ARTIS, DEN BOSCH: RACHEL KOOLEN

TECHNOCRATIC OPENNESS, FREE AGGRESSION

The artist Rachel Koolen (1979, Rotterdam) continues her ongoing artistic research of the history of the Dutch Social Security System appearance and imagery, in building a large scale installation throughout the exhibition space of Artis Den Bosch. She succeeded in transforming this space in collaboration with the German architect and colleague Andreas Müller.

In the exhibition space of Artis Den Bosch 'Technocratic Openness, Free Aggression', Rachel Koolen creates an special intervention which uses photography, video and display strategies to enroll and endorse a personal comment on the bureaucratic phenomenon’s of the Dutch social service institution. The Institution which is mend to give support to people on the raffle’s of Dutch Society. Being an artist, depending on income support, Koolen has also endured to participate and play part in this nowadays bureaucracy service system.

The artist focuses on the “Centrum voor Werk en Inkomen” as the central location and the focused subject in her work. In “Centrum voor Werk en Inkomen” are to day the so called ‘labour squares’; the located offices where the registration desks of unemployed workers is integrated with the execution of the supervision services, as well as that of the support projects and the regular contact meetings with clients are held. Services to secure rules and arrangements which lead the unemployed workers to new jobs.

These places, with their present structures which they derived from nowadays trade and service industries, adopted a fancy business-like character. High lighting, transparent and mirrored glass walls, open service desk aria’s and picture rich marketing and publicity campaigns’ supports the clients vision of immediate admission to these support services.

Koolen as an artist, examined and investigated the development and history of how the Dutch Social Security service system presented itself through the sixties, seventies and eighties and exposes the sources on which they based their present policies.

In an enclosed network of connections she exposes these layers, deconstructs and shows how these changes in presentation evokes a changes in the appearance of the bureaucracy itself, still forcing up even higher levels of control on their clients in a smooth and bright surrounding. In this transformation in which bureaucracy gave itself a pimped outlook, not everything looks likes what it is. In an even subtle artistic play Rachel Koolen brings to surface that what gently threatens to submerge.

Artis Den Bosch is open to visitors Thursday till Sunday, 1 pm till 5 pm.
The exhibition Technocratic Openness, Free Aggression closes on 26th of April 2009.

http://www.artisdenbosch.nl/ (Shown pictures are taken at the exhibition)