Information Bomb - Urinal 2008

Curator: Well, this is Marjan Eggermont’s "Information Bomb - Urinal" created in 2008. It’s primarily monochrome white, rendered in acrylic paint with an impasto technique. What strikes you initially? Editor: It feels very quiet, almost austere. The monochrome palette certainly amplifies that. It's stark, but the impasto gives it a certain tactile quality, a silent scream perhaps? Curator: That "silent scream" resonates, especially given the title. "Information Bomb" suggests an overload, perhaps the relentless barrage of data in our contemporary world. Yet, the 'Urinal' part references Duchamp’s iconic ready-made, nodding to institutional critique and challenging the very definition of art. How do we process the constant flow, and who gets to decide what’s ‘art’? Editor: Absolutely, there's a socio-political dimension there. The title also speaks to the democratization, if you can call it that, of information, but also the potential pollution of that information. And that circular form…is it a halo, a target, or perhaps the literal bowl of the urinal, distorted by the 'bomb'? Curator: I interpret the incompleteness of the circle as deliberate. Knowledge, perhaps like freedom, is always partial, contingent. Consider too the whiteness, which on one hand connotes purity and, on the other, erases history. By employing this aesthetic, Eggermont prompts questions about access to knowledge and the legacy of patriarchal art structures. Editor: It’s interesting you point that out because it seems that in our information age these historical artistic gestures become subsumed into an increasingly fractured dialogue and one that feels ever less and less human. Curator: Precisely! I find that so compelling about this work—its formal restraint creates space for expansive contemplation on our historical moment, on how systems shape what we know and what we choose to value. Editor: For me it brings to the fore the relationship between creation and obliteration. This piece is like a ghost—haunting and subtle yet hinting at cataclysmic shifts. Curator: It makes you wonder if all this data will really lead to some fundamental revelation about ourselves or instead a deluge and eventual destruction. Editor: Or if all this information will leave behind a giant question mark...just like this picture.