True to the manner in which she has been working since 1989, Joke Robaard
designed a series of folders. Each folder is comprised of a photograph of the
Hofvijver over which a text is printed. In almost all the folders Robaard
inhabits the photographs with people who happen to be passing by or by
consciously introducing divers who either linger around or in the pond.
The three elements, photography, people, text, are supplemented by a
fourth equally important element: the acknowledgements, in which all
the people and authorities involved are named. All four of the elements
offer an equal opportunity for insight into the folders: as art, as advertisement,
as the presentation of an idea, as a system of communication. The folders that
are enlarged and to be seen in the various buildings around the Hofvijver, can
be found in magazines in constantly changing forms: as wrappers, as an insert,
a double page spread and as an illustration. Thus, an interaction is created
between the art world and the world outside, the worlds of politics, philosophy,
film, town and country planning and conservation, with the artist as intermediary.
Joke Robaard lives and works in Amsterdam, The Netherlands
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