Animal

Animal, 2001
environment / installation with museum worker, furniture, styrofoam, wood, metal, hidden human engine
dimensions variable

On the entire upper floor of De Appel Centre for Contemporary Art in Amsterdam, a white cube – Sex Mobile – the size of a stretch limousine, was displacing itself throughout the duration of the exhibition like an ice floe through a set-up working environment with tables and chairs. Animal is the first of several works where this cube appears.

shown in:
“UNLIMITED.NL#4”, De Appel Foundation, Amsterdam, The Netherlands

see also:
Alex in Town, 2008
Elephant Man, 2005

Bibliography:
De Appel Fondation, “UNLIMITED.NL#4”, exhibition catalogue, ISBN 90-73501-54-7, 2001, Amsterdam, pp. 24-27
Het Parool, Maartje den Breejen, “Een ‘scape met momenten van arbeid en frustratie’”, februari 2001, Amsterdam
“tout est important – Hans-Ulrich Obrist parle avec Robert Estermann very yellow plane – mercredi 4 septembre 2002”, édition galerie du jour agnès b., 2002, Paris, CD audio, 40′
Metropolis M nr. 4, Front Page, ISSN 0168-9053, Aug./Sept. 2002, Utrecht
BKVB, “Commitment. Een keuze uit drie jaar Fonds BKVB”, exhibition catalogue, 2002, Rotterdam

About Animal – An installation of different simultaneous speeds and undefined status.

The large long object is called sex mobile. Sometimes it glides at a speed close to immobility. It is changing its angle in relation to the environment, shaping differently the space with the chairs and tables. The idea comes from the dreamlike and sexual experience of movement made by early b/w films.
Sex mobile is the extension of somebody who is in the inside and moves it. It passes tables and chairs. Some people (staff members… ) may work there. One of the tables is lower than the other tables, it has a different hight than sex mobile and the other tables.

Robert Estermann, 2001