Lankveld (Gerard van)

Oleksiy Kachmar and his partner Iuliia Kysla from Ukraine in the summer of 2010 visited the Netherlands, in order to do research for an article about Dutch outsider artist Gerard van Lankveld.

On the (no longer available) Rhiz.eu website they published a first impression of their experiences and I am happy to (re)publish these texts here.

Oleksiy Kachmar,

Visit to the Emperor of Monera

journalist research of the oeuvre of Gerard van Lankveld

Not every Dutch would believe the fact а small independent country had been founded on their territory. Yet, Monera Empire, a creation of naive artist Gerard van Lankveld, is now being recognized by a growing number of people.

The oeuvre of naive artists began to atract me after I discovered the house of Polina Rayko in the Kherson region in the southern part of Ukraine. Preparing an article about her work (it was published by a Polish magazine Kultura Enter, led me to a blogpost of Henk van Es, a connoisseur of outsider art in Europe (weblog Outsider Environments Europe).

He warmly agreed to make our common trip to Gemert, a town in the Brabant region in the Netherlands, where we visited the "Empire" of Gerard van Lankveld.

The first thing we saw in the town was a coloured gate at its entrance. It was constructed by Gerard on request of local authorities. Besides this object, he was also commissioned to make a clock for the town hall and the library, as well as he had many other private orders.

Yet, it was not always a case that he received commissions and was appreciated by the public. As a teenager, Gerard had to suffer enough for being different. He had problems with schoolboys as well as local adults who did not understand his way of thinking. He had to "lead wars", which means, to struggle for respect and appreciation. All his creative activity is somehow connected with this necessity to be left in peace.

In 1962 he decides to create his own state which he will later call Monera. It was a way to neglect the rules of "normal" society and stay in safety aside from it.

He has his red-white-green flag where colors signify a struggle, hope and peace. "A peace has been signed" says his drawing made in 1990. Since then, he expected no more "wars".

Gerard van Lankveld is keen on making mechanical objects. He constructed a steam submarine, an "Official State Aeroplane", a hydrometer with a flag of Monera on its top, and a lot of clocks. He is very proud of the "Horlogium Imperiale" and he has a couple of clocks made in Russion style.

His interest in Russia and Eastern Europe is very strong. It seems that the full name of the state he created "Monera Carkos Vlado" could mean "power of tsar" ("vlada" in Ukrainian means "power"). Proper words from slavic languages in Lankveld's notes and proclamations often receive changed forms.

In 1982 he writes on his engraving in "monerian Russian" about "Избавлени от унижения и неприения" that should mean "Liberation from Humiliation and Lack of Recognition". Gerard had an opportunity to learn a few more slavic words when we visited him. Maybe, he will use "vysokyy" or "nyzkyy" in his future linguistic creations.

We had a very nice evening in town of Gemert that day. The family of Paul Verhees invited us for dinner where we could talk a lot with the "Emperor" as well as the editor of an album of van Lankveld's work, Mr. Ton Thelen.

Mr. Ton Thelen is a protagonist of Gerard's work, who initiated the presentation of monerian objects in the Museum Dr. Guislain situated in the Belgium city of Gent where we went next day.

Me an Julia are thankful to all nice people whom we stayed with in Amsterdam and Gemert. We sincerely hope, we will meet again in the future.

Iuliia Kysla,

Monera, the imagined empire of a single person

When we arrived in Netherlands, the country of honey cake houses, all we knew about it was the stable image of a liberal Amsterdam. But during our journey to Gemert (province of Brabant) we have discovered the new country on the map of Europe - the Empire of Monera inhabited by the only one person - its ‘emperor’ Gerard van Lankveld.

Mr. van Lankveld started to develop his creative talent already in his early youth producing various kinds of mechanic devises (from clocks to submarines). Being mistreated by inhabitants of his own town, in May 1967 the future ‘emperor’ began to fight for his right to be different from the others – through escaping to his own world of a fantasy empire of Monera Carkos Vlado with its own flag, currency and post stamps.

After long years of struggle and alienation, in recent time van Lankveld`s artistic objects got a wider attention and recognition through exhibitions and public commissions. In 2007 the community of the Gemert even asked him to decorate the public space of the town – the Klaïda, a colorful tower, which seems to be a symbolical gate of the town.

Nowadays, it seems that Monera exists not only in the head of a single person but that it also spread to Lankveld`s close friends who enthusiastically promote his artistic talent and seem to be a constant part of his imagined world.

added to OEE texta october 2010