My Third Land

My Third Land
19.10.2013 - 01.12.2013

“…I have, in order to escape this fate,
Invented a third land within my head,
A land where lies and phantoms congregate…”(1)

Artists: Agnieszka Kurant, Camille Henrot, Charles Avery, Constant Nieuwenhuys, Fiona Tan, Jennifer Tee, Jonathas de Andrade, Jorge Méndez Blake, Marcius Galan, Mira Sanders, Pablo Bronstein, Paloma Bosquê, Ryan Gander, Shilpa Gupta, Shirin Neshat, Simon Fujiwara, Tomás Saraceno

Curators: Nathanja van Dijk & Carolyn H Drake

With the international group exhibition My Third Land, Frankendael Foundation follows the Dutch poet Gerrit Komrij on his journey as described in the poem “Counterweight.”(2) Komrij shares with his readers a place that exists somewhere between the fatherland he left behind and the new country he emigrated to. The Third Land is a home created through the imagination of its inhabitant.

In the era of technology and globalization, it has become increasingly difficult to affiliate oneself with a physical place. The exhibition at Frankendael Foundation presents the journey in search of a Third Land which exists between our imagination and actuality, between our inner world and the physical reality that surrounds us: a refuge for the 21st century’s individual. My Third Land explores the way we create a place and time to belong, within a world which is constantly changing. In a society where people, power, culture and knowledge continuously evolve and change locations, this constant motion evokes our desire to explore and simultaneously fuels our need to find a place to call ‘home.’ With Komrij’s poem as a point of departure the artists in the exhibition give shape to the Third Land, armed with the only tool we continue to bring along on our journeys: the imagination.

As the last remaining 18th-century manorial estate of Amsterdam, Huize-Frankendael is a green, cultural enclave that acts an inner world in the center of the city. The house in itself is a metaphor for the Third Land Komrij writes about, in which imagination and reality merge into one.

Throughout the duration of the exhibition, a series of ‘Salons of the Imaginary Arts’ are presented in collaboration with Club Interbellum and White Rabbit Theatre. These evenings unite the realm of visual arts, theatre, music, gastronomy and science into one comprehensive experience. Looking through the magnifying glass of both art and science enables us to explore the meaning of the Third Land for the individual and society as a whole.

Frankendael Foundation supports and enables Huize Frankendael as an exhibition space for contemporary art. Inspired by the Salon d’Art the Foundation makes art resonate through society by means of exhibitions and debates that encourage an active and critical stance. In order to involve a critical peer group, Frankendael Foundation brings together people from various fields allowing its activities to bridge the worlds of art and society.

(1) Gerrit Komrij, Alle gedichten tot gisteren. Amsterdam, De Bezige Bij 2004. (Permission from the Komrij Huis) English translation by John Irons.
(2) Ibid.