Jan van de Pavert, 'Ministry', 2002

Jan van de Pavert, Ministry, 2002
Locatie: Centrum Den Haag: Spui - Grote Marktstraat - Kalvermarkt

A cast of a door, a filmed inflatable house, virtual spaces. Buildings are present throughout the sculptures of painter/sculptor Jan van de Pavert (1960). Sometimes they are computer animations with imaginative architecture; sometimes they are sculptures that resemble models or small buildings that the viewer can enter. Van de Pavert has also created murals reminiscent of the social-realist paintings of the world-renowned Mexican artist Diego Rivera (1886-1957).

Van de Pavert's pedestal sculpture Ministry was created in 2000. The bronze sculpture references the Ministries of the Interior and Justice from 1977. Around the turn of the millennium, there were plans to completely strip these buildings and give them a new exterior. Later, demolition was considered. Although the two towers were still standing in 2007, their future was far from certain.

For Van de Pavert, the ministries are buildings associated with modern architecture. When he created the pedestal sculpture, he thought of Italian stations. In the past, large black-and-white photos of (mountain) landscapes crossed with nearly car-free highways and panoramic cityscapes hung there. These could be historical images, but often they were not. According to Van de Pavert, the Netherlands lacks a tradition of representing modern architecture on such a monumental scale. When it does happen, it is often through historicizing, sentimental images. There are almost no representative images of post-war architecture either.

Many modern building styles are gradually disappearing from our streets. Therefore, Van de Pavert decided to create a monument for them. Ministry became that monument. Despite their disappearance, modern architecture has largely shaped the image of our cities.