Canteen Pending (12’07”)
Artwork from the VIERNULVIER Collection
Artist: Fiona Hallinan | IE | 2022
To meet the needs of our kitchen crew, and after thorough assessments, it was decided to move the kitchen of the VIERNULVIER Café, which was bursting at the seams, to the historic Majolicazaal. We were conveniently able to take advantage of the mandatory closure in corona times to install a brand-new kitchen that meets all the current energy and sustainability standards.
Up until March 2020, the Majolica, with its colourful majolica tiles and beautiful stained-glass windows, was used as a dining area for staff and artists. To commemorate this special meeting place, which also overlooks the Café and the Winter Garden, Irish artist Fiona Hallinan created the work ‘Canteen Pending’. This delicate embroidered cushion is wrapped around one of the pillars of our new catering space, ‘De Doorloop’.
VIERNULVIER team members were invited by Hallinan to share their Majolica experiences. To help stimulate their memories, Hallinan gave them a drink containing cinnamon, cloves and cocoa. Using the ‘Schwartz’ interview method, she invited everyone to lie on the floor in the darkened former dining room. They were then asked to describe a Majolica moment from the past but using the present tense.
The cushion invites the audience to pause and rest, to allow themselves to be unproductive for a while. The headrest broadcasts an audio piece about the former Majolica canteen. The project is part of Hallinan’s doctoral research into the development of the concept of ‘ultimology’, the study of endings. Based on existing grieving and care practices, ultimology makes space to collectively pay attention to the end of the Majolicazaal as a meeting place for VIERNULVIER artists and team members.
‘Canteen Pending’ is on display during the 2022-23 season. Unfortunately, the work is not open to the public, but the audio piece (with sound design by Diana Duta) is available on our website.