THE 5 MINUTE APOCALYPSE
by Dennis Rudolph
Oude Kerk, Amsterdam
a project initiated and realised by
Jacqueline Grandjean
supported by Upstream Gallery Amsterdam

Amsterdam is in lockdown, at the tower of the city's oldest church, which is also a world-renowned institution for contemporary art, a printed 5-metre reproduction of Dennis Rudolph's painting ARTIFICIAL_GODS_Europa hangs placarded over the city. The viewer, who is not allowed to enter the museum rooms and can only approach the institution from the outside, nevertheless becomes part of a breathtaking monumental staging of the dramatic events surrounding the artist's apocalyptic idea. With the help of a smartphone and an app designed by the artist, the visitor is immersed in augmented reality, which lets angels, fanfares and trombones sound from the church tower, and in the end makes Mary with the starry wreath appear like a mixture of alien colossus and divine greatness, taller than the church tower, falling into the ground as if in slow motion, crashing without sound but with fanfares. ...sublime, monumental, augmented reality, capturing the almost unsurpassable drama of reality and eclipsing it with artistic means!