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A Sace War Monument, Dani Ploeger

The perception of the Gulf War (1990-91) has been dominated by images of advanced military technologies, especially satellite-enabled navigation and targeting, using Global Positioning System (GPS) and laser technology. Hence, the Gulf War has also been called ‘The First Space War.’ However, the ground offensive of Operation Desert Storm in the Kuwaiti desert also had decidedly low-tech aspects. Notably,armoured bulldozers and mine ploughs were deployed by the US military to bury alive an unknown number of Iraqi soldiers. After the War, GPS technology was made widely available for civilian use. Bulldozers for the construction industry were the first machines equipped with this technology. Thus, the contemporary GPS-enabled bulldozer can be seen as a civilian symbiosis of two prominent Gulf War technologies.
A Space War Monument was commissioned by the Kuwait Pavilion for the 17th Venice Architecture Biennale 2021 on the occasion of the 30th anniversary of the end of the Gulf War.

www.SpaceWarMonument.org

A Space War Monument
digital video, 1’30”
Traces of military activity during the Gulf War remain visible in the desert landscape of Kuwait in various places. At 29°46’11.5”N 47°26’53.6”E, left-overs of Saddam Road, which was constructed by Iraqi troops, are still visible. Using a GPS-guided bulldozer, a flat area in the shape of a perfect square of 100 by 100 metres is created, within which traces of the road are removed. Using a quintessential post-Gulf War technology, a monument is erected through which the remains of the disarray of warfare are overcome. An act of erasure to commemorate the unknown bodies that have disappeared under the sand.

Serapeum Helios (after the Gulf War), 2021.

desert sand, biopolymer, magnets, wood; 35x35x170cm
A sand object in the shape of a Trimble GCS900 GPS antenna for bulldozers floats in a magnetic field. In this form, the artefact becomes reminiscent of landmines and spaceships. According to legend, the Serapeum temple in Alexandria, built under Ptolemy I around 300 BCE, featured a floating Helios statue, the first reported instance of magnetic levitation. Helios, god of the sun, is also the all-seeing god. While driving the sun chariot across the sky, nothing that happens on earth remains hidden from his view.

Unique artwork= 18000€

Satellite Map (real gold)'

gold leaf / desert sand and carbon on paper; 35x42cm
Two maps of a land art work located at coordinates 26.769861, 47.448222 in the Arabian Desert, cast in genuine Kuwaiti desert sand and 23.75 carat Rosenobel gold leaf.
“The territory no longer precedes the map, nor survives it. Henceforth, it is the map that precedes the territory - precession of simulacra - it is the map that engenders the territory and if we were to revive the fable today, it would be the territory whose shreds are slowly rotting across the map. It is the real, and not the map, whose vestiges subsist here and there, in the deserts which are no longer those of the Empire, but our own. The desert of the real itself.” – Jean Baudrillard, Simulations, 1977

Satellite Map (genuine desert sand)'

gold leaf / desert sand and carbon on paper; 35x42cm
Two maps of a land art work located at coordinates 26.769861, 47.448222 in the Arabian Desert, cast in genuine Kuwaiti desert sand and 23.75 carat Rosenobel gold leaf.
“The territory no longer precedes the map, nor survives it. Henceforth, it is the map that precedes the territory - precession of simulacra - it is the map that engenders the territory and if we were to revive the fable today, it would be the territory whose shreds are slowly rotting across the map. It is the real, and not the map, whose vestiges subsist here and there, in the deserts which are no longer those of the Empire, but our own. The desert of the real itself.” – Jean Baudrillard, Simulations, 1977

 

 

 

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Exhibition view at Art Claims Impulse

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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More Information / CV

 

Links:

 

 

https://art-claims-impulse.com/en/dani-ploeger-en?start=1

https://www.daniploeger.org/

 

https://www.facebook.com/events/1147785919359616/?ref=newsfeed

https://www.artsy.net/artwork/dani-ploeger-serapeum-helios-after-desert-storm

 

https://www.artsy.net/artwork/dani-ploeger-satellite-map-desert-sand

 

https://www.artsy.net/artwork/dani-ploeger-satellite-map-gold

 

 

 

 

 

 

CV

 

Dani Ploeger

 

Born in Middelburg, Netherlands

Studio: Dreesstraat 2, 4384 DC Vlissingen, Netherlands

Represented by Art Claims Impulse, Berlin

 

Education

2007-2013        Doctor of Philosophy (Ph.D.), School of Media, Film and Music, University of Sussex, UK

2003-2005        Advanced postgraduate certification, music. Excellence programme of the Orchestra Academy of the Berlin Philharmonic, Germany

1999-2003        Bmus, music performance. Royal Conservatoire of The Hague, Netherland

 

Exhibitions and Performances (selection)

Solo/Duo

2021                A Space War Monument, Art Claims Impulse, Berlin

2020                B-hind: intimate innovation, V2_Lab for the unstable media, Rotterdam

2019                Bombs & Grenades, Zeeland Maritime Museum, Vlissingen, NL

                       SMART FENCE, Bruthaus Gallery, Waregem, Belgium (duo with Peter Puype)

2018                MedienKörper, panke.gallery, Berlin (duo with Yvon Chabrowski)

                       CHECK OUT, Import Projects, Berlin (duo with Aram Bartholl)

2017                fronterlebnis, arebyte_Gallery, London

2015                The Stuff of Machines, Watermans Art Centre, London

2014                FETISH, Defibrillator Gallery, Chicago, IL

 

Group

2021                SPACE WARS, Kuwait Pavilion, Venice Architecture Biennale

                        Disobedient Devices, National Museum, Nairobi, Kenya

                        Bon Voyage! Ludwig Forum for International Art, Aachen, Germany

2020                ZERO WASTE, Museum of Fine Arts Leipzig, Germany

                        Real Feelings, House of Electronic Arts, Basel, Switzerland

2019                Seasons of Media Arts, ZKM Center for Art and Media, Karlsruhe, Germany

                        neuhaus, The New Institute Museum for architecture, design and digital culture, Rotterdam

2018                100 years, between war and peace, Museum of the Polish Library in Paris

2017                Digital Matters, Centre for Chinese Contemporary Art, Manchester, UK

                        WRO Media Art Biennale, Wroclaw, Poland

2016                For Play, MU Art Space/Dutch Design Week, Eindhoven, NL

2014                London Design Festival, Victoria & Albert Museum

 

Commissions / prizes (selection)

2022                House of Electronic Arts, Basel (CH). Commission for new digital work (smartphone app)

2021                Nominated for the Leverhulme Prize (UK)

                        Kuwait Pavilion, Venice Architecture Biennale. Commission for new work to commemorate  30^th anniversary of the end of the Gulf War

2019                ZKM Center for Art and Media Karlsruhe (D). Commission for public space art work

2018                VRHAM festival for art and Virtual Reality, Hamburg (D). Vrhammy Award (jury prize)

2016                Japan Media Arts Festival. Jury Selection

 

Teaching / Research Positions (selection)

2020-                Fellow, V2_Lab for the unstable media, Rotterdam, NL

2016-                Research Fellow, The Royal Central School of Speech and Drama, UK

2018-20            Artistic Researcher, Leiden University, NL

2013-2016        Senior Lecturer and Course Leader Performance Arts, The Royal Central School of Speech and Drama

2012-2013        Lecturer in Theatre and Digital Arts, Brunel University London, UK