Erik van Lieshout at Het HEM

Opening: Friday, June 21, 12 pm - 12 am.
Visiting hours: Thursday - Sunday, 12 pm - 12 am.

Het HEM’s opening chapter tells the story of Edson Sabajo and Guillaume Schmidt: a creative entrepreneurial duo known for their successful streetwear and lifestyle brand Patta. Erik van Lieshout’s film BEER (2019) is exhibited as part of the opening and first exhibition at Het HEM, in Zaandam. 
Van Lieshout's work BEER asks pertinent questions about the current financial development of art and culture, and the way multinationals can leave their mark on it. More specifically, he wonders how as an artist - in a Western art tradition - you still have the freedom to be politically critical and uncompromising when you receive a lot of money from a multinational, in his case Heineken by winning the Dr. AH. Heineken Prize for Art. In this way, the artist also indirectly reflects on the historical position of the white man both in art and in the hyper-capitalist system.