Photographer Erwin Olaf received a photography assignment from the municipality of Groningen in 1992. The municipality was just about to transfer the result, entitled ‘The table of 10’, to the Groninger Museum.
The transfer has been on the calendar for some time now for next Wednesday afternoon at 1 p.m. Museum director Andreas Blühm is upset about the death of Olaf, who recently underwent a lung transplant at the UMCG in Groningen. “It’s very nasty. Things seemed to be going in the right direction after that operation. We were in contact three days ago because we were planning to do something with him.
At the table and with a pointed nose
At the time, the municipality gave Olaf a commission for 30,000 guilders, after art photographer Inez van Lamsweerde had already received such a request a year earlier. Olaf came to the city in July 1993, where 150 ‘ordinary’ Groningen residents came to the Grand Theater to be photographed by him. That resulted in The table of 10 a series of ten photos that had one thing in common: the ‘models’ each sat individually at a table and were adorned with a long, sharp pointed nose.
The series eventually ended up in the municipal depot. The ten photos were recently retrieved from there by project leader Jeanine de Boer on behalf of Kunstpunt Groningen, the urban center for visual arts. “We were investigating what the depot contained. And this work by Erwin Olaf is far too important to keep hidden away. That deserves to be exhibited in the museum.”
Groningen also has a lasting (and practical) work of art by Erwin Olaf: the public urinal on the Kleine der A.