The Non Zone

What is value? What is originality? What is the difference between an original and a reproduction? Isn’t art always a reproduction of an idea or a perception? These are questions that preoccupy artist Ted Noten. For the exhibition ‘Non Zone’ this summer he is taking a risk: he is moving his entire studio to Museum Boijmans Van Beuningen and remaining behind in the empty space, his ‘Non Zone’. During this period he will reflect upon the origins of his work and keep visitors informed by sending a visual message each day from the ‘Non Zone’.

This summer Ted Noten is exhibiting the installation ‘Non Zone’ in three of the museum’s galleries (1, 2 and 39). In one space he will build his own ‘Tower of Babel’ close to Bruegel’s famous medieval painting and in another he will exhibit paper replicas of the jewellery he has made over the past ten years. He will fill the third gallery with a mound of sand. Once a week a mechanical digger will move the sand from one side of the gallery to the other, in keeping with his motto: “to create you have to move”.