the ideal man in Artoll – Bedburg Hau
Artists and scientists seek the ideal man! What is the ideal man? What is the ruling image? What do men think themselves? Will the traditional relationships ever change? Are we going to interact differently? Is there a new man coming? What started as a personal search of Anja Sijben for the ideal man, expanded in January 2011 in a […]
Anja Sijben
The sound work “I want more” is the internal monologue in one’s head. The inevitable urge of people to want better, bigger, more. It is a drive which makes us move forward and makes it possible to create. For which we need a concept of the ideal man for. To strive towards something ideal, which is […]
Casper ter Heerdt
I started out by building a huge column like the ones our heroes used to stand on. My work applies solely to the human part of this ‘ideal’. Instead of looking for perfection I search for possibilities. I’m interested in the question ‘Who we are? instead of what we should be like. My column developed from […]
Nicolaj Dudek
My work is a way of drawing around the construction of an ideal man and cycling and surfing at the same time around the cliché of the Ideal Man in an ironically and humorous way. There are two approaches: one is ‘mechanical’-like drawings, that represent the construction of something and offer a way to explore the thoughts […]
Milan Gies
I think there is no such thing as the ‘ideal’ man, one needs ideals. But those ideals should always be reflected and placed in one’s own context. Otherwise we start creating super ideals, which make the world hard and unreal. There is perfection through the existence of imperfection. The video “You have beautiful eyes” I made […]
Elaine Vis
Ideal men are powerful. Our world is made up winners. A man has to have a career to prove himself. Power was previously transferred by blood relationship, nowadays power has to be worked for. The base for the Ideal Man was the theme ‘man and power’. The classic men’s suits show male identity as a ruler. Each […]
Heather Allen
As a child in the 50’s and 60’s I was brought up with the expectation that my ideal man (‘the right man for me’) would one day appear and sweep me off into a happy future. As he never arrived I can only assume that he got lost on the way… Working on this project I’ve […]
Michaela Kuhlendahl
For the ‘ideal-man-project’ I have chosen to work with the hairy male body. Instinctively, hair does feel like a very personal bodily property and in its mythical meaning it is an expression of male and sexual power. So it has a certain charm that the men who donated their hair for my installations were conscious of […]
Naomi Akimoto
My work consists of two different approaches. One is the microscopic view, zooming in onto the mascular biological world on microscopic scale, resulting in drawings and an installation. Other work is based on Japanese literature (“Run, Melos” by Osamu Dazai. Published in 1940). The story is a reworking of Friedrich Schiller’s ballad “Die Bürgschaft”. The most […]
Guda Koster
During recent years woman has become highly emancipated. Man has adapted by developing his female side, but he has suppressed and forgotten his manly side. It is ‘not done’ to show your primal instincts as a man. The ideal man has to search for ’the wild man’ in himself. Lions, panthers, tigers in animal fabric silhouettes […]
Matthijs Muller
For me the playing man is the ideal man. Playing is the source of all creativity. Whilst playing the man gets absorbed by his desires. My installations and objects, where the hand of Man is shown everywhere but the absence of the human is striking, are about the boundaries of control. With directly appealing, at […]
01 Poptahof residency october 2009: The ideal man house
In a flat scheduled for demoltion in the neighbourhood ‘ Poptahof’ in Delft, five artists invited by Anja started their ‘ideal man project’. Anja Sijben, Ine Geraedts, Meg Mercx, Rob Verwer, Rob Visje, started discussing and fabricating work around the theme. Between the five, many knowledgeable and inspirational exchanges took place in the house. Poptahof, […]
02 The ideal man tinkers Rob Verwer
An ideal man has a place where he can tinker and investigate, research into not developed roads. He is curious and can be occupied with something for hours until he finds what he is looking for, in the meantime executing all the little jobs needed to do in the house. Not postpone but just execute […]
03 The ideal man laboratory Anja Sijben
The kitchen table was the central meeting place in the house, the so-called laboratory in search of the ideal man. Here many discussions took place about the ideal man. Our collective created work was in a shortened version projected on the wall in the kitchen during the presentation on October 25th 2009. The visitors at […]
04 The ideal man and power Ine Geraedts
The ideal man as leader, idol for many people. This in contrast with the man without a name, as a number, all the same, all together as an offer for the ideal. Who is ideal? Is that idol as ideal as it seems? Ine Gereadts shows her video in the prior living room. Her subtleness […]
05 The ideal man impression from media Meg Mercx and Rob Verwer
In the pink rose girl’s bedroom the real ideal man was carries by Barbie Ken’s. Or did the attention of the visitor slip to the ideal kisses in shown films? Meg’s magnificent realistic way of painting of the human body brings the visitor with both legs return back on earth. The bouquet book series lead […]
08 The ideal man in- or outdoors Rob Visje
Also Rob Visje was inspired by the neighbourhood. In the Poptahof area, would the ideal man be there? And how will he behave outdoors and how indoors? A temptation for Rob Visje to create a piquant version of the ideal man in- and outdoors at the same time. The painting, a little too vehement to […]
09 The ideal man in body power Rob Verwer and Anja Sijben
To make space for the painting ‘the naked man’ of Rob Visje, a wardrobe closet had to be removed. We found this an ultimate expression of an ideal man. He brakes down a closet without tools and measures his powers, he attacks his opponent (in this case the closet) with his own body. In cooperation […]