This article was originally published in English
A Dutch museum has recovered one of its artworks which resembles two empty beer cans, after a staff member accidentally threw it in the trash. One person’s art is another person’s trash…
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“It’s nonsense.”
Have you ever thought about this while looking at a work of modern art?
A Dutch museum staff member certainly did. It was not an artistic appreciation. The employee just thought the artwork was literally trash.
Indeed, the Lisser Art Museum (LAM) in the town of Lisse, Netherlands, found a work of art resembling a pair of empty beer cans in the trash after one of the technicians the elevator mistook the “meticulously hand-painted” cans for trash.
The two painted beer cans, created by French artist Alexandre Lavet in the 1980s, were on display in a glass elevator at the LAM when the employee assumed they had been left there by lazy visitors not respecting the rules. museum label.
He was far from suspecting that he had just thrown away a work entitled “All The Good Times We Spent Together” (All the good times we spent together), the creation of which “required a lot of time and effort,” according to the museum.
According to the artist’s website, these paintings are “a tribute to the streets of Brussels, artists’ studios, friends’ apartments, parties, exhibition openings in galleries and artist-run spaces , and to this common and familiar object which brings people and friends together”.
When curator Elisah van den Bergh noticed the work was missing, a search was undertaken and the cans were found in a trash bag just in time, when the bags were ready to be thrown away.
The beer cans were cleaned and placed at the entrance to the museum to “give them their moment of glory”, Elisah van den Bergh explained to AFP.
The museum stressed that there was “no ill will” towards the technician, saying that he was “only doing his job in good faith”.
Sietske van Zanten, director of the LAM museum, said the incident was “in a way a testimony to the effectiveness of Alexandre Lavet’s art.”
“The theme of our collection is food and consumption,” Ms van Zanten added. “Our art encourages visitors to see everyday objects in a new light. By displaying the artwork in unexpected places, we amplify this experience and try to continually surprise the visitor.”
Mission accomplished. And beer cans saved from the trash.
Additional sources • AFP, alexandrelavet.fr, adaptation: Serge Duchêne
