Eenvoudige Editie

"The joint project by BAK and Van Abbemuseum titled Once is Nothing responds to this framework by revisiting an exhibition on the subject of "global modernity" from another biennial: Individual Systems, curated by Igor Zabel at the 50th Venice Biennale in 2003. This precise curatorial statement, articulated from the perspective of the beginning of the twenty-first century, is partially reconstructed in Once is Nothing through an interpretation of the exhibition's architecture by artist Josef Dabernig, who designed the original plan for Venice. As such, it allows the void in its midst to speak for the works of art absent in a physical sense. This absence serves as both recognition that repetition is impossible and undermines the demand for endless innovation found in most art biennials. The project is an attempt to create a pause in the flow of art production and its consumption. In place of works, Once is Nothing presents a tangible experience of the building, the view out of the windows at the city's modernist past, a reference book with pictures and texts about both shows available for visitors to take away, and a new work by Belgian artist Patrick Corillon. The visitors are invited to engage with questions of exhibition making, institutional responsibility versus biennial culture, continuity, and memory and above all, with the key element of empowerment that art has on offer, imagination"--Artfacts.