Rotterdam, Netherlands: Lijnbaan Kunstcentrum, 1979. Interesting collection of items pertaining to the 1979 exhibition "Jack’s Procession: What’s Going on Here?" by Paul Thek at Lijnbaan Kunstcentrum in Rotterdam, a much less studied and publicised show than the one in Stedelijk ten years before and one of the last total-environments produced by the artist.

Collection comprises:

1. Juffermans, Jan. "Bizar kunst-park in de Lijnbaan." Algemeen Dagblad, 10 January 1979. Newspaper clipping.
2. Silver gelatin photograph (12,8x18 cm) - reproduced in the article - featuring a hare on a plank [stamped verso by de Volkskrant along with hand-written legend]
3. Silver gelatin photograph (12,8x18 cm) featuring the Tower of Babel - hand-written legend verso

Rare. Excellent condition.

In 1978-79 the Lijnbaancentrum in Rotterdam organized the exhibition Jack’s Procession: What’s Going on Here? with Paul Thek (1933-1988, US), displaying an environment that filled the entire exhibition space of the center. Thek had created large-scale environments in a number of European institutions in the late sixties and early seventies, this installation in Rotterdam was one of the last that he made in Europe. Jack’s Procession represented a dreamy landscape that contained some of the religious, spiritual and political symbols that he had used before, but also showed new iconographic elements that were, in Thek’s eyes, “typical for Rotterdam”. He integrated snapshots and newspaper clippings concerning environmental issues in the Rotterdam area, and asked a sand sculptor to create a tower, inspired by Rotterdam’s The Tower of Babel by Pieter Bruegel I (collection Museum Boijmans Van Beuningen). [Witte de With] ~~ (...) American artist Paul Thek, (...) took over the exhibition hall of the Lijnbaancentrum in 1978-79 with a temporary environment. In the letter in which [Felix] Valk invited the artist to this, he explained the choice as follows: “Our aim is not educating people to the arts, but confronting (or even shocking) people with unknown or less known aspects of our society or sensory world. We think 'an estranged landscape' of yours would be a good atmosphere to be confronted with in the midst of the shops.” This strongly speaks strongly that Valk was committed to a surprising experience: the visitor had to be stimulated and inspired and be confronted with new phenomena. The environment of Thek eventually took the shape of a wonderful landscape with a sea of sand, over which a wooden bridge led to a Tower of Babel also made of sand (built by sand sculptor Pieter Wiersma) that floated on a raft. The intention was for the local public to wander through it, Valk describes the visitors in his letter to Thek as: “[...] not the normal museum public, but a strange amalgamation of shoppers, office people, young bored streetwalkers, gangs and some intellectuals.” [Adelheid Smit, Puntkomma].