Alle Jong

Important is to understand my root as an Frisian artist. My intuitive chosen form & ideas are not ordinary fantasy’s, they are connected too a deep ancient consciousness of my forefathers. Take for example the small islands in the sea i create, this could come from my Frisian forefathers who lived around the coastlines of the Nort Sea. The Roman historian Plinius the older said about this landscape;

Plinius could not say if he was standing on the ground or in water, the houses where build on little hills, Plinius thought they looked like ships, or mayby better, shipwrecks.

(Refference: Michael Pye, Aan de rand van de wereld pae 37)

Frisians lived on ”Terpen”, man made hills in the water on which they build their houses, during floods they lived high and safe. A boat was necesarry at all times because beyond the island (Terp) the landscape was full of swamps, small floating & moving pieces of land existing of broken trees and dirt, and last there was the surrounding sea. I came across these backgrounds when i searched for my roots. It was surprising too find so many connections between my intuitive chosen ideas in my work and the hisyory of my ancestors. It now fits together, there are real ancient metaphors and a deep sense of meaning in these artworks i create, more then i can ever imagine.

In an ungoing journey trough time, space, history and present i explore my psychological relation with this past. For me this is an endless journey full of meaning and gathering wisdom. It is like living inbetween two worlds…

First there is the world of the thinking mind, second the world of the sense that connects our surroundings with the mind. In this process we produce answers in our thoughts that are in real just absurd reactions on how we see things, nothing exists the way we see the world around us, we ”think” our reality into form, and in this form we find what makes us human. Here we find our human it”s abillity to create worlds that only have meaning for ”us” because we believe in the fairytale of ideas, our reality is one empty shell full of air, everything we say or build is empty and nothing when there is not us to reconize it’s richness.

The island van loon 27.7x18cm charcoal & ink on paper 2015 Alle Jong

The Polishing 30×19.5cm charcoal & ink on paper 2015 march 10 Alle Jong.

”Diary of the image above”
I did visit with duck the island of the polishing people, because of the invisibility, the less impact of art in modern times ( we see images every day) these man polish images into empty linnen. They want to say; look! this is not a painting but a piece of textile, reality itself! Yes this is what art has become, a world of blurred images. Duck asked Alle about himself; But we are not blurred? No we are a world of our own., but most art of today is trapped in reality, but us? We are build for the mind and it’s imagination.. Let’s say these polish people try to safe images by make them fade away into silence, you can see the image only if you take time by looking, it is a protest.

At the island of oblivion 30.5×19.7cm charcoal & ink on paper 2015 Alle Jong

The discovery 30x14cm charcoal & ink on paper 2015 Alle Jong

29.5×13.5cm ink & charcoal on paper 2015 by Alle Jong

Island, 30x20cm ink & charcoal on paper 2015

Conversations with the sublime historian Frank Ankersmit 30.1×19.5cm charcoal & ink on paper 2015 Alle Jong

Alle Jong ( Fries/Nederlandse, 1988 Hemrik te Friesland. Afgestudeerd aan Academie Minerva in Groningen) ”this article is only in Dutch”

Expositie De Secretarie Kunshuis Meppel Kunsthuis Secretarie tot 22 Februari.
Hoofdstraat 22 / 7941 AG Meppel

Alle Jong gelooft in de fantasiewereld die een kind vind onder een tafel. Dat is een plek waar de echte wereld te vinden is, maar het is tevens een lege plek voor wie het kind in zichzelf is verloren. Wij mensen leven in een cultuur van de dood, hoe ouder we worden hoe meer wij in het verleden gaan leven. Wij richtten standbeelden op van historische figuren, lezen boeken en luisteren muziek van overleden personen. We zetten foto’s van dode personen in onze kasten en praten over vroeger. De herinnering is de motor van de mens, en toch lijken wij niet te leren en vergeten wij het verleden snel. Er lijkt voor Jong dan ook een laagje ondoorzichtigheid over de hele wereld heen te liggen, een duister vernis waaronder het verleden zich bevind. Jong hoopt mensen te laten nadenken over zijn eigen historie en het menselijk bestaan.

