in your livingroom #7

place: Boomsluiterskade 11b, Den Haag
date: 12.10.2012

participants: Isabel Cavenecia & Vicky Kooman

During the making of the exhibition,
we investigate the possibilities and limits within and outside the art world
We are driven by willpower
It will stand or fall

review:
During the week leading up to this exposé rumors had been heard of something very secretive and the moment had finally come. We stood in a darkened hallway, laughing and joking around as one does when you are waiting for a ride on a roller coaster. Finally the door opens and we are let in.
Now, the story goes something like this.
Vicky Kooman and Isabel Cavenecia had set their sights high in the sky to find a perch for their audience to be. There was a desire in them to design an event which would take us all up above the the rushing traffic and watch the sun set over the rooftops of Den Haag but trouble loomed over the horizon.

The place they had chosen for this event was a privately owned landmark building of Den Haag, swarming with security guards but otherwise empty of residents. This place need not be mentioned other than in the context of being a site which seems rather impenetrable for an outsider. How would they pull it off?
I personally had an opportunity to get a small glimpse of this master plan as it was in the making and the outlook that it would eventually be realized looked quite grim.
They attempted to woo the board of directors with charm, audacity, humility thinking that if they just fought long and hard enough it would happen for them. The mental projection of all this coming true was fixed in their eyes and there was no stopping them even if they had to resort to less savory methods. They would take us there.

As we stepped into the living room from the dark hallway we found Isabel and Vicky expecting us, standing on the far side of the room with their backs against the window through which we could glimpse the moon and baby blue clouds against the clear night sky. In the middle of the room there was a table packed with glasses of water, juice and wine.
They told us that they had failed. We were not in fact standing in the place of their dreams for this exhibition. Despite all their efforts they just could not get us up to the place where they had wanted us to be together, to sit and watch the sun set over the rooftops. As they stood there in their business suits we raised our glasses and toasted that failure.

Martin Lundberg