Out of Focus

Status

Temporary

Category

In storage

Since

11-03-2024

Explanation

Because De Bijenkorf is busy with maintenance on the facade, a number of sculptures from The Sculpture Gallery by Peter Struycken have been temporarily covered by crates as a precaution. This way they cannot be damaged by construction material. The moment the scaffolding moves or disappears, the crates disappear as well.

Image

Artwork Data

Title

Calimero

Artist

David Bade

Year

2013

Material

Brons, beschilderd

Dimensions

300 cm

Partial collection

Beeldengalerij

Artwork Location

Address

Grote Marktstraat, Den Haag

City district

Centrum

GPS data

52.076696631372, 4.3124819338379 View on map

Artwork Description

Text

They are big and I am small, and that's not fair, oh no.'
The speaker is Calimero. This black chicken chick with half an eggshell on its head became a cartoon hit in the early sixties. Born in a nest with all yellow and bigger brothers and sisters, he regularly squealed that it wasn't fair. Re-released several times, children still watch the adventures of this little chick today.
With two superimposed figures in tracksuits and wearing a Calimero helmet, artist David Bade refers to the tendency that more and more people in our society seem to take on the passive victim role of Calimero. According to him, his own native island Curaçao also suffers from Calimero syndrome.

Bade himself is all activity. As an artist, but also as co-founder of Instituto Buena Bista (IBB), a platform for contemporary art and education on Curaçao. As a 23-year-old, Bade won the Prix de Rome for drawing, and a year later he had his first solo in the Stedelijk Museum in Amsterdam. Since then, he has travelled the world with his raw, humorous and at the same time critical drawings, sculptures and installations. Ordinary everyday things often serve as the inspiration. For example, supermarket shelf stackers evoke associations with his profession as a painter (shelf stacker). He prefers to place these kinds of thoughts and motives next to each other on one canvas or to combine them with sculptures to form an installation. The associations tumble over each other. Even in your own head.

The unbridled energy of Bade's work is also reflected in his projects for young artists. At the IBB, together with fellow artist Tirzo Martha, he has been offering thirty young talents the opportunity to further develop their creativity since 2006. No Calimero syndrome!

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