Sven Lütticken
Escape from the art of the spectacle

According to Sven Lütticken, the concept of The Fifth Season and also the way it is given shape is a healthy exception. Because of the length of time the artists stayed and the enclosed context, they were able to avoid the trend of coming in and doing their bit of art like jet-setting ‘service providers’.There is a great variety in the ways the artists have reacted. From an autonomous piece of work, like writing the script for the film Bantar Gebang by De Rijke and De Rooij, to Berend Strik’s design of accommodation adapted for
use by particular individuals. From the breaking of the daily routine by building a car that produces deafening music and driving in it round the site, as Erik van Lieshout did, to the carving in trees led by
Roy Villevoye. According to the author, The Fifth Season is not so much a question of an isolated art’s craving for ‘real’ life, but much more an attempt to create alternative
spaces so that the art can withdraw from the propagandic and ‘hyped’ media culture of which art has become an increasingly important part.