Portretten van Joodse en Roma kinderen vermoord tijdens de Tweede Wereldoorlog

Jong werkt vaak met verhalen waarbij er iets niet meer tastbaar is. Zo schiep Jong een serie portretten van kinderen die in de Tweede Wereldoorlog vermoord zijn door de nazi’s, meer dan zestig teken portretten hiervan zijn te zien in de Secretarie. Deze kind portretten kwamen als vervolg op een kinderportret dat Jong eerder schiep van zijn moeder die overleden was aan kanker, Jong zag in zijn doodzieke moeder een kind opgesloten in een volwassen lichaam, ze leek verwonderd over iets groters, de dood. De tekeningen van deze kinderen worden vergezeld door meer dan duizend familie foto’s van mensen van ver voor de oorlog, tijdens en na de oorlog. Alle wil maar zeggen; in wezen zijn wij allen verbonden aan ieder menselijk leven uit welke tijd wij ook mogen komen, wij zijn gelijk aan elkaar.

Daniël baron Mackay

In de Secretarie werd Jong gegrepen door het verhaal van Daniël baron Mackay die als Burgemeestevan Meppel in de Tweede Wereldoorlog werd afgezet en afgevoerd naar Buchenwald.Jong besloot gezien de historie van het voormalig gemeentehuis een portret te maken van Mackay die zich verzette tegen het nazisme. De ruimte waarin het portret van Mackay evenals de installatie van de kinderportret tekeningen geïnstalleerd zijn, is tevens de plek waar in de oorlog getekend werd voor de deportatie van de Meppeler Joden. Dit ingetogen spook portret geschuurd in leeg linnen met schuurpapier is soms onzichtbaar. Het is afhankelijk van de hoeveelheid zonlicht hoe zichtbaar het beeld zal zijn en staat hierin metafoor voor de censuur in de oorlog, maar ook voor de verdwijning van de 250 Joodse bewoners van Meppel, en tot slot ook voor de vage herinnering- het verstrijken van tijd doet ons verleden vergeten met alle gevolgen van dien.

Winged Human Headed Sphinx collection Museum Baghdad status unkknown 21×30 cm charcoal & ink on paper, by Alle Jong December 2013

For a long time now i am amazed about the fragility of art, how it’s meaning can be changed and how easy art is being destroyed or lost by war, nature, ideology, society or crime. Next to this our lives itself are fragile, not only physical, but also mental in our way of reading the visual world around us, are we well enough informed about how we could read our surroundings? For me good art shares our purest an honest emotions & conditions, pain, love, our desires and the eternal chaos of not knowing our destiny.  We already think of art as eternal objects, we see these objects we call art  as artefacts that can stand the end of times itself, but we forget sometimes those artworks are human made. Sad enough art is not eternal but fragile, just as us. It is the mystery of art and the tremendous  feeling of time between us and the times someone made Roman pottery or a Minoan Fresco that makes us curious about those lost worlds. Sad enough our most precious classical Antiquity from all over the world is being looted & shredded at a scale never seen before. We can speak of an industry of organized looting at archeological sites, sometimes specific artworks or lootings at archeological sites are being commisioned by high ranked people who have the money for these projects.

I think it is shameless how we in these modern times we let our world heritage being destroyed, by looting artefacts the context and knowledge af an ancient statue or artwork is gone. When America invaded Iraq the National Museum of baghdad was not a priority. Ordinary and organized crime went into the museum on 8 & 12 april 2003 stealing and destroying thousands of artworks that survived unbroken until that moment for over thousands of years. The Museum of Baghdad holds some of the oldest human created objects in the world. These objects give us information about our earliest modern civilizations. In recent years we saw lootings in Egypt, Syria and again now Baghdad is being threaten again because of an unstable political situation. Next to this the contemporary art environment has become more a game that has lost the connection to the world. Robert Hughes, art critic said about the modern art world:  ”Art has become a cruddy game of the ignorant & rich, it has become a bad but usefull business” . Institutions as Museums, Art Academy’s and Art Gallery’s play  a role within an industry we can call the ”art world & market”, provit seems to be a leading factor for most art organizations. Most of the art you find in the established art world does not connect to the honest world of feeling anymore, art has become a product and no pure expression anymore of human desire to visualize our individual or thoughtfull lives full of meaning and value.  Marketing and PR have become the main factors of wich artists will be reconized as ”important”, not all of them for god sake but at least a large majority at the top. And it is these artists that new generations will learn about when a school class is visiting a Museum.  For me good art is not those  objects made by ”big names”. For me every human made object that mirrors honestly the experiences of someones life can be seen as valuable & meaningfull.  Art is born because of our human desire to express ourselves in the world we live in. These objects we call art should learn us about other times in wich another mindset culture and experience of life was present. I think artists and art institutions have to take responsibility for protecting the basic principles how to handle man made objects. Serious art institutions have to make one search for meaning in honest created objects, and those created objects can be found everywere. Tolstoj said that there is even art in an ordinary Folk tale that survived for over hundreds of years. The reality is that most modern art is not made anymore because we need to as we did 20.000 years ago. In those days we created art because of our need to express our human mental & physical condition. We are unaware that today”s art is born within an industry of wich we think these provides us answers what is ”good art”. Good art is conscious and aware of the world it is born in, this artist will untie itself from present cultural ideas and images and react honestly without being false influenced by the world around him in his artworks.

