Artwork: Das Vergnügen der Ehepares Ding-Dong, 2000

Corten steel 245 cm x 165 cm

Original description:
At the beginning of the monumental tree cathedral on Boeimeerlaan stands a steel frame containing two hanging shapes, like clappers on an antique clock or heavy nuts on a music staff. From a distance, they appear to pivot, but up close you can see that they are fixed in their form. The smooth stainless steel seems only to have been detached at the hanging organic shapes before the solidification process began.

‘Das Vergnügen der Ehepares Ding-Dong’ is the loose translation of the title. But instead of pleasure, the whole embodies mainly incapacity. Incapacity to come closer to each other? Incapacity to deal with the reality of life? The sculpture shows great affinity with drawings from the same period, with titles like Marionettes and Sticks. In those, human figures hang helplessly from a frame, heads bent or broken. The sticks from the last drawing are echoed in this piece.

Theo Besemer (Nederhorst den Berg 1936 lives and works in ‘s-Hertogenbosch) grew up in an artistic environment, which sparked an early interest in visual arts. He followed a classical sculpting education under Fred Carasso at the Jan van Eyck Academy in Maastricht (1957-1961) and studied at the academy in Milan from 1961 to 1963. He has been awarded several times and his works adorn many collections.

The photographs were taken by Jeroen van Eijndhoven.