Dauerleihgabe (2013)
PHOTOGRAPHIC DOCUMENT
The starting point for Dauerleihgabe Ante Timmermans derives from Polykleitos' Spear Bearer, the classical sculpture with which the Greek sculptor illustrated his theory of the beauty of the human body. According to Polykleitos' canon, the ideal ratio of the head to the total length of the body is exactly one-seventh. Timmermans' contribution to Museum to Scale 1/7 is a photographic document on which he torques the box provided to him (which, at scale 1/7, represents the ideal museum room) like a head. In the box are pencil, eraser and paper ready. Other than that, only a light is on. On his website, Timmermans mentions the paradoxical French phrase “La marche de l'arrêt” next to the German title. The artist's train of thought culminates in a surrealist image that seems to critically question both the surviving canon - “on permanent loan” - and the museum system, Enlightenment ideals and progress optimism. Or do the objects in the box just suggest the possibility of new developments after a moment of stasis?