In Carried Away a century of artist processions passes by.

As a result of Sonsbeek 10 (2008) in which the Arnhem population carried sculptures in procession through the city, I made an exhibition on processions in art for Museum Arnhem. Carried Away brought into view international and Dutch artists who had organized their own processions or drawn inspiration for their drawings, paintings, sculptures, photographs or films from political parades, carnivals processions, marches or funeral processions. In the exhibition autonomous artworks alternated with documentary material (film, photos, posters, etc.) of artists′ processions of recent or less recent date. In Carried Away I showed these processions in an art historical context. The exhibition spanned a century of art.

Chronology did not play a role in the classification, what counted was the motivation of the artist to organise a procession. There were processions in which the binding force, the religious or political aspect were crucial, in others it was about the creation of an experience in a public space or about the manifestation of an idea. Artworks that balanced on the brink of what a procession is, like a one-man procession or indoor processions, challenged the idea of processions. Gijs Assmann, Meschac Gaba, Fransje Killaars en Yvonne-Dröge Wendel produced new artworks for Carried Away. In the beautifully designed – low-budget – visitors’ guide the underlying stories of every work of art were presented.