Past Imperfect
Past Imperfect explores the relations between the radical output of the conceptual art of the 1960s and 1970s and everyday life, gradually moving on to include how radical ideas from the past are linked to those of today. In all corners of life (politics, literature, intelligence, science) radical actions, even if they seem to have disappeared in oblivion, continue to influence and shape the public arena. Past Imperfect searches for hidden pasts by lifting stones and poking underneath.
Past Imperfect contains 82 cases, brought together in Casco Issues #9: PAST IMPERFECT (2005), consisting of 10 different small zines glued together in random order, each with a different front color. This publication, designed by Wil Holder, is the result of a research collaboration between Bik Van der Pol with Lisette Smits and Wil Holder. It is intensely guided by curiosity, amazement and suspicion, accepting the risk of being totally incomplete or overly thorough.
Past Imperfect contains 82 cases, brought together in Casco Issues #9: PAST IMPERFECT (2005), consisting of 10 different small zines glued together in random order, each with a different front color. This publication, designed by Wil Holder, is the result of a research collaboration between Bik Van der Pol with Lisette Smits and Wil Holder. It is intensely guided by curiosity, amazement and suspicion, accepting the risk of being totally incomplete or overly thorough.
Past Imperfect
Past Imperfect is a collection of cases around notions on disappearance, perfection and imperfection, excessive control, compulsion and withdrawal - as varied as causal developments, state fiction and ambiguity, coincidental histories, preservation and destruction, dark politics, the haunting of artifacts and economical speculation, erasure, protection, the impossible made possible, and much more.
Some case studies have been developed into a new work.
An example of this is Past Imperfect (Case 39), made for Life, Once More - Forms of Reenactment in Contemporary Art, curated by Sven Lütticken, at Witte de With, Center for Contemporary Art, Rotterdam. Another example is Trinity (April 2, 2005, New Mexico), a film- and research work, exhibited at Secession in Vienna in 2005.
Some case studies have been developed into a new work.
An example of this is Past Imperfect (Case 39), made for Life, Once More - Forms of Reenactment in Contemporary Art, curated by Sven Lütticken, at Witte de With, Center for Contemporary Art, Rotterdam. Another example is Trinity (April 2, 2005, New Mexico), a film- and research work, exhibited at Secession in Vienna in 2005.