Changing places

One of the most challenging aspects of art in public space is finding the right site. For Open Source Amsterdam, all artists could choose the site for their proposed work. This choice is of course based on artistic grounds: how does the work related to its surrounding in terms of meaning, scale, etc.

However, between dream and reality there are quite some practical obstacles. Can the work be transported to the location? Does the urban planner or architect agree with a work of art within his or her design? Are there any cables, pipes or sewage underneath? Even tree roots and groundwater levels are an issue.

And then of course we have to deal with the sensibilities of the inhabitants. The 1992 air plane crash is still painfully imbedded in the collective memory of the Bijlmer. The Open Source Route passes the Bijlmer Monument, which is the central site for the annual commemoration. It turns out, the area of the commemoration is not just the monument itself, but a large area surrounding it.

Rob Voerman originally choose a location which now turns out to be the within this larger area. After some conversations with the local authorities, we decided it would be best to choose a different location for Rob. I am very pleased (and relieved) that Rob felt the same way.

This meant that Rob had to come again to Amsterdam to search for a new site, which we found rather quickly. Rob even thinks the new location may be better. Now let’s hope there is won’t be any more obstacles…

Open Source Amsterdam's first work of art commences

Yesterday was an important day for the art foundation Street of Sculptures. On a cold evening at the parking deck on top of shopping mall Kraaiennest in Amsterdam Zuidoost - de first pixel of Peter Stel's work was being placed.

That same evening Open Source Amsterdam got many new sponsors who participated in an 'auction' of items such as children's workshops, construction advice, etc.

The sponsors could spray their name on the Wall of Fame which now contains names of main sponsors de Key)Principaal and Rochdale - as well as the generous contributors Amsterdams Fonds voor de Kunst and SKOR. Many other companies attended and support our first international art manifestation, such as VenhoevenCS, Delta Forte, Van Wijnen, de Nijs, De Vaklieden, Ursum Bouw, Purpura, KBK-bouw