I Will Win 5 - The History
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I Will Win 5 – The History ING New York City Marathon November 1st 2009, New York The artist: Erik Van Loon, The Netherlands +31 6 E VAN LOON +31 6 3 826 5666 info@erikvanloon.com www.erikvanloon.com/iww On November 1st 2009 Erik Van Loon will reveal his fifth I Will Win self portrait: I Will Win 5 - The History of 10 x 6 m (10,9 x 6,5 yard) along the course of the IN G New York City Marathon. In order to show his latest self portrait to approximately 38.000 runners and 260 million TV viewers in 125 countries for six to seven seconds.   Title: I Will Win 5 - The History New York, 2009

THE INSPIRATION:
Inspired by Google Earth, Erik Van Loon decided in 2005 to make a painting which can be photographed by satellite. Though limited by his studio in the Netherlands and NASA technology he learned that his 33 by 20 feet big paintings would result in a tiny stamp-sized satellite photo. 

Disappointed about the small size photo he decided to paint a self portrait as portraits on stamp has become the most familiar icons of all time – recognisable by people all over the world. Besides the Netherlands has a rich tradition in self-portraiture, exemplified by such great Dutch masters as Van Eyck, Rembrandt, Van Gogh and more recently Akkerman.

THE SERIES:
This resulted in an annual painted homage to all individuals who strive day in and day out to achieve their personal goals in study, sport, work and relationships, etc or more negative which result in an annual painting about the individualization of mankind and its survival of the fittest. As you can see at among others www.erikvanloon.com/iww and the following short descriptions of the earlier I Will Win self-portraits:

	I Will Win (2005): Erik Van Loon portrayed himself traditionally using the colors and elements of the American flag and the Dutch Royal House of Orange;
	I Will Win 2 - The News  (2006): Erik Van Loon portrayed himself as the frontpage of the New York Times with which I demonstrated the use of letters and words in imagery to challenge and stimulate the viewer’s experience of art like Johns, Nauman and Rauschenberg did. Besides that it is also a autobiographical self-portrait in which I painted myself in past, present and future.
	I Will Win 3 - The Statue (2007): Erik Van Loon portrayed himself as the Statue of Liberty by painting myself as the Greek soldier Pheidippides, who was sent from Marathon to Athens to announce the Greek victory over the Persians at the Battle of Marathon.
	I Will Win 4 - The Runner (2008): Erik Van Loon portrayed himself running naked in Central Park. This selfportrait is inspired by Edvard Muybridge selfportrait photoseries Disk Step Walk. With this photoserie and other photoseries made primarily in the US. In fact he is the Father of the Motion Picture (=film).

GUERILLA ART:
In 2005 Erik Van Loon arrived in New York, without permission or a suitable place to reveal his first I Will Win selfportrait. Determined to show his self portrait to the world, he arranged a location near the 20 mile mark of the Marathon by convincing Mr. Anthony M. Riccio, Sr. Vice President of the Harlem River Yard Ventures to give Erik Van Loon the opportunity to show his first ‘I Will Win’ selfportrait at his yard near mark 20 at to the Bronx side of the Willis Avenue Bridge.

Mr. Anthony M. Riccio, Vice President of Harlem River Yard Ventures explained for Dutch TV with the following words why he gave permission:
"He's just full of energy, I mean, I have never seen a person so interested and devoted to what he is doing.  So how do you say no to that? You don't." - Anthony Riccio, Sr. (www.erikvanloon.com/iww/iww1/publicaties.htm)

THE HISTORY:
This year Erik Van Loon is working on a painting in which he present himself as a collage of 400 years enduring friendship between the Netherlands and New York which was founded in 1609 as New Amsterdam by Dutch settlers. In this collage you will find a small self-portrait of him as Neil Armstrong (who walked on the moon), as an Indian (who watched the arrival of the Half Moon) and as Hans Brinker (who saved the Netherlands by putting his finger is a dike).

Moreover, in his self-portrait you will find among others also pictures of Anne Frank with a personal note written in Dutch in which she fantasies to be an actress in Hollywood, the Lincoln Memorial, Orville Wright first flight, the windmills of Kinderdijk (since 1997 on UNESCO list of World Heritage Sites) and Thomas Edison as inventor of electric light.