Trendbeheer — KIRAC and Andeweg

22 October 2021. Jeroen Bosch.

My first reaction was: are they completely out of their minds, are the KIRACs mad or something, when I saw Julian Andeweg hoisted onto that horse on Instagram, all for the greater glory of the entertainment factory of Lukkassen plus a budding porn star plus paintings, brought together at Tariq’s Unsafe House. Showing off with Andeweg is pretty revolting. If Andeweg had ever beaten the living shit out of Kate, the approach would probably have been very different. A bit like indulging in disaster tourism.

‘For I love all those who go under’, the Nietzschean tattoo spread across Stefan Ruitenbeek’s belly, speaks volumes. He wants it. He himself wants it: finally to be properly and permanently cancelled by the nation’s woke chorus. Beyond all doubt.

Taking this built-in boomerang into account — as if, apart from creating noise, KIRAC wants nothing more than to go down fighting — how delicious is it to flirt with a maniac, and what exactly do you stand for then? Foaming-at-the-mouth battles against woke shit and for free speech, or whatever, are part of your market and niche. But this is called knowingly climbing onto your own funeral pyre and fanning the flames with a flamethrower. Under the banner of whatever, look how daring we are. Ten tons of napalm. And we light it.

Just to be clear: I don’t think Andeweg can be cancelled or uncancelled. The man is suspected — and has not yet been convicted — of sexual abuse, violence and oppression. He hasn’t been cancelled over a badly received joke, a clumsy remark tossed off in public. His career is over. He can choose another occupation or keep making little artworks, but I don’t think there is still a market for his wares. Let Andeweg enjoy himself on a horse in his own spare time or something.

Part of me thinks the KIRACs demand protest, that angry crowds must come parading past for the greater glory of KIRAC’s own cancellation. I can only see the insertion of Andeweg into the total spectacle — lots of films, porn, paintings and polemics — as a publicity stunt. And part of me also thinks some sort of mental rupture is troubling the KIRACs. A classic populist trait: extreme thin-skinnedness combined with furiously stamping around in their own boots. Add an inferiority complex — ‘we aren’t really allowed to join in / aren’t taken seriously’ — exploited to the full. And now they have to be destroyed so they can say: see? Everyone is against us. And everything is shit. How argh all this is.

What are we supposed to do with it? Can no one protect the KIRACs from their own madness? Happily crossing boundaries for the sake of it is out of order. It doesn’t feel good either. At the same time, they are smart enough to be expected to foresee the consequences themselves. In short, good luck and have fun noisily demonstrating and screaming hatred at the KIRACs, but also at De Balie, I believe. Because that is where the hatred is now directed: the platform that gives the KIRAC platform a platform.

The KIRACs’ work is extraordinarily interesting in its nonconformity. As far as I’m concerned, Andeweg is a shithead. I haven’t seen Honeypot yet. I fear it will be cringeworthy. But that is not solely a negative judgment. Perhaps Honeypot is better than I suspect. I hope so: Stefan Ruitenbeek and Kate Sinha are intelligent, engaged, hard workers. I’m not going to list everything I dislike about their work. What I do like is the mixture of craziness and idiosyncrasy that can produce a WTF moment. It isn’t one-dimensional. Elusiveness in itself is neither an advantage nor a necessity. But there is an element you cannot grasp that is precisely what makes it enjoyable, expressive and meaningful.

I think it is good that De Balie is giving the KIRACs a platform. Had they known about shithead Andeweg beforehand, they would probably have declined. I hope De Balie stands firm and proves itself a platform for discussion. A panel discussion with Stefan and Kate and, among others, their fierce opponents at another time, for instance. At the same time, De Balie can also say: go and fuck yourselves with your Andeweg. Then the aggrieved KIRACs can head off to AHOY or some other modest venue elsewhere in the country.

Incidentally, I would not give them a platform if I had one. It is too focused on noise for that. Peddle your coarse, crude populism in your own shop.

Not a soul is interested in art; in peripheral phenomena, however, they certainly are. And those paintings… they don’t look particularly impressive.