Visitors to Perth Concert Hall can relax in a hammock and escape to the beach as part of a new contemporary art exhibition!
Daydreaming by Dutch video art pioneer Madelon Hooykaas invites viewers to take a moment out of their day and swing in a double hammock whilst watching beach and mountain scenes on a video screen – and feet selfies are actively encouraged!  
 
The mindfulness inspired video art installation forms a key part of Virtual Walls I Real Walls, Madelon Hooykaas’s first solo UK exhibition, which launches in Perth Concert Hall’s Gannochy Auditorium on Monday 14 May with a free public preview.
 
The preview will feature an exclusive live performance by Madelon Hooykaas who will also participate in a panel discussion chaired by Horsecross Arts interim chief executive, Mike Griffiths. Seated at candle-lit tables, the preview guests will also experience a curated selection of Madelon Hooykaas’s latest films and videos on the big cinema screen introduced by exhibition co-curators Laura Leuzzi and Iliyana Nedkova. The guests will have the opportunity to preview the new exhibition which includes single and multiple screen video art installations across Perth Concert Hall’s Threshold artspace.
Madelon Hooykaas describes her performance as ‘an act of civic acupuncture’ and the entire exhibition takes its name from the performance which arrives in Perth to question perceptions of walls as barriers and symbols of both confinement and unification, tracing virtual walls in an attempt to cure and protect cities and stimulate regeneration.
One of the pioneers of contemporary art, Madelon Hooykaas has been experimenting and innovating with photography and film, installation and video, interactive and performance since late 1960s and until 2004 as part of the widely acclaimed artistic partnership Stansfield/Hooykaas. Her works, including those presented in the exhibition, explore the themes of landscape and nature, water and light, memory and mindfulness, loss and abstraction.
Preview guests can also acquire one of ten newly commissioned limited-edition artist’s prints on brushed aluminium published as part of Horsecross Arts’ Collect + Support initiative. The exhibition preview will also see the launch of a new issue of Read More, Horsecross Arts’ online journal for critical writing dedicated to Madelon Hooykaas works. Featuring two new essays, this issue of Read More provides in depth analysis of the artist’s works and includes new research into the City Walls of Perth by the emerging artist and curator Tabitha McKechnie.
“Perth was once the most fortified city in Scotland and, in fact, the only remaining section of the old Perth City Wall is believed to sit on Albert Close, just across the street from Perth Concert Hall” says Iliyana Nedkova, Horsecross Arts creative director for contemporary art.
“This was one of the curatorial imperatives for us to bring Madelon Hooykaas’ live performance Virtual Walls I Real Walls to Perth as the only UK destination following its successful tour to Venice, Amsterdam and Berlin.”
“We met Madelon Hooykaas and hosted her first exploratory visit of Perth in the sweltering summer of 2017’, says Laura Leuzzi, Rome-born and Dundee-based art-historian and co-curator of the exhibition, “It was the summer when the ’tourism-phobia’ was sweeping across some of the most popular European destinations, including Venice, Amsterdam and Barcelona. We felt that this attempt, through contemporary art, to stimulate the public debate that aggressively polarises residents and tourists, was mostly needed.”
Curated by Iliyana Nedkova, Horsecross Arts creative director for contemporary art, and guest curator Laura Leuzzi, the launch of Virtual Walls l Real Walls on Monday 14 May in Perth Concert Hall is free and open to all. It continues until Thursday 26 July with a selection of Madelon Hooykaas’s latest films and videos newly acquired for the museum collection of contemporary art at Threshold artspace. Visitors are encouraged to join any of the guided curators’ tours over coffee and croissant or wine and olives on selected Wednesdays at 11.30am or 5pm.
Click here for more information on Virtual Walls l Real Walls or call Horsecross Arts Box Office on 01738 621031.