Rococo & Romanticism
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The imaginary of reality
“As a true scientist of life Hageman is intrigued by the laws of nature, deciphering and depicting them in his work in fine detail, thereby showing that these patterns have universal values.”
Liesbeth Grotenhuis, art historian
There is most probably such a thing as an objective reality, but nobody knows it. Every person lives in their own interpretation of that reality. It is the aim of science to decipher reality; it is the aim of art to shape the interpretation.
The imaginary city Prague
1992-’93
In 1992, organized an exchange between the Academy Minerva in Groningen and the Akademie Vitvarnich Umeni (AVU) in Prague. Stays for a semester as a visiting professor in Prague; a Czech teacher – Marius Kotrba – takes over the lessons in Groningen.
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Studio Oude Boteringestraat
In 1989, the Berlin Wall fell and shortly afterwards the Soviet Union fell into pieces.
Czechoslovakia was suddenly independent, free and eager for Western Europe. At the same time, the atmosphere in the capital Prague was tense, hopeful and uncertain at the same time, the city was vibrant, no one knew what the future would bring, everyone was looking for their own path.
Façades
Prague is a showcase of architectural styles, from Medieval, via Baroque and Art Nouveau to Early Modern.
And excess is not avoided. On the contrary, Prague showcases pure wealth and allure.
Portico’s
Inspiring in Prague was the architecture of the Rococo or High Baroque: the denial of gravity through ornamental constructions such as winding columns, elegant supporting beams and apparently floating domes.
Scenes
And especially the boundlessness of the Baroque imagination…
Prager Zoo
The old love for Asia and the new love for Rococo turned out to be a wonderful match..
Houses with names
Buildings stood there like petrified myths
Fencings
Certainly in the ‘Fences’ series, transitions emerged from ‘Asian’ or ‘Modern’ two-dimensional ‘autonomy’ with a classic illusion of space.
Still life
Natural Histories
This method will later be translated into a series of ‘Natural Histories’
Including a series of ‘Views’.
a series of ‘Nebulae’.
And a series of ‘Blazons’
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‘Der Zauberflöte Zweiter Teil’
Der Zauberflöte Zweiter Teil’; is a graphic novel based on an unfinished libretto by J.W. von Goethe.
Goethe admired Mozart, but believed he could considerably surpass Schickaneder’s libretto of the opera Die Zauberflöte. But somewhere halfway he gave up and continued with his opus magnum: Faust
O Göttin! Die du, in den Grüften
Verschlossen, mit der selber wohnest,
Bald in dem höchsten Himmelslüften,
Zum Trutz der stolzen Lichter, thronest…
In 1991, Herman Jeurissen reworked the torso and provided it with appropriate instrumental music by Mozart. The graphic novel supported the performance of the piece of music of the same name by the Ideomeneo ensemble during the festival for early music in Utrecht.
Parnas
Inspired by a power struggle within the top of the new University of Applied Sciences – which was fought at the back of the Minerva Academy – the comics ‘The Battle of Mont Parnas’ and ‘The Rat Kings’ were created.
Graphics
Etchings Mission Museum ‘Steyl
A working stay at the Center for Graphics ‘Frans Masereel’, Kasterlee, Belgium became the start of a series of etchings drawn from life of stuffed animals and skeletons, first the Mission Museum in Steyl, then in various nature museums.
The skeleton book
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The Charles Bridge in Prague is a subject in itself
The stay in Prague is supplemented with a tour of Krakow (Poland), Lvov (Ukraine), Eger and Budapest (Hungary) and Bratislava (Slovakia).
Then follow trips to Italy and Greece
To Spain
To France
To Tenerife
Designs corporate identity for the foundation ‘Circuit’ (Art in Churches), in Groningen.
The imaginary city Rottum
In the early 1990s, the second part of ‘the description of the Free State of Rottum’ was written and drawn. In addition to urban planning and architecture, an alternative society is also described:
The Free State is organized as a company, all residents are shareholders (Actionaris) from birth and in state service. The shareholders periodically elect a Supervisory Board that monitors, appoints and dismisses the management. Self-employment is possible by returning the basic income to the central fund (buy-out), without losing any rights as a shareholder.
