Deconstructing Systems

What is the added value of deconstructing systems? The artists Olivier Oosterbaan and Victor Engbers offered a reflection on this theme by dismantling a Fiat Panda and involving philosophers, journalists, lawyers, economists, neuroscientists and even a butcher.

Last summer, Mediamatic, one of Amsterdam’s liveliest artistic research centres, hosted a ten-day performance during which the artists Olivier Oosterbaan and Victor Engbers gradually dismantled a Fiat Panda, accompanied by a programme of talks and projections on more or less related themes.

When I reached the two artists in a warehouse perched on the surprisingly bucolic banks of the IJ near Amsterdam’s Central Station, it immediately occurred to me that, personally, I would never have embarked on such an undertaking, given the underlying arduousness of the project. To tell the truth, neither of the two has any particular experience in the field of mechanics – one has a background in law, the other in advertising. Yet, all things considered, the operation proceeded without hiccups. Olivier – who at that moment happened to be covered in grease bent over the engine – explained to me that he only looked at the manual to remove the door windows and the suspension (the trickiest and riskiest part due to the springs). The breakdown assistance crew, invited more for curiosity than any real urgency, arrived just in time to help remove the engine.

Olivier Oosterbaan, Victor Engbers: Deconstructing Systems

Olivier Oosterbaan, Victor Engbers: Deconstructing Systems

Olivier Oosterbaan, Victor Engbers: Deconstructing Systems

Olivier Oosterbaan, Victor Engbers: Deconstructing Systems

Olivier Oosterbaan, Victor Engbers: Deconstructing Systems

This isn’t the first time that artists have taken an interest in cars, and it’s hardly surprising. After all, cars are the biggest consumer good that most of us can afford, although with the advent of computers and smartphones, they’re certainly not the most remarkable. César, the leading exponent of French Nouveau réalisme in the 1960s, crushed them into indistinguishable metal cubes, while the Swiss Fabien Oefner has a penchant for portraying them in exploded versions.

There is indeed an abstract beauty in the “bowels” of a car, particularly if you know nothing about cars or their bowels in general. Not only because of the romantic charm of rust (which I imagine is inversely proportional to the consequential obstinacy of screws and bolts), but also due to the new “archaeological-pornographic” prospects that the car unlocks. This gap between form and function – which is unbridgeable for the uninitiated – has the opposite value to the aura of frustration that surrounds Ikea furniture. The difference lies in the fact that we’re obliged assemble Ikea bookshelves on our lonesome, while cars are usually in the domain of experts. As well as challenging their authority, and earning masculinity kudos in the process, one of the objectives of the two artists was precisely to change their viewpoint regarding the mysterious workings of cars – “from myth to magic,” explains Victor – via the creation of a routine in Mediamatic’s improvised workshop.

The performance may have been rooted in personal skill and analytical curiosity, but an interesting aspect was its extension into a distributed dialogue, with the work’s explosion (not just in photographs) into a series of presentations on more or less related themes. In fact, Olivier and Victor not only invited other artists who had already tackled similar exploits (such as the performer Dina Rončević, who dismantled a Nissan Sunny a few years ago as an act of feminist reprisal), but also exponents of other disciplines – philosophers, journalists, lawyers, neuroscientists and even a butcher. For example, Joost Pollmann, a freelance journalist specialised in pop culture, described the relationship between cars and “profiling” (what vehicles, for instance, are commonly identified with drug dealers?), while the photo-editor Marloes Heineke explored the aesthetics of road accidents. The heterogeneity of the guests highlighted how different fields of expertise have different natures. According to Victor, for example, a butcher displays great technical skill and knowledge of details, but not an overall vision of the workings of the animal.

Olivier Oosterbaan, Victor Engbers: Deconstructing Systems

Olivier Oosterbaan, Victor Engbers: Deconstructing Systems

Olivier Oosterbaan, Victor Engbers: Deconstructing Systems

Olivier Oosterbaan, Victor Engbers: Deconstructing Systems

DSC_0638

Olivier Oosterbaan, Victor Engbers: Deconstructing Systems

So what is the added value of deconstructing systems? These appear to be peculiar years for experts. The Internet has decentralised their expertise, spreading it around productively, but also creating a sort of mistrust in their regard. Masculinity is also suffering an identity crisis, and (again on the Internet) even the innocuous pink-coloured remake/reboot of Ghostbusters became an excuse for an epic battle between Trolls and Social Justice Warriors.

Beyond the actual act of deconstruction, the project by Oosterbaan and Engbers therefore fits into a particularly fertile historical period for wide-ranging debates, and not only for the themes that it immediately touches on. This was further crystallised in the experience’s secondary “network”, which took the opportunity to catalyse the exchange of knowledge in a warehouse rather than on the Internet, evoking not only nostalgia for the Panda’s mechanics and exemplary democratic design, but also that DIY and almost conspiratorial spirit typical of Mediamatic (the Dutch institution often hosts workshops on cutting-edge technologies such as hydroponic cultivation or the benefits of mycelium as a construction material).

Olivier Oosterbaan, Victor Engbers: <i>Deconstructing Systems</i> — Olivier Oosterbaan, Victor Engbers: *Deconstructing Systems*

The event’s demonstrative aspect will be outlived by a book printed in collaboration with local publisher The Future. But once they’ve satisfied this whim of theirs, Olivier and Victor aren’t planning on taking up their spanners again any time soon. Considering that driverless cars are already a reality, it’s hard to blame them.

Deconstructing Systems

What is the added value of deconstructing systems? The artists Olivier Oosterbaan and Victor Engbers offered a reflection on this theme by dismantling a Fiat Panda and involving philosophers, journalists, lawyers, economists, neuroscientists and even a butcher.

DSC_0638

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