MUSEUM EMPLOYEE MISTAKES BEER CAN ART FOR TRASH AND THROWS IT AWAY
Modern, everyday objects have long served as a source of inspiration for many artists. Artists continue to experiment with the boundaries between art and object, as evidenced by works such as Andy Warhol's Campbell's Soup Can paintings and Marcel Duchamp's Fountain, an upside-down urinal. Alexandre Lavet is one of the most recent to do so; since 2016, his lifelike "beer cans" have been on display. Recently, a museum employee mistakenly threw these artefacts in the trash after taking them a little too literally.
The piece, entitled "All the good times we spent together," was on display at the Netherlands' LAM museum. The sculpture appears to be two broken and empty beer cans that were abandoned without any thought. But when you look closer, you can see that they are tiny sculptures that have been painstakingly painted by hand using acrylics.
The piece, entitled "All the good times we spent together," was on display at the Netherlands' LAM museum. The sculpture appears to be two broken and empty beer cans that were abandoned without any thought. But when you look closer, you can see that they are tiny sculptures that have been painstakingly painted by hand using acrylics.
The beer cans were put in an elevator, which speaks to the museum's goal of surprising its visitors. A museum mechanic, on the other hand, experienced a different kind of surprise. The employee almost destroyed Lavet's ode to friendship and camaraderie by grabbing the beer cans and throwing them in the trash in an attempt to keep the space immaculate.
Fortunately, curator Elisah van den Bergh discovered that the cans had disappeared when he returned from a brief vacation. She searched around, worried, and found them in a trash bag just before they were going to be thrown out of the building.
Consequently, after their brief adventure, the cans will now "rest" for a while on a more conventional stand. The authorities at the museum intend to find them a different entertaining location.
The director of the museum, Sietske van Zanten, says, "We amplify this experience and keep visitors on their toes" by placing artworks in unexpected places. According to Froukje Budding, a museum representative, "The cans are unlikely to stay on their traditional plinth for long with this in mind. "We must carefully consider where to put them next."
The workers at the museum claim that no animosity exists toward the mechanic. After all, "He was just doing his job," according to van Zanten.