Island Rif and the 13 Stonesquare
Economically, the Rottum company relies on several monopolies. The most important thing is land ownership: all land is owned by the community. Revenues from leases and rentals replace the taxes of the past. In addition, there is a monopoly on energy production (especially from the tide, as the most regular force of nature) and on waste processing (the waste of one is the raw material for the other).
Island Gog and the Living Mountains
The dozens of Free States in Northwestern Europe are united in a parent company: the Hanseatic League. This takes care of overarching tasks such as defense, immigration, and the development of ‘Disturbed Areas’. Its monopolies are all substances that influence the mind and body (from pharmaceuticals to drugs), and special sanctuaries for casinos and brothels. The Hanzebond is controlled by scientists.
Island Magog and the Wintercircus
The typescript of ‘The Freestate Rottum’ is awarded in a (national) competition on the occasion of the 400th anniversary of the province of Groningen (1994), with the theme: the future of Groningen. The drawings are exhibited in the Aa-kerk in Groningen.
But after two books no publisher was found and focus went to another imaginary city: Prague
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AVU
Completes a reorganization of the Minerva evening course, resulting in several nominees for the ‘Royal Subsidy’.
AVU
In January 1992 and the first school semester, Sept.-Dec. the exchange takes place with the Academy Vitvarnich Umeni (Academy of Fine Arts) in Prague, Czech Republic; it is an exchange of knowledge and ideas, through notes, discussions and work reviews. This will be continued in the spring of ’93 as a visiting professor at the AVU (with students of Vladimir Kokolia).
AVU, Prague, 1993
Also in 1993 termination of employment (voluntarily redundant) at the Minerva Academy.
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Art in Churches
Initiator of the ‘Circuit’ Foundation (Ideal art mediation), 1998, organizer of exhibitions in old monumental Groningen churches.
About a hundred churches with roots in the Middle Ages have been preserved on the Groningen clay soil, which are maintained by the Stichting Oude Groninger Kerken. Services are hardly held there, so a cultural interpretation is urgently needed; the programming is in collaboration with this foundation.
In 2003, the Circuit Foundation organized a cross-border exchange program ‘Art in Churches’ entitled “Encounters/Begegnungen” with Ost-Friesland (BRD), in the context of cultural programs EDR (Ems-Dollart-Regio).
Is also a board member of the ‘Van Royen Lecture’ Foundation, which organizes cultural lectures in Drenthe.
Studios
Together with the buildings, the WWK foundation had also taken over millions in overdue maintenance from the municipality. A large part of it had been eliminated, but then the BKR was abolished, artists fell into poverty and so studio rents were reduced. The municipality was prepared to bear the remainder of this cost item, provided that management was transferred to housing associations. What took place on 1-1-1993 on the basis of an unambiguous covenant: earmarked destination and shared management: physically by the corporations, rental by a tenants’ association.
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“Der Zauberflöte Zweiter Teil”
The program book “Der Zauberflöte Zweiter Teil” serves as visual support – instead of sets – for the musical theater production during the Festival for Early Music in Utrecht and later elsewhere in the country (publisher of the music journal Entr’acte, Amsterdam).
Policy documents
Author of the ‘Nota WWK’ for the Living and Working Spaces Foundation for Artists, Groningen, which leads to an investment of f. 1.7 million in the file by the municipality of Groningen, linked to a transfer to housing associations. Because management and operation coincide for the WWK, it has decided to close down as of December 31, 1992.
Provides the annual publication in the BBK newspaper of the ‘Art Lending Top Ten’, with overviews of the results of art lending companies in the Netherlands.
Author – together with Frits Linnemann – of the memorandum “Transaction Policy” (published by BBK A’dam, regarding possible policy innovation in the central visual arts policy).
Then from the ‘Atlas of Visual Arts in the Netherlands’ which, among other things, highlights the demographic distribution of artists in the Netherlands (published by BBK-A’dam), and from articles in, among others, BBK newspaper and Volkskrant (opinion page)..
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Click here to open PDF: Rottum Appendix II
Click here to open PDF: The imaginary city of Prague
Click here to open PDF: Book of skeletons
Click here to open PDF: Der Zauberflöte Zweiter Teil
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Art in Churches: Meeeting/Begegnungen: RTV Noord