salon, De Domijnen, Sittard (NL)

2018

400cm x 600cm x 250cm

The artist collective ‘Otomax’ presents the installation “half full - half empty” as a museum-in-a-museum; a transparent, wooden structure serves as a stage for objects that have been removed from their ordinary context. This project intends to reflect the city of Sittard as it is today: filled with emptiness; empty streets and buildings; fairly new buildings, that have been designed and built in an attempt to save the city from its abandonment.

Prior to the exhibition, a vacant school became the temporal workspace for the collective to gather children’s toys and other items, found in local thrift stores. Thereafter the objects were converted into ‘performers’ to eventually take part in the automatised ensemble of the installation. An Arduino (an open-source mini computer) controls the composition of the moving and sound-making objects according to a digital score.

The reuse and conversion (circuit-bending) of discarded and recycled objects in the animated installation also reflects the performance strategy of the band that pursues a balance between the concept of the valuable and the worthless.

‘Otomax’ is the sum of different art practises, dealing with counter-aesthetics, circuit bending, (non-)popular culture and spatial- and temporary interventions, expressed through concerts, performances, installations and workshops.

This project has been realised with support from Stichting Stokroos, Brand Cultuurfonds and the Mondriaan Fonds.