Milk is a video installation project dealing with cow's milk consumption since the
industrialization and the emergence of marketing. Twenty video films interchanging on six screens reveal the story of dairy cow's milk and the place it has in society. As an art project Milk focuses on the transformation and shifting of notions: the transition from the bodily to the sterile, from maternal care to the calculated, and from symbolism and virtues to activism and nationalism.
Milk takes its inspiration from the invention of the 'spray dry' technique: the industrial
conversion of fluid milk into milk- powder. It partially follows the story of the Nestlé company, a pioneer in implementing a 'drying' technique and especially the breakthrough of the pharmacist-entrepreneur Henri Nestlé with his Kindermehl product.
The viewer delves into possible trajectories, while certain aspects reappear via interviews, archive material, download-collages as well as filmed cattle, landscapes and industry. In this project the motto, taken from the realm of finance-economy of reducing in order to expand, is used as an allegory to social-shifts entangled with the production-line of milk. Milk examines our relation to nature, to commerce and to ideologies.
The visualization of multiplicity within a sealed union follows the idea of 'a conglomerate'. A motive Marit Shalem often uses in her work. An organic-mechanical entity, consisting of multiple functional elements which are then again merged together into a single body. Navigating
within this given scale-ratio, hopping in between the total form and its details, enables a contemplative and open work.
During the two weeks try-out period at the Goethe-Iinstitut in Rotterdam, Marit Shalem will be joined by media designer Machiel Kunst and by composer and soundman Dirk Bruinsma. The focus during the first week will be set on technicalities and the construction. During the second week
a limited public will be invited in order to observe, interact, reflect and engage with the work.
For an appointment please send an email to marit@spop.nl
Marit Shalem, born in Haifa, Israel, 1971, studied Visual Art at the HdK (now UdK), Berlin, Germany. After graduating in 2000, she has moved to Rotterdam and established SpOp, first together with Lenno Verhoog, realizing video and art projects. These projects follow an artistic research into recent visual culture and the impact of commerce on human communication.
Between 2014-2016, she has curated the film series Layers in WORM, Rotterdam. In 2018, she has produced the three channel installation Broom-Groom. In the period 2018-2020, she has collaborated with musician Badgewearer for the project Works on White with international performances.
Shalem has been awarded the Culture Prize South Holland 2022, given by the Prins Bernhard Cultural Fund. Her installation Alterations has been exhibited at the _V2Lab and at the Rotterdam Theater. Nowadays on several tracks: back to painting and meanwhile also collaborating with musician Dirk Bruinsma on audiovisual performances such as Knots and Conveyance. Her recent work as well as the production of Milk is kindly supported by the
Mondriaan fund.
The final result of the Milk project is planned to be exhibited at TENT, Rotterdam in 2024.