We have forgotten & abbandoned the art of our forefathers, we betrayed the surviving artworks of our past, we lost a lot of consciousness and knowledge about what is real art, people think nowadays art is for the rich! No, art is always present in everyone’s lifes and ”everyone” will encounter the ”best” art again and again, for example there is art in the movements of a loved one who shares a personal story. In visual objects ”art” we try to mould these memories for our memory, we want to freeze our thoughts, believes and experiences in physical objects. The funny thing is we don’t need to create art, everything that once occured is the reason to create art. Every event that once was a present reality is therefore forever frozen as a moment in time, a moment of existence stored somewere in the eternal past. We should start connect more with the world around us, sharing our lives and make less art, only after we understand again we will start creating honest objects again. The death of the present is a connection, a line into what once ”was”, we create art because of this continuous death in wich we want to freeze our beloved memories for eternity.

Roman Statue destroyed at Museum Baghdad – 24-11-2013 Alle Jong 21x30cm charcoal & ink on paper

Facing the dark 45x70cm ink&charcoal on paper 2013

Hetty de Lange – A portrait of a Jewish victem killed at Sobibor ny the Nazi’s ink & charcoal on paper 9x13cm 2013 Alle Jong

Ten ruste gestild 200x150cm acryl op linnen 2012 by Alle Jong

Honorary Portrait of Irena Sendler by Alle Jong 230x150cm oil on linnen 2014

Alle Jong & Rosette van Beugen

Alle Jong feels the need to honour those who lived couragefull lives by creating monumental portraits. Jong also made hundred small portraits on paper of Jewish children who were murdered during the second world war in concentration camps as Auschwitz or Sobibor. And then magic happens; Alle Jong:

”A year ago i painted this girl chosen out of sevenhundred photographs of different children who were murdered during the second world war. Who could imagine that the first portrait would be of a girl wich lived close to my house and art academy, just around the corner? A very strange coincidence!”

This girl was Rosette van beugen. When Jong discovered Rosette had lived just in the front of the art academy were he had studied for over five years he went to the local Synagoge to learn about this girl. The director of the Synagoge told Jong that he should meet an old woman Mrs Tromp. She is 102 at the moment and lives in Amsterdam now, but a huge coincidence happened again when Jong heard Mrs Tromp was born at the same house as Rosette. And she has still the ownership of the building. If you remember that after the war the Jewish population did shrink from 3.000 to 125 this coincidence is even greater. Short after meeting Mrs Tromp Jong she gave the contact of two old neighbours of Rosette.  Jong was sitting inbetween two old girlfriends of Rosette when he did show for the first time in 70 years photographs of Rosette and her family, an emotional moment. On the background in a closet was standing a childrens tablewear wich Rosette had given her girlfriend, for if she came back. Rosette was murdered in 1942 at Sobibor at age 9 with her entire family. On May 4th (Rememberence day) she was remembered by hundreds in the Great Synagoge in Groningen, her portrait was hanging in the center of the Synagoge getting all the attention, she is alive again trough her story that is being forwarded now.

