Ambition

Ambition. (Monica Pretelini, the candidate's wife). 2011©Marisa Polin 

My last painting, based on Mexico State's governor Enrique Peña Nieto's wife who died 4 years ago.

This is The Hague

A blog with excellent pictures on the everyday The Hague:

Dit is Den Haag
by Dutch Legend©.

Surrealist as Mexico

The kidnappers' photo published one month after El Jefe was released.

Diego Fernandez de Cevallos "El Jefe" by Marisa Polin

One step further in the absurd irony of what happened and not happened to El Jefe Diego Fernandez de Cevallos.

His supposedly captors "Los Misteriosos Desaparecedores" just sent a new letter with this phtotograph to Navegaciones.

Here you see El Jefe already thinner and with a longer beard holding Proceso magazine with my painting based on a previously released click by the kidnappers holding a Proceso magazine with the cover of a free El Jefe as proof of being alive after his disappearance. 

It is so absurd that it is easy to think that it is made with photoshop, I first thought so, but now I know is not.

Via @CiudadanoOscar

Free

The cover of "El Jefe" with Marisa Polin's painting.

The photo sent by the kidnappers.

The cover from Proceso he is holding on the shot in captivity.

Photoshop: The parody.

Photoshop parody Endless El Jefe

Photoshop: Navidad

The artist studio

and the back of the artist.

The Dutch artist Andre Smits has been working on the project Artists of the World for sometime. It is quite straightforward but it tells a lot about the artists through looking at their work place. It also helps filling the voyeuristic desire of us all to see how the artist works.

He was taking pictures in The Hague last week when he also took a photo of my place. It wasn't what I was expecting as it is really about the working space and not about the work. 

Thanks Andre!

What is a narco message?

We keep our word (Somos de Palabra), 2011, Marisa Polin

Here two paintings I am working on, still fresh, based on the different messages that drug dealers and criminals leave not only for their enemies but also for the press,  the politicians and the public.

They reflect their mean minds and also a lot about their own background.

Grenade, 2011, Marisa Polin

Good morning 2011

Every day a creative day.

Drugs culture kidnaps the fine arts

El Economista, image El Jefe by M.Polin

This article talks about the influence of the Mexican Drugs War in the arts, days after the "official" release of the ex-presidential candidate and lawyer Diego Fernandez de Cevallos. He was kidnapped for 7 months. This information is in part what the title of the article by Vicente Gutierrez from El Economista is refering to. The image of the article is my painting El Jefe based on the photo made of Fernandez de Cevallos by his kidnappers.

English Excerpt from: 
The narco kidnaps the fine arts
Vicente Gutiérrez / El Economista, Mexico / 22 December 2010

Film, theater, art installations, music, novels, art and television series are inspired by drug trafficking and violence in Mexico to create works of art. But the narco goes beyond the social phenomenon that causes the lifestyles of drug dealers, that many  that many young people copy in their dream to be rich like them. Increasingly, the artists take the drugs world as a theme to create.
"It is impossible to ignore the horror that exists in many cities, borders and roads of the country and this affects all activities or people," said the writer Martin Solares.
"In Mexico's artists have begun to reflect on their creations the increasing daily violence or the presence of drug traffickers. Even in the Mexican poems and novels  occasionally appears a testament to the violence! "He said. After the federal government declared war on drug trafficking, the issue has been more present than ever in the Fine Arts and has become the "tough" face of Mexico in the world.  Just remember that for the 53 Venice Biennale, the artist Teresa Margolles showed an installation of a room soaked with blood and debris of various murders and had jewelry made with scrap from the drugs war.
The art curator Cuauhtémoc Medina explained that "jewelry made from fragments of windshield glass, embroidered in gold on blood and sound recordings of the landscapes of death aphorisms murderers, they all converge to produce a space for reflection, physical threat and anxiety."
Or what the artist Marisa Polin did in The Netherlands, who intervened a picture of Diego Fernandez de Cevallos blindfolded. Although this was the most innocent part of the exhibition where executions, beheaded, tortured and kidnapped were shown in her drawings and paintings that raised a lot of noise.
What about El Infierno / The Hell, Luis Estrada film which grossed 83 million 82 thousand 542 pesos to register as the second highest grossing film in Mexican cinema in 2010 which tells the story of an ordinary man who ends up as a drug trafficker.
etcetera...  
 

Excerpto en Español de: La narcocultura secuestra las bellas artes
Vicente Gutiérrez / El Economista, Mexico / 22 December 2010

Cine, obras de teatro, instalaciones de arte, música, novelas, artes plásticas y series de televisión se inspiran en el narcotráfico y la violencia en México para crear obras artísticas.

Pero la narcocultura va más allá del fenómeno social que provoca el estilo de vida de los narcotraficantes, ése que muchos jóvenes copian en su sueño por ser ricos como ellos.

Cada vez más, los artistas toman el narco como materia para crear.

“Es imposible ignorar el horror que se vive en tantas ciudades, fronteras o carreteras del país y esto afecta a todas las actividades o personas”, explicó el escritor Martín Solares.

“En México los artistas más exquisitos y solipsistas han comenzado a reflejar en sus creaciones el aumento de la violencia cotidiana o la presencia de los narcotraficantes. ¡Hasta en los poemas y en las novelas de ciencia ficción mexicanas aparece de vez en cuando un testimonio de la violencia!”, agregó. Después de que el gobierno federal declaró la guerra al narcotráfico, el tema ha estado más presente que nunca en las Bellas Artes y se ha convertido en el rostro “duro” de México en el mundo. Basta recordar que para la 53 Bienal de Venecia, la artista Teresa Margolles presentó instalaciones sobre el narco con una habitación empapada con sangre, residuos de distintos asesinatos y joyas hechas con desechos de la guerra del narcotráfico.

