An audio guide that was developed in collaboration with Uta Eisenreich for the Exhibition Commitment in Rotterdam. 120 visual artists, designers and architects exhibited works there. All the information about the 120 artists was gathered though hearsay.

Welcome to the audio guide of the "Commitment" exposition.

My name is Hesther van Hasselt and i will be guiding you through this exposition. You are listening to the voices of Ellen Duckenfield, Laurens van der Hijden and Luke Pither.
During this guide, we will give you background information on the different participants and their respective work. The information you will be given is a result of thorough research of the international art scene. Methods of research consisted of chain e-mails and telephone interviews. We are dealing with oral records of art. Reactions to the questions formulated by us included:

What is commitment?

"A commitment involves a choice. It means to choose a possibility. The ability to miss what might have been without regret."

Was ist Commitment?

"A manuscript to a film with Robert Redford and Meryl Streep that was never finished but was intended to be the sequel to "Out of Africa.""

Our method of record is Hearsay. Is Hearsay an appropriate way to describe art?

"Yes, because what I don't know won't hurt me. Those who believe it are stupid themselves. Therefore, if something good is told then the reference to the original is secondary and superfluous, except for Velasquez."

"Hearsay is a small baroque castle near Nantes, that happens to be owned by Gerard Depardieu."

Now some useful advice:
If you want to stay at a particular exhibit press STOP on your walkman. A manual for the walkman is available at the cashier. There is a half-pillar that from now on will be called the cashier-pillar. In front of the cashier you will see a neon orange dot on the floor. Find this point. The tour starts here. The pieces of art that we are discussing are also marked by orange dots. Since we will be doing a lot of walking on the tour,
we shall start with some warm-up exercises.

Voices on the audio guide: Ellen Duckenfield, Hester van Hasselt, Laurens van der Hijden, Luke Pither

Sound editing in collaboration with Bart van Poppel

Commitment, a selection out of tree year Fonds BKVB, Las Palmas, May 2002