Pillars of Life
Exhibition by Lizan Freijsen
Freijsen was fascinated by a cross-section of a wooden foundation pile exhibited in the museum, which carried the museum as an invisible force for more than 160 years. Turning something invisible into valuable products was her way of showing what is present. By magnifying a humble phenomenon and translating it into wool, the subject can be viewed in a different way. With “Pillars of Life,” Freijsen focuses on a blind spot and visualizes its beauty. How this process took place can be seen in the introductory film in the exhibition, made by Marieke van der Lippe.
Lizan Freijsen: 'When you make the blind spot visible, you show that the arrangement between different lifeforms isnt' correct in the way we currently view it. People shouldn't be on top of the pyramid and plants should have a more dominant role.
Lizan Freijsen (1960 - 2024)
Lizan Freijsen passed away completely unexpectedly in February of this year. Following her death, the TextielMuseum, where her artwork was in the making, and ARTIS-Groote Museum decided to continue the planned exhibition.
A Norwegian forest
For the exhibition, photographer Hans Wilschut created a monumental photographic work of a Norwegian forest. Like the Groote Museum, the city of Amsterdam is largely founded on wooden piles that originally came from Norway.
The fungall way
For ARTIS-Micropia in 2021, she created a wall composition of hand-tufted, wool carpets called the Fungall Wall.
Pillars of Life was made possible with a financial contribution from CBK Rotterdam and the Mondriaan Fund