BD News Maintenance staff call last orders on museum artwork in 10 October 2024
Two beer cans, a sculpture by artist Alexandre Lavet on show at LAM museum in Lisse, were almost thrown away after a member of the Dutch museum’s maintenance staff mistook it for rubbish. The work was on display in the lift, part of the institution’s curatorial strategy of showing works in ‘surprising’ locations.
All The Good Times We Spent Together by the French artist features two two aluminimum cans assiduously painted with acrylic to recreate the Jupiler beer branding. One stands upright, while a second lies on its side slightly crumpled. The Guardian reports that curator Elisah van den Bergh noticed that the work was missing, and recovered them from the bin just before it was taken out to the main refuse site. Van den Bergh told the newspaper the worker was ‘just doing his job’.
Brussels-based Lavet says his work generally deals with ‘the idea of emptiness, disappearance and erasure’ and the cans ‘are a tribute to Brussels streets, artists’ studios, friends’ flats, parties, exhibition openings at galleries and artist-run spaces, and to this common and familiar object who brings people and friends together.’
