The House of Our Fathers

recycling project

Installation by Jan Lauwers

haus der kunst – Münich 2007

The House of Our Fathers, recycling project

Installation 20m x 5m x 5m

The first construction (1st version) of the house took shape at BOZAR in March 2007, for the RESTLESSNESS exhibition, which I created together with the

curator Jérôme Sans. I built the first version using materials I found in the museum’s waste containers (pedestals, wooden panels, glass cases, things every

museum in the world throws away after an exhibition because it is much too expensive to store such things in a city). There were as yet no works of art of my

own.

I built the second version out of remnants I found in the cellars of the haus der kunst in Munich. It had the same dimensions, but now included several works of art.

Including the two doormen.

These two versions provided the setting for marathon performances, either by me alone or by members of Needcompany.

In the 1st version there was a deconstruction of the twenty years Needcompany and in the 2nd Needcompany’s performers were invited to generate new material.

Live performance, music and video work were created on the spot.

3rd version

After my father’s death, I subjected his house, which by his absence had become a different house, to a thorough investigation. He had designed it himself and I

was born and raised there.

In the cellar, at the back of a rickety cupboard, was a glass preserving jar containing a human heart in formalin. No one had ever told me where this heart came

from. On the top floor of the house was a glass bell-jar containing a 36 cm-long Egyptian animal mummy in the form of an inverted L. We took it to the local

hospital, where my father had worked, and had X-rays taken of it. It turned out to be a young baboon. This is another object whose origins are unknown to me.

These two objects have a history of their own that remains unknown to us, and this enables stories to take shape. For this reason I have given them a central

position in my ideas concerning ‘The House of Our Fathers’. These objects have literally been torn out of their own past. The heart may come from the East (at

that time, around 1950, numerous organs and skeletons were brought from India to Western universities for the purposes of study), while the baboon mummy

was probably robbed from a grave in Egypt and smuggled to Europe.

History is always written by individuals and is thus never an objective report. What meaning does an individual history have in the face of history in general? Are

we capable of writing a meaningful history? What would these objects signify if they were given a different history? This is the essence of the house. It is a

confrontation with a past that is always changeable. So what does memory actually mean? Contemporary art history is determined entirely by politics. The

influence of the art market and shifts in the affluence of our society, combined with the influence of religions, are greater than ever. What does this house signify

in this context?

I am building a house. A movable house.

Every detail of the house is a non-functional work of art in its own right.

A hospitable house. To which people are invited so they can signify something there.

The biggest difference between work in the theatre and in the plastic arts is the use of the observer’s time. In the theatre it is the maker that determines the time

given to observe an image, whereas in a work of art it is the observer himself. I make use of the concept of the border image in my theatre work. This is an image

which, as a result of my prolonging the normal duration of observation, has the time to penetrate the observer’s brain. It then makes history in the observer’s

mind. It becomes a memory. At this point the distinction between a border image (in the theatre) and a visual work ceases to exist. If art does not penetrate the

observer’s memory it does not exist.

In my work with Needcompany I am always experimenting with time. In the museum installations we put on performances lasting a whole day, and the observer

decides for himself how long he wants to watch a particular action. The place (in this case a museum) and the action (theatre) are deconstructed by the

subjectivity of the time involved in observing. So these deconstructions are the essential bridge between the two media I work in.

Jan Lauwers

3, 4 March 2007 - BOZAR, Brussels

17, 18 November 2007 - haus der kunst, Munich

BOZAR - Brussels 2007

Hooikaai 35 B-1000 Brussels

tel +32 2 218 40 75

fax +32 2 218 23 17

www.needcompany.org

Managing director: Christel Simons / christel@needcompany.org

Financial director: Thijs De Ceuster / thijs@needcompany.org

International relations and sales: Inge Ceustermans / inge@needcompany.org

Production management: Luc Galle / luc@needcompany.org

Assistant director, dramaturgy and communication: Elke Janssens / elke@needcompany.org

Tour management: Frank Van Elsen / frank@needcompany.org

Light technician: Ken Hioco / ken@needcompany.org

Assistant publications/press officer: Eva Blaute / eva@needcompany.org