Page 81 - 1968 ... 2013 Soft Living Room

soft living room pushed aside; a turbulent society within which violence and aggression were common
and equal rights for men and women were being claimed; a society within which the
distance between exclusive art and the public was diminishing.
1967-2013
Between Dream and Reality Art van Westerop, who had worked at the hat atelier of Yves Saint Laurent, helped
me to cover the hills in an expert way.
Lysander Apol made the 16 wall panels of the SLR out of block board.
With pleasure I invite you on a journey back in time, to rest
In the summer of 1969 Lysander Apol and Art van Westerop transported the SLR to
awhile in the Soft Living Room of 1969. the biennale in Lausanne (Switzerland).

This work is, after being hidden for more than 40 years, now In Lausanne the SLR was a spectacular success. The journalist Virtus Schade wrote
in the Danish newspaper Berlingske Aftenavis (June 18th 1969) that: ‘One has to take
again on display at the Stedelijk Museum Schiedam as part of ones shoes off before the art can be experienced. No this is not a happening, but a serious
art exhibition. The work of Maria van Elk has to be reviewed as the most advanced.’
the exhibition Ik hou van Holland, until September 6th 2015.
1970 1971 1972 Following exhibitions at the Department of Archi-
tecture of the Eindhoven University of Technology and at the ‘Vishal’ in Haarlem,
1967 In 1967 I made the first Soft Living Room (SLR) for display at the ‘Hallen’ in the voyage of the SLR ended at the Stedelijk Museum Schiedam, after which it
Haarlem. It comprised a space of ±5 meters diameter, enclosed by dark blue material. disappeared, or so it seemed.
On this dark blue material a landscape was pictured in, amongst other materials,
fluorescent non-artistic colours. Dark blue hills filled with foam flakes were placed in 1998 Until I received a letter in 1998 from Ludo van Halem, the then curator
the space. The whole installation was lit with small bulbs that, like the stars at night, of the visual arts at the museum in Schiedam, telling me that he had discovered
gave the colours an extra glow. remnants of the Soft Living Room in an attic of the municipality of Schiedam. I was
invited to assist with the restoration of the SLR, but this was an impossible task for
After the exhibition Willem de Ridder (Hitweek) asked me if he could move the me at that time.
installation to Fantasio, a youth centre on the Prins Hendrikkade. The SLR would
be used as a playful space in which one could drink herbal tea, listen to music, relax, 2013 It was not until the beginning of 2013 that Colin Huizing and Christel
amplify the mind and meditate. We transported the SLR to Fantasio in Willem’s old Kordes invited me, on behalf of the Stedelijk Museum Schiedam to make a complete
car. After a time this work disappeared without a trace. reconstruction of the SLR. Due to their enthusiasm, and also due to the support of
An and Martin de Voigt, I gathered enough courage to save a work of art from ruin
1968 Benno Premsela asked me, as a result of the first SLR (1967), to make a that I had made 45 years ago.
large installation for the biennale in Lausanne (Switzerland).
With the help of the following people the Soft Living Room is again as it used to be:
Enabled by a subsidy for materials, a travel subsidy from the Ministry of Culture, and
a studio temporarily made available by the Stedelijk Museum Amsterdam, I realized An and Martien de Voigt gave moral and financial support.
a work of art that was large for the time. For this second piece I was able to work in a
more suitable studio and with better materials, like artificial fur, solid foam, artificial Colin Huizing organized swiftly, energetically and decisively the necessary mate-
silk and block board. rials, the atelier and the transport of the SLR to Schiedam.

1969 The Soft Living Room that resulted has a diameter of four meters. The height Erik Bouma, Aad Jongkind, Rens van Vuuren en Roelie Zijlstra made the 16
of the wall is two meters and is constructed from 16 wooden panels that together wall panels, and assisted with the transport and the erection of the SLR in Schiedam.
form an enclosed space based on a perfect circle.
Eva Damave, Irene and Jeff Carroll, Deborah Apol and Sieb Bohlken assisted
The floor is shaped from 15cm thick foam and is completely covered with black with miscellaneous activities.
artificial fur.
The inside and outside walls are covered with black and white artificial silk on which Evert de Cock made a computer reconstruction of the wall design from a handful
an abstract image of waves and hills is depicted. of old pictures and attended to print work.

Inside the SLR are eight moveable sculptures; each one comprising a hill of foam Christel Kordes made diagrams, a description and exact measurement of the
covered with artificial fur. The wave motif is continued from the walls to the sculp- hills of the 1969 SLR without which the reconstruction of the SLR would have been
tures to create an interaction between the two-dimensional nature of the walls and impossible.
the three-dimensional aspect of the sculptures.
Thea van Oosten from the ‘Instituut Collectie Nederland’ made a quick analysis of
The colours used in the piece are limited to black and white, to create contrast and the materials used in the original SLR based on what was left of the 1968 SLR so that
extremes. The black, heavy and dark floor extends upward to the white light filtered I could order exactly the same quality of foam and artificial fur for the reconstruction.
in by the white roof of artificial silk that seals the inside from the outside world. A
small oval hole is the only entrance to the SLR. The contributions of these people ensured the success of the reconstruction and that
the Soft Living Room is again on exhibition in Schiedam!
In the 1960s one tried to achieve lightness and timelessness by means of meditation.
The SLR was designed as a soft landscape into which one could disappear from a Maria van Elk, 2013
turbulent society where many things were being questioned and many boundaries www.mariavanelk.nl

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