Showcasing Today’s Essentials

A long term observation of the shop window of a home furnishings outlet in the Amsterdam Slotervaart area is the starting point for the work. Valk realized how much the shop window resembled a constructivist theater set, and how both the window and the theater set refer to actual ‘real’ spaces – in this particular situation the living room. Valk’s radical re-interpretation of the space of the shop window explores the specific relation between the body, space and the geometry of (constructivist) theatre.

Showcasing Today's Essentials is a spatial work that includes moveable parts that can be put in motion by the visitors. Within this sculptural setting, dancer / choreographer Marie Goeminne performs regularly throughout the duration of the exhibition. The choreography is based on gestures and movements of the shop window decorators, as well as a guide performing in the Rietveld Schröder House mimicking the moving of walls and other parts of the interior.

In her video work, Valk has incorporated theoretical, social and art historical references. Frederick Kiesler’s book Contemporary Art Applied to the Store and Its Display (1930), silk shawls and shop window décor build the ingredients for a personal reflection on the relationship between modernism and commerce.

During the exhibition Valk undertakes a parallel intervention in the shop window of Anders dan Anderen, connecting the shop window to the exhibition space.