Mama Showroom

720°

26 Jun - 09 Aug 2009

720°

26 Jun 2009 - 09 Aug 2009

Opening: Friday 26 June 2009

Artists: Gyz La Rivière (NL), Louisa Menke (NL), Florian Waldvogel (DE),
Curator: Gyz La Rivière

Mama presents: 720 ̊, an exhibition by artist / curator Gyz La Rivière from June 26th through August 9th .

720 ̊ is an all-in-one installation with a key role for the 55 minute documentary on the Dutch skateboard pioneers and trendsetters the Fret Click: '12' (featuring MAMA co-producing a film for the first time in its existence). In the past months La Rivière visited and filmed his old Fret Click friends, creating an intimate group portrait.

Fret Click was and remains a tight group of friends with roots in the Randstad and Eindhoven area. From the early nineties on they established a reputation of juvenile mischief, inventiveness on the skateboard and as predecessors of many trends in youth culture.

Gyz La Rivière's documentary '12' will be completed with authentic Fret Click source materials such as fake train tickets -used to travel the country in a quest to find the best spots for skateboarding- , the one and only Nike Zoom Air FC Fret Click and a short film on Mike de Geus (r.i.p.), the Johan Cruijff of skateboarding in the nineties.

The other half of the installation / exhibition is focused on the life of Louisa Menke, one of the few professional female skateboarders. Media artist Geert Mul and Gyz La Rivière will create an installation made up of short films by Louisa Menke, who, requested by La Rivière, has recorded her day to day life for the past few months.

A small but precious side-project of 720 ̊ is a series of photos by Louisa Menke commissioned by MAMA. Especially for us Louisa flew in from Barcelona to photograph Rotterdam. In the exhibition her photos of skateboarding hot spots and (old) friends will be presented to the public for the first time. Florian Waldvogel (ex-skateboarder and director of Kunstverein Hamburg) wrote an accompanying text to go with Menke's photos.

In 720 ̊ the pieces of a puzzle (photos, films, text and source material) are assembled to tell a story of freedom, growing up, friendship and grasping opportunities or missing chances.

720 ̊ is the central exhibition of MAMA's multimedial project Endless City; a project in which we investigate the relationship between skateboardculture, public space and (visual) art, with a sidelong reference to the ideas of the International Situationists.

Hidden Routes
July 18th and 19th (during the street weekend of the 'Youth Capital 2009') are reserved for a series of dance interventions led artistically by Conny Janssen. Contemporary dance reacts autonomously to the dynamic movements of skateboarding and to the creative interaction with obstacles in public space.
 

Tags: Geert Mul, Florian Waldvogel