El curador de arte Cuauhtémoc Medina explicó que “joyas hechas con fragmentos de parabrisas, aforismos asesinos bordados en oro sobre sangre, sonidos grabados en los paisajes de la muerte, todos ellos convergen para producir un espacio de reflexión, amenaza corporal y ansiedad”.

O lo que hizo en Holanda la artista plástica Marisa Polin quien intervino una foto de Diego Fernández de Cevallos con los ojos vendados, aunque es la pieza más inocente de la exposición ante los ejecutados, decapitados, torturados y secuestrados que aparecen en sus dibujos y pinturas que levantaron mucho ruido.

Qué decir de El Infierno, película de Luis Estrada que recaudó 83 millones 82 mil 542 pesos para colocarse como la segunda cinta más taquillera del cine mexicano en el 2010 donde relata la historia de un hombre común que acaba como narcotraficante.

etcetera...
To see more referring press.

At the Sultan's Harem

Topkapi, Istanbul.

Photo gallery at Milenio

English

Spanish

Click on the photos.
The Mexican newspaper and website Milenio.com shows a photo gallery om my last paintngs. They write their own photo texts to my series (Not) Guilty, except when they uncorrectly mention where the exhibition is being shown: It is at WAD in Delft until 17 of October 2010.

I posted yesterday the photo of the just finished painting The Boss (El Jefe), just in time to be published at its final state.
They also write that the painting Z is about a member of The Zetas gang, which for me it was actually someone punished BY The Zetas. Who is right?

Free train ride

I still remember how surprised I was to get a second book and 'gratis' when I bought one of my Dutch study books as a recently arrived foreigner to The Netherlands. Then I was explained that it was only during the Dutch Book Week.
What I just discovered, many years later, is that on the Sunday during the Dutch Book Week you can use the book you had received as a present instead of a train ticket. I decided to go to Groningen -as far as you can get and still being in The Netherlands-. It was a full train in both directions and most of us were carrying at least one book: our free train ticket.

The Book Week is already finished but here to train impressions with people carrying or reading their Joost Zwagerman ' s Duel ticket-book.
Boekenweek.

Where will you meet The Hague art in one place?

Next year at the new year's art drinks party that together organize the Gemeente Museum, Gem, Fotomuseum De Haag, Vrije Academie, Heden, Stroom and Gemak at Het Paard van Troje. For this years' it is too late, it was yesterday. Luckily it was less crowded than the two previous years.

Yesterdays' photos:

Double colleague Kees Koomen and artist Rien Monshouwer.

Gallerist Maurits van de Laar, Replica 21 and graphic designer Gabriela Galindo and Mexican cultural attache Juan Manuel Springer.

Jose Manuel Springer, Floris the Filmmaker and Unlikely artist Eelco van der Lingen

Robert Jan Verhagen en Geertje Muffels from
Liefhertje en De Grote Witte Reus.

More photographs at Chmkoome and at Heden.
The invitation:

Red Cross Gala in The Hague

Red Cross Gala

Sculpture Club (more) at the Red Cross Gala in The Hague

The Karel Appel from 1958 that was auctioned

One of the Gala organizers and the Auctioneer Jop Ubbens from Christie's

Mathilde Santing was the performer of the night. I had never heard her live, as we were hearing her beautiful voice and we were telling each other what a good singer she was, many other visitors apparently did the same during her second song. She was not amused by the noise but she extended her message too long and gave great depth to it. Then we were not amused. She continued singing like nothing had happened. But unfortunately for us the public it was not completely the same.
The gala gathered a high amount of money for all the voluntary activities of the Red Cross.

Bye.

Sculpture Club from Museum Beelden aan Zee, Scheveningen.
Photos © Marisa Polin

The street as an endless art gallery

Peter Gibson Roadsworth hat tip Bagger

Harmen de Hoop

Banksy

Trick or treat?

Barack Obama: Basketball vs. pumpkin? We will know tomorrow.

Was this pumpkin chosen because it looked just as a basketball or basketballs got this look years ago by a pumpkin farmer?

Damien Hirst: one work, all the attention

On Halloween was The Netherlands at his feet.
Opening of the solo exhibition (of one work) of Damien Hirst at the Rijksmuseum in Amsterdam.
What I thought was the opening was only a VIP one, the SUPER-VIP opening with the presence of Hirst himself was the evening before. "No photos allowed", so I can only show some VIP photos.
The skull was bright as only nearly 9000 diamonds can make it shine.

The waitress wearing some of the trendy shirts from the special Hirst Shop.

Hans Hoogervorst and Rijksmuseum new director Wim Pijbes in front of the dj/sax player.

Rijksmuseum's Eva Kalis and me.

More photos at trendbeheer.
More about Hirst at Polink.

Creativity rights

"Chinese are confused and instead of Copyright they call it the right to copy".

Who is at the end the owner of an idea or an image? The author of the famous photo of "El Che Guevara", Alberto Korda never saw any money from it (or little). The world owns the image now, it is as iconic as the face of a Buda.

The powerful poster created for the Obama campaign by Shepard Fairy had been copied and reinterpreted. What does the author or the Obama team thinks of it? Will they sue those copying?
I found this collection of some reinterpretations in the Volkskrant this morning.
Other Polink posts.

Organizing the books

Mine / Le blog du temps perdu

Organizing books and CD I decided to make a graphic that would help me to find the books and easily add more to the shelves. As I finished my photo-graphics I found this post in another blog.
I am often reminded how we never do anything really original.