Corona Journal: Marcel van Eeden from Indochina and Zurich

We asked artists around the world, who are close to Haus am Waldsee through exhibitions, what their situation is like at the moment.

Marcel van Eeden is a well-known Dutch draughtsman and artist, who had a solo exhibition at Haus am Waldsee in 2011: Schritte ins Reich der Kunst. In his series, van Eeden deals with the past, the time before his birth in 1965. The artist deals with this time, which is supposedly so certain because, unlike the future, it has already taken place, in a literary-creative way by using criminal humour to bring real life stories of deceased people into ever new entanglements. He takes scenes and texts from the Internet and transfers them to uniquely striking, speaking drawings.

In Angkor Wat, wonderful black and white photographs have now been created that perfectly match the atmosphere of his art. Marcel van Eeden studied at the Royal Academy of Art in The Hague. After many years in Berlin he lives in Zurich and teaches at the Academy of Art in Karlsruhe.

Here is his update from 16 April 2020

Back in Zurich it is actually not much different than usual, I thought. In my studio I was always alone. But now our son can’t go to school. And the mood in the supermarket could be described as tense at the very least. Somehow it affected my concentration in the beginning. All day long news about illness and death. This causes restless dreams. Actually you shouldn’t read a lot of newspapers, it’s not healthy. But you want to know. The condition is so unusual.

Meanwhile I continue working relatively calmly. My world has become as small as my desk. Sometimes I take a little walk outside. Soon the academy in Karlsruhe will start again, where I teach. In the beginning everything will be digital. Everything inside the room at the small table in front of me.

Photo: Marcel von Eeden

This is his text from 22 March 2020

In 2019 we planned a two months trip to China and Indochina, leaving on February 20th, 2020. Our son (9 years old) had a special permission to skip school for two months. But then the first Corona news kicked in. It was all in China, in Wuhan, and they seemed to have it all under control. So we left out the China part, changed all the flights, and focused on Singapore, Vietnam, Cambodia and Laos. 

We started on February 19th. Slowly during our travels in the beginning of March the situation escalated first in Italy, then in the rest of Europe. We were more and more alone in hotels, museums and temples, although there were almost no cases in Vietnam and Cambodia at that time. We decided to go back, but it took some time to arrange everything and to get used to the idea that we had to break off after only a month. 

We were in Siem Reap at that point, near the temples of Angkor Wat. Normally flooded with thousands of tourists. Now it felt as if we were alone in those huge, dark monuments. It was beautiful, like a dream, as if we were explorers from the 19th century who discovered the temples for the first time.

 

 

Marcel van Eeden, photo: Lukas Giesler

Temple complex of Angkor Wat, photos: Marcel van Eeden