Over the years I have had the opportunity to attend many graduation exhibitions, each time at a different location. This year Academie Minerva has set up shop in the imposing Oude Suikerfabriek (Old Sugar Plant) on the Energieweg. Kunstspot spoke with Belinda Hak for a behind-the-scenes look. As project leader of the graduation exhibit, she is responsible for preparing the exhibit space with some 120 works. ‘Actually, it should be anything but a factory.’
In previous years, the graduation exhibit took place in the multifunctional spaces like The Black Box and the former post office on Schuitemakersstraat. Hak: ‘Some locations that we're very happy with, suddenly didn’t have room for us the following year or they couldn't promise us that we could get back into them during this period. You can't keep waiting until the last minute, so then the search starts all over again.’ But how do you actually select a space for a graduation exhibition like this? What requirements must it meet? ‘Well, actually, it should be anything but a factory,’ says Hak, laughing. ‘We are finding out now that this is not really suitable as an exhibition venue, at least not for visual arts and design. It's very humid. We did have some bad luck with the weather in that regard. With us, the fear is a little like: “will the works with paper be able to handle it?” You encounter these things along the way. But we are all creative people and like a challenge.’
ROUGH AND UNFINISHED VS. SLEEK AND WHITE
Then comes setting up the factory. ‘We actually took the spaces as they were, and on top of that we tried to implement a very sharp structure,’ Hak continues. ‘That was our biggest challenge.’ Walking through the halls, I certainly see what she means. The large building consists of three different spaces — fairly rough and unfinished, as you would expect from an old factory. Because the whole exhibit should not look like a mess and the different works also create unrest, you need to have a unifying factor that stands out from the surroundings. And there is one: clean white walls and minimalist pedestals on which the work can be displayed as well as spotlights of about six metres.
AND THEN THERE WAS LIGHT
Converting a factory hall into an exhibition space, however, proved to be quite a challenge. Hak: "Of course it is very convenient if you just have a museum. There are spotlights hanging in the ceiling, it's clean... In fact, you can simply drop your work off there and start decorating. But at this building there are not that many facilities. You have to put it all in yourself. We've been working on that a lot over the past month. All the walls had to be installed. The booth builder here really did toil, for four days and ten hours a day, to get everything right. A lighting plan was created — the types of light sources and where they should go — and an exhibition concept was devised. An exhibition concept basically means: how do we utilise the space? In fact, there are three very different spaces with very different qualities. The lighting is different everywhere. The concept was born from these different lighting situations. It wasn’t like “we need so much wall space, so we're just going hire a booth builder.”
‘For example, you have this very bright space called the Ballroom first. There is a lot of natural light coming through the windows, which of course can change a bit due to weather conditions. In the room next door, it is closer to semi-dark. We split that space in half, because at one point we were still short on walls. There is now a large wall in the middle. Behind it, you'll find works that still like a little daylight. That light is enhanced by lights shining from the Ballroom.’
In the other room near the entrance, the aforementioned spotlights take the stage. Right below, in the beam of light, the student work shines. ‘These are lights of three to six metres in diameter. It depends a bit on what students needed. You can only do this with professional lighting people. On the contrary, in the downstairs room it was pitch black when you turned off the lights. We filled that space with square columns. There is one every 3.7 metres. We want the whole thing to be an experience, but for that experience to be unique with each space you enter. This was kind of exciting for us. Will it turn out the way we had in mind? But also for the students, of course.’
‘We can like it very much, but it's still about the final exam work. We look at the whole exhibition, but the student looks at their own work.’
FLEXIBILITY REQUIRED
Two months before graduation, students must submit their presentation plan. In it, they indicate how they want to present. Hak: ‘Students sometimes don't know two months in advance what the work will be like. That makes it somewhat difficult for us to coordinate.’ The same goes for the number of works that end up on display: ‘We assumed 120 pieces. But works are added each day. The number of exhibitors varies: people decide not to graduate after all, or alumni from the February graduation are added.’ Do you need to take that into account when dividing up the rooms as well? ‘Yes, but at some point it gets done. We then created a format where we thought, “This one is good.” It is still possible to discuss and shift things around a bit. But if one student moves, more students must move. And that becomes increasingly challenging as the process progresses and the students get further along in their work.’
SURPRISING TWISTS THROUGH THE OVERLAP
Spatial Design, Autonomous Visual Art, Graphic Design, Teacher of Fine Art & Design: in this edition, all the different graduate programmes are being mixed together for the first time. In previous years there were separate locations for the different courses. Why? ‘I'm sure there are all historical reasons for why it has always been this way. But I still get the impression that the departments are growing together.’ I think back to when I was in the academy. Back then, you could also choose subjects from a different major. Hak: ‘There have been so many changes [in the art world, LS] in recent years. As an academy, you need to prepare your students for this. Of course, it's vocational training: you try to give your students as many tools as you can. And what I really like about certain vocational classes that we teach is that they are multidisciplinary. All second- and third-year students, as well as those from the Minerva Academie voor de Pop Culture, participate in this. That's why I'm excited about the exhibition, for everyone to be all together like that. I sometimes feel like some students from different departments are seeing each other for the first time.’ Incidentally, this variety in the work on display also contributes to the experience that Hak and her team find so important: you walk around a corner and you don't know exactly what to expect.
I end my tour at a large pool of water. That was also unexpected. Though the location may not be the most practical for a graduation exhibition, its uniqueness fits Academie Minerva. Hak agrees too: ‘There is a lot going on in this area, and that's why we think it's super fun to be here. Specifically, we are in the process of creating visibility, and this exhibition is part of that: engaging in different kinds of experiments and bringing different kinds of disciplines together.’
Academie Minerva's final exam location can be visited from 9 to 14 July 2016 at the Oude Suikerfabriek, Energieweg 9 in Groningen. The opening will be Saturday, 9 July at 4 P.M.