Maria van Elk : soft living room 1968............2013

At the request of the 'Stedelijk Museum Schiedam' the artist Maria van Elk (Amsterdam, 1943) has reconstructed the installation The Soft Living Room. This is a sculpture with which the artist in 1968 was investigating new possibilities for the interaction between her work and the public. The Soft Living Room is an abstract spatial landscape that can be entered by visitors and that contains a number of movable hills. The black and white planes and forms express notions of harmony and conflict, good and evil, extremes which cannot exist without each another. It is a social sculpture not only to make art more accessible, but was also ment to improve the interrelations between people. Notwithstanding the substantial international success at the time (1968) this unique sculpture has passed into oblivion. Now it will, thanks to the exceptional efforts of the artist, and also to a private sponsor, be possible again to view this sculpture for the first time since 1969 in the exhibition Ik hou van Holland. Nederlandse beeldende kunst na 1945.