The Gift Shop is open: how 230 artists are working together to create a welcome party
How do you welcome someone to planet Earth with an artistic welcoming gift? Kunstwerkt and C-mine launched an open call, to which 230 enthusiastic artists responded with a wide variety of work. Because so many artists mean so many ideas, styles, techniques, and materials. It is precisely this abundance and diversity that strike you at a glance: that generous, bountiful spirit of a welcome party full of gifts.
230 works, 230 stories
When you receive a gift, aren’t you curious about the story behind it? During the opening, quite a few tales were shared among the artists. As a visitor, you can discover the story behind a work simply by scanning a QR code. Some artists explain their work in a video: surprising, enlightening.
What’s there to see?
Quite a few artists want to share something with the aliens about our daily lives, about society, about how we live together, and about our culture. Artist Cédric Toussaint Pico is one of them, with his piece Normie Stuff: 'I’ve chosen a pair of Salomon shoes as a welcome gift for our alien friends. Not only do they help the aliens take their first steps on Earth’s unfamiliar terrain, but they also immediately categorize them as part of a specific demographic. By wearing them, the aliens should be able to blend in better among the ‘normies'.'
Other artists choose to depict humans - or parts of them - a very specific species that the aliens are sure to encounter right away during their first visit to Earth. Jasmien Bollinne presents The Human Alphabet for Aliens: 'Through this gift, the aliens not only learn our alphabet and Dutch words but also what makes us human. For example: nose, skeleton, and cats.'
Some works are critical and emphasize the challenges we face here on Earth, serving as a kind of warning or cry for help. With her work Please take this, artist Marie Baeten offers something she’d rather be rid of: 'Aliens visiting us take something back with them. Maybe we shouldn’t ask ourselves what we want to give them. Wouldn’t it be better to ask what we want to get rid of? What or who can disappear into space for us?'
There’s often a good dose of humor in it, too, which is perhaps humanity’s finest gift to the aliens. Wout De Clercq immediately introduces extraterrestrial visitors to one of our greatest obsessions: 'I welcome the aliens with a soccer ball shaped like our beautiful globe. The ball is a universal symbol of play. Everyone belongs to the world, and the world is for everyone to play in.’ Maybe the aliens can qualify for the next World Cup right away?
Visit Gift Shop: 250 intergalactic gifts
