VROUW MARIA // kontaining // 24hr residency

June 9, 2012 admin _ 0

Vrouw Maria / Kontaining / Ptarmigan Helsinki / Lasipalatsin Aukio
24 hour art and coffee

The Vrouw Maria was a merchant ship which sank 241 years ago in the outer archipelago of the municipality of Nagu, Finland. Amongst the ship’s cargo – which also included coffee beans, sugar, fabric and dyes – were an estimated twenty one artworks, belonging to Catherine the Great.

To commemorate the 241st anniversary of the sinking of the Vrouw Maria, Hannah Harkes will recreate these twenty one artworks during her 24 hour takeover of the KONTAINING shipping container, using only the titles of the works as starting points.

The space will function as an open studio and gallery from 9am to 9am, inviting the public to influence the content of the recreated works and to view their progression. Willing passersby may also play the muse, and model for studies of the various characters and scenes present in the works. Costume and props will be provided.

Coffee will be served throughout the 24 hour period, in fearful reverence of the coffee beans that clogged the ship’s pump and brought about its demise on that fateful day in 1771 – and to aid in the continued, restless art making.

FEATURING RECREATIONS OF THE FOLLOWING SUNKEN WORKS:

Hendrick Van Balen – “The Virgin and the Young Jesus Christ”
Gerard ter Borch – “A Musician with a Guitar”, “The Officer Who Wrote the Letter”, “Girl with a Dog”
Gerard Dou – “The Girl in Yellow”, “The Reception was a Surgeon”
Jan van Goyen – “The Village on the Banks of the River”
Willem Joseph Laquy – “An Artist with a Student”
Johannes Lingelback – “A Ship at Anchor”
Gabriel Metsu – “The Servant with the Hare in his Hands”
Frans van der Myn – “A Gentleman with a Glass”
Adrian can Ostade – “The Man at the Table”
Paulus Potter – “Large Cow Wagon”
Abraharm Stork – “City on the Rhine”
Adriaen van de Velde – “Herd on Vacation”
Jakob de Wit – “Jug with Flowers”
Philips Wouwerman – “Fight Club”, “Old House”, “The Scene with the Hunter”, “The Boy with the Horse”, “River”

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THE VROUW MARIA ANNIVERSARY TAKEAWAY
The Vrouw Maria Anniversary Takeaway honours the omnipotent coffee bean, an almighty power capable of raising heart rate and of sinking ships. The founders of The Vrouw Maria Anniversary Takeaway kindly ask their customers to commit a propitiatory act in the drinking of their coffee by immersing themselves in the splendour of the supreme stimulatory power or else to cower forebodingly beneath the shadow of its formidable wrath.