Otto Kaan
What do you do when you have just graduated from art school and you have to set up your own studio, but you cannot afford any expensive equipment?

Works is the result of several studies the duo Berend Otto (1985) and Guus Kaandorp (1986) produced in their studio. Starting point: the wide range of equipment that they use as photographers.

Otto Kaan dreamed up new purposes and functions for their material, which led to surprising combinations and results. The result is a study into form, which at first might seem quite serious, but actually contains a lot of humour.

The work in Works is a manifesto for an alternative way of seeing. It allows us to look at the medium of photography in a new and different way, but also raises questions about ourselves. Not taking itself too seriously, it nevertheless puts things in perspective.

The book Steigers accompanies the exhibitions which is published by Centerfold Editions and designed by Xavier Fernández Fuentes.

This exhibition has been made possible by Van Bijlevelt Stichting and the Gieskes-Strijbis Fund.

Foam is supported by the BankGiro Loterij, De Brauw Blackstone Westbroek, City of Amsterdam, Delta Lloyd, Olympus and the VandenEnde Foundation.

ABOUT THE EXHIBITION
In the series Photographic furniture we see Otto Kaan's own designs and made-to-size pieces of furniture made for and consisting of photographic equipment. Otto Kaan had the designs produced to professional standards and recorded them afterwards; the photographic image is the only proof of their functionality.

In the double slide projection Scaffoldings the duo show the results of their architectural experiments, which they constructed in their studio to monumental size and measuring up to six meters high. After recording it, they recycled the material into a new and complex construction.

Flower make-up is a series about counterweights for tripods, in this case bags of garden pebbles. Using a simple trick, the function changed from purely practical to a new and aesthetic one.

Reflection screen tests the viewers’ way of seeing and conjures up a sense of alienation, just like the other series.

ABOUT OTTO KAAN
Guus Kaandorp graduated from Koninklijke Academie van Beeldende Kunsten in Den Haag and Berend Otto graduated from Rietveld in 2013.

 

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Otto Kaan