(Un) monumental interview: Krijn de Koning

Krijn de Koning (Amsterdam 1963) studied art at the Rietveld Academy (NL), De Ateliers (NL) and the 'Institut Des Hautes Etudes En Art Plastique' (FR). Since the 1990s, he has been creating site-specific sculptures and installations for exhibitions, museums, galleries and public places.

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“The 'Un-Monumenting' is that I attack the objects.”

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In your work, you discuss the experience of spaces and how, by making various interventions, you can change them for the visitor. How did you work for (Un) Monumenting? What (new) experience of the North Strip in the NDSM Loods did you have in mind?

It's not so much my goal to change a space and make it experience differently for others, it's more of a means and an attempt to 'really' look at a space again, or if you like. Sometimes you have to ruin or even ridicule something for that. For me, art is largely about “watching”. A priori, this is not directly a mental or formal thing. That is why aspects such as' feeling ', intuition and a certain directness are important to me. Rational thinking is certainly interesting, but in my opinion, that comes after it.

For the exhibition (Un) Monumenting, I initially mainly looked at space. It is already monumental in itself and that is mainly due to its enormous volume. But what you actually see is the limit of the volume, which is enormously unsettling, a total cacophony of current and historical details with all kinds of different meanings.

The sparse details and objects that are still part of the original space are a bit dwarfed in the current situation. My idea and feeling was that it would be interesting to highlight some of the warehouse's original objects. This ultimately happens in two works, one for a large lifting beam that hangs high in the ridge, and one for an old magnetic crane, which also hangs in the air. Both objects are 'framed' by me in a temporary architectural setting.

How do you think the work In Here/up there, two works for (Un) Monumenting relates to the subject of “monuments”?

You can say that the NDSM warehouse is an (architectural) monument and that the few sparse original objects that are now functionless are a kind of reminder of that warehouse's' grand 'past and are therefore also a kind of monuments to it. You increase the attention for a monument by placing a large pedestal underneath it. On the one hand, that's what's in my two works happens, and what you might associate with the idea of 'Monumenting'. The objects and what they stood for are “lifted”. The 'Un-Monumenting' consists in the fact that I attack the objects. For me, this is mainly about trying to rid them of their conditioning and meaning again.

“What you actually and especially see in the NDSM Loods is precisely the limitation of the volume”

Do you think monuments are still relevant in contemporary society? And if so, what should monuments look like, and who should they be for?

One of the classic ideas for a monument is to link a person to a major historical act and then create an image of it, but monuments are also created as a result of grand, impressive events. Logically, such an image is always exaggerated, serves a social, political or other interest and rigidly appeals to an often not entirely realistic reality.

It's hard to get away from that in more modern versions. Regardless of whether you agree with the reason for a monument or not, I usually find it quite grotesque and kitch, and not immediately very pleasant and human. When it comes to very serious matters, I'm more in favour of very dry and modest monuments, but that conflicts a bit with his own idea.

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(Un) monumenting: The Future Should Always Be Better can be seen on the outside of the NDSM shipyard and inside the NDSM Loods until February 18. For more information, click the button below.

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