2003 - Michael Stevenson
Michael Stevenson, 2003. Photo: Jennifer French.
Core Team Members
Commissioner: Dame Jenny Gibbs
Curators: Boris Kremer, Robert Leonard
Project Manager: Dilys Grant
Exhibition Attendants
Jennifer French, Felicity Milburn, Robyn Notman, Rebecca Wilson
Project Publication This is the Trekka
Editor: Lara Strongman
Contributing Writers: Alan Rodgers-Smith, David Craig, Boris Kremer
Designer: Revolver Archiv fur aktuelle Kunst
Researchers: Emma Bugden, Courtney Johnston
Publishers: Creative New Zealand, Revolver Archiv für aktuelle Kunst
Berlin-based artist Michael Stevenson’s project for the Biennale Arte 2003 was installed in the circular La Maddelena church in Cannaregio. In This is the Trekka, Stevenson drew attention to historical moments by reproducing artefacts, including the exhibition’s centrepiece, a fully restored Trekka.
The Trekka was New Zealand’s only nationally produced vehicle. It was manufactured in Onehunga, Auckland in the late 1960s and early 1970s, with a chassis and motor imported from Czechoslovakia.
The exhibition used the visual language of a trade show from the period when Trekkas were being made. It included seemingly disparate components which collectively created a story about trade and nationalism. A wall made of New Zealand produced butter boxes linked the Trekka to another ingenious Kiwi invention, the Moniac. The latter was a pioneering analogue computer for recording the forces and checks of a nation’s economy by water passing through a complex series of valves and gates.
This is the Trekka was purchased by the Museum of New Zealand Te Papa Tongarewa and shown in Small World Big Town: Contemporary Art from Te Papa at City Gallery Wellington Te Whare Toi in 2005.
More on the artist
Born in 1964, Michael Stevenson makes sculptures, installations and films. His works are often based on a single historical story, sometimes reproducing an object central to the tale. He is particularly interested in historical moments that demonstrate the intersection of art and economics.
Since 2000 he has lived and worked in Berlin and in 2011 he undertook a full-time teaching professorship at the Akademie der Bildenden Künste in Nürnberg.
In 2002 Stevenson was awarded the New Zealand residency programme at the Künstlerhaus Bethanien, Berlin. In 2005 he was awarded a work grant by the Senatsverwaltung für Wissenschaft, Forschung und Kultur, Berlin and in 2006 he was the Capp St. resident artist at the Wattis Institute CCA in San Francisco.
He has exhibited extensively throughout New Zealand, Australia, Europe and America. Recent exhibitions include the Dojima River Biennale, Osaka (2015); the Berlin and Liverpool Biennales (2014); The Chronicle of Interventions at the Tate Modern, London (2014) and Listening in the Ruins of the 20th Century, UTS Gallery, Sydney (2013).
New Zealand at Venice logo 2003. Design: Norris Childs and Linda Niccol, Mission Hall.
Michael Stevenson, "This is the Trekka", installation view, 2003. Photo: Jennifer French.
Michael Stevenson, "This is the Trekka", installation view, 2003. Photo: Jennifer French.
Michael Stevenson, "This is the Trekka", installation view, 2003. Photo: Jennifer French.
Michael Stevenson, "This is the Trekka", installation view, 2003. Photo: Jennifer French.
Michael Stevenson, "This is the Trekka", exhibition catalogue, 2003. Design: Revolver Archiv fur aktuelle Kunst. Photo: Creative New Zealand.