Irena Sendler (née Krzyżanowska, also referred to as Irena Sendlerowa in Poland, nom de guerre Jolanta; 15 February 1910 – 12 May 2008) was a Polish nurse/social worker who served in the Polish Underground during World War II, and as head of children’s section of Żegota, an underground resistance organization in German-occupied Warsaw. Assisted by some two dozen other Żegota members, Sendler smuggled some 2,500 Jewish children out of the Warsaw Ghetto and then provided them with false identity documents and with housing outside the Ghetto, saving those children during the Holocaust.

The Nazis eventually discovered her activities, tortured her, and sentenced her to death, but she managed to evade execution and survive the war. In 1965, Sendler was recognized by the State of Israel as Righteous among the Nations. Late in life she was awarded Poland’s highest honor for her wartime humanitarian efforts. She appears on a silver 2008 Polish commemorative coin honoring some of the Polish Righteous among the Nations.

Honourary portrait of Rosette van Beugen who was murdered by the Nazi’s at Sobibor in 1942 at age 9

 Photograph of wall small drawings of child portraits, victems murdered by the Nazi’s

Synagoge Groningen with presentation of portrait of Rosette van Beugen. Rosette was nine years old when she was murdered at Sobibor during the second world war

Come may 4th to the Synagoge in Groningen for the Open Jewesh houses project. The goal of the Open Jewish houses project is to share story’s on location where once lived Jewish family’s. On May 4th i will tell next to many more story’s told by others on other locations about Rosette van beugen. more information: http://www.openjoodsehuizen.nl/

Alle jong answering questions from the audiance in the front of the painting of Rosette van beugen on may 4th 2014

”A portrait of Rosette van beugen” 29-04-2014 by Alle Jong”

Today i installed at the Synagoge in Groningen; the portrait of the nine year old girl Rosette van Beugen who was murdered in the second world war at the age of nine in Sobibor. Today is very special for me! A year ago i painted this girl chosen out of sevenhundred photographs of different children who were murdered during the second world war. Who could imagine that the first portrait would be of a girl wich lived close to my house and art academy, just around the corner? A very strange coincidence!

Rosette is coming home in the Synagoge were she played and lived, even words of rosette survived until today. She once told a girlfriend at the synagoge that she could not stand on the red, because it was holy ground. Now seventy years later Rosette is being remembered in a special way,

with a portrait of her 230x150cm placed In the center of the Synagoge.

The Jewesh population of Groningen was before the war around three thousand, around two hundred people survived the war.

Portrait of Rosette van Beugen Groningen, 15 december 1933 – Sobibor, 9 juli 1943  acryl on linnen 230x150cm 2013

Come may 4th to the Synagoge in Groningen for the Open Jewesh houses project. The goal of the Open Jewish houses project is to share story’s on location where once lived Jewish family’s. On May 4th i will tell next to many more story’s told by others on other locations about Rosette van beugen. more information: http://www.openjoodsehuizen.nl/

To find more information about Rosette van beugen see these links:

1 Concert Synagoge 22-06-2014 with Rosette van beugen

2 Honorary Portrait of Irena Sendler & Rosette van beugen 230x150cm oil on linnen 2014

3 May 4th 2014, The story of Rootje (Rosette) and many other Jewish victems of war lived on

4 Project – Portraits of Dutch deported & killed children from the Holocaust 1942-45

Some new ingame gameplay of project Zugzwang, a virtual reality videogame experience. I use videogame mechanics as canvas to tell story’s & share philosophical ideas. Other then painting or film a videogame brings it own rules and experience. You feel the scale of an environment with VR, and also a videogame demands you to take action and move around.

Haydn Symphony 101 JMSO 22-06-2014 in the Synagoge of Groningen. The portrait of the murdered girl Rosette van Beugen is in company of an orchestra. To find more information about Rosette van beugen see these links:

1 Synagoge Groningen – Portrait of Rosette van Beugen

2 Honorary Portrait of Irena Sendler & Rosette van beugen 230x150cm oil on linnen 2014

3 May 4th 2014, The story of Rootje (Rosette) and many other Jewish victems of war lived on

4 Project – Portraits of Dutch deported & killed children from the Holocaust 1942-45

A set of photographs of the Jewish family of Van Beugen who was murdered during the second world war by the nazi’s. I made a monumental portrait of Rosette van beugen of which you can read more here: Rosette van beugen , a nine year young girl who was murdered by the Nazi’s with her entire family.

The photographs show the house where the family lived and pictures of the family members.

Louis van beugen born in Veendam, 9 November 1901, he was the father of Rosette, Hartog, Leo Jona, and Andre van beugen. The mother and wife of Louis was Grietje Beugen-Frank, born in Sittard on december 16 1904. Rosette van Beugen, who is the girl on the photograph with the closed arms and huge stitch in the hair was born December 15 1933. Her older brother Hartog was born april 13 1931. Leo Jona was born on october 27 1936. Last, Andre was born september 27 1939. The whole family was murdered in Sobibor on july 9 1943.

This Video is of a polished sculptural work in linnen. The image is of a family, during the summer in the early 1920’s. Young people, old people, smiling, having fun in the sun somewhere long ago on that single day when the camera shot them for eternity. And now they become visible where the wind takes them, where the clouds open the sun. 140x90cm polished & sculpted in empty linnen.

A short introduction about the sculptural polised works in linnen can be found here: The beauty of the fading image

I was fascinated by the story of the young Bosnian Serb who assassinated Archduke Franz Ferdinand of Austria and his wife, Sophie, Duchess of Hohenberg, on teh northern end of the Latn bridge in Sarajevo on 28 June 1914.

It is often said ths murder did cause the First World war, The Great War. As if Princip was the most powerfull person in that moment in time, in charge of changing the world entirely. Ofcourse this is a romantic idea, but it makes us ask some interesting questions. Even ordinary people can make huge impact on the lives of others, always think beyond your reach. But if Princip didn’t murder that day? How would have history unfolded then? We probably would not have the Great War remembered today, a second World War would mayby not happen at all, events in time would have been shifted different. So i possible would not have existed myself if Princip did not murder that day, unfolding the major events by murdering Franz and his wife on 28 of june 1914.

When i was painting this portrait it slowly changed into a self portrait, i was ixed with Princip, am i Princip? At least you cannot escape the chain of history. Everything is connected. So am i guilty for my history in some aspect?

In the early 20th century Kasimer Malevich started to experiment how to open a gate for the spirit. He did this by using paint, painting a black square on linnen, this black square was the nothing to another world. I reacted to this idea, i sculpted & polished an square in empty linnen with polish paper, a sculptural gate to the nothing did unfold.

A short introduction about the sculptural polised works in linnen can be found here: The beauty of the fading image

After malevich 53x53cm polished square on linnen 2014 by Alle Jong

Every artwork i make has it’s own story. Take the painting ”Still life of time, photographic lab of Joseph Fortune Petiot-Groffier, alternative title: The skin of time. 230x150cm oil on linnen 2014. This painting is made after a photograph of a room that in fact is an intact rediscovered photograpic laboratorium from 1855. This room is a still life of time itself, the door was closed until it was discovered recently a few years ago.

Tuesday, 29 May, 2007

Near Chalon-sur-Saone

The discovery of the world’s oldest photographic lab

Turning a key in a lock revealed a past hidden for 152 years: the lab of the world’s very first photographers has been rediscovered. Intact and whole.

In 1840, Joseph Fortune Petiot-Groffies opens his lab, which he uses until 1855 – the time of his death under mysterious cicumstances, most probably caused by the photo chemicals he used. As a safety measure, his heirs closed down the lab. Through the coming generations, the family inhabits all of their buildings near Chalon, with the exeption of that very room, which – altough shut – is not completely forgotten either. For the family is well aware that they have been sheltering a photographic treasure, carefully hidden away behind a protective wooden door on the second floor of their dwelling. Two years ago, the family heritage changed hands for the last time: it’s new owner discovers the treasure. It takes him two years to find out to whom he would like to entrust the lab, with the aim of preserving it entirely and as a whole. Yet, when the by now famous door eventually opens, a last world reappears: an entire intact lab, in the exact state its owner left on his death in 1855. ”It was an intriuing moment: we didn’t know where to look. There were hundreds of bottles still containing chemicals, hundreds of books, tools and objects everywhere, among the several camera’s allowing to make images according to the two first photographical processes, the Daguerrotype and the Collodion.

C. Saulnier