encapsulated itself against the industry that surrounds the village. It is as if the village actively ignores the growing port and industry, and especially those who work there (often temporarily and from other countries).
With my 22Hz.HOTEL / a worker’s timeline, I want to bring the abstract ‘other’ who works behind the verge, or lives and works temporarily somewhere far away in the port, to the centre of the village. In my work, that ‘other’ is represented by the lorry driver. During a previous presentation of this long-term process, in the port of Ghent, I started working with Macedonian truck drivers. At that time, they were still able to spend the night on the docks, but due to gentrification, they would have to move much deeper into the port, cut off from the rest of the world. The same applies to this area, where the city has just approved a truck park somewhere at the very end of the harbour. How can we not 'talk about' but 'talk to' the truck drivers?
Anyone who visits my temporary studio is introduced to my working method. Using the metaphor of the heretic, who through his disbelief makes the belief system visible, I introduce myself as the artist who reveals the cracks in our social safety net.
With 22Hz.HOTEL / a worker's timeline, I hope to create a connection between Zwankendamme and its surroundings. During the weekend, my Macedonian trucker friends will be present in the village and I will also invite truck drivers from the neighbourhood. I want to bring the audience into direct contact with elements that we try to banish from the village or only discuss in abstract terms. This gives the port and the workers around it a face.
BIO
Maarten De Vrieze worked in factories as an electromechanical engineer and independent designer, and travelled the world on his bicycle before becoming an artist. He then studied Autonomous Design at KASK Ghent and collaborated with various artists and collectives such as Haider Al Timimi, Simon Allemeersch and LucindaRa. The research he undertakes as an artist relates to the everyday 'being' of humans within a larger whole. Through documentary films, interventions in public spaces, exhibitions and scenography, he makes tangible the dominant forms of power that remain invisible and how this shapes society.
Credits
Pero, Koki, Boris, Ljupjo, Bernard, Oliver, Hristijan, Jana, Aleksander, Petar, Elena, Vangel, Ivan, Saso, Igor, Nicola, Zvonko, Dejan, Vance, Toni, Kori, Goran, Dimo, Marian, Cinan, Kadir, Efndie, Fatih, Spedion, Vlarko, Panon and Tony.