The Israeli artist Alon Levin likes to build enormous installations, with which he likes to express and to explore the process of archiving and organizing and the collapse of order. For TRACK he created a huge kind of greenhouse in the Faculty of Economics and Management (UGent – University of Ghent), called The Basics of Growth.
What is the philosophy behind this artwork? According to the guide,
(…) Levin’s installation evokes associations with the limitations of artificial economic growth, as compared to the rampant nature of natural growth. In the greenhouse there are plaster casts of flower pots and also sculptural archive shelving. Using Wikipedia’s print on demand facility, Levin has compiled a series of encyclopaedic works containing articles that explain all the varied aspects of economic and organic growth.
That is quite a mouthful, isn’t it? If I understand this correctly, Levin explores the difference between economic and organic growth and the eventual decline of both. The fact that he does this at the Faculty of Economics and Management, is quite ironic. And the fact that you actually have to enter the artwork in order to see it and understand it, was fun!
Even more impressive is the school giving him room to do that, especially at the Faculty of Economics Management!
Exactly!