Dreams and Nightmares of Europe

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The Painted Bird is a joint art work by Marie Aly, Cian-Yu Bai, Bonno van Doorn, Kim David Bots, Gijs Frieling, Natasja Kensmil, Klaas Kloosterboer, Mirthe Klück, Frank Koolen, Fiona Lutjenhuis, Charlott Markus, Kalle Mattsson, Jan van de Pavert, Tanja Ritterbex, Sam Samiee, Charlotte Schleiffert, Derk Thijs, Sarah Verbeek, Helen Verhoeven, Evi Vingerling and Job Wouters.

Europe 2017. Are we dancing on a volcano? Are renewed nationalism, xenophobia, the distrust of politics and democracy, the arrival of refugees, and economic insecurity preparing us for a terrible meltdown? It is well possible. It should give us hope for this project, since the best art is produced on the verge of despair, when civilizations crumble and we’re about to shift into a new world order.

Marres Maastricht produced a spectacular mural about Europe by nineteen artists who have painted all rooms, corridors, the stairwell, floors and ceilings of the historic Marres House. Having a surface area of over 750 m2, the painting depicts a series of beautiful and frightening environments, including a high-tech clone supermarket, the last surviving piece of primeval forest, a Berlin love and hippie fest space, a spider portrait corridor, a new life festival in the year 2050. Gijs Frieling directed the modern Gesamtkunstwerk. The artists Frank Koolen and Kim David Bots developed a comprehensive soundtrack, and Charlott Markus and Kalle Mattsson make a publication. The book will be published April 2017 and will cost 25,-. If you would like to reserve a publication, please send an email with your name and address to info@marres.org

The exhibition is part of the series of immersive exhibits at Marres, previous instalments of which included The Winter Anti Depression Show (2014) and Levi van Veluw:The Relativity of Matter (2015).

Thanks to

The Painted Bird is made possible by Fonds 21 and the BankGiro Lottery Fund.

Marres organized a succesful crowdfunding campaign for The Painted Bird together with the Voordekunst crowdfunding platform for the creative industry.