StartPoint Prize 2016

Roeland Van Trigt

The installation Union For Good Citizenship at first looks much like an archaeological excavation site, or a gathering of cast-off props. These are visually appealing objects, which look like they might actually have a function. This seems to be suggested by their human scale and associations with activity, probably in the past. And indeed it is so. Van Trigt takes his art to the people, but the public part has a distinctly autonomous position. He creates situations where the (sometimes unsuspecting public) must take an active part. Participation nonetheless does not lead to some common good, but mainly to the effect that the artist’s work is consumed by as many users as possible. The pinnacle of this is the opportunity to play miniature golf (for a fee) amongst Van Tright’s sculptures. The artist stages situations similar to ordinary life, but gives them a sculptural or theatrical twist which render these as a work all his own. Does he want to show us the hidden mechanisms manipulating our lives, or is he just trying to involve the widest possible audience for his projects? For this ambiguity alone it is worth waiting to see what Van Tright comes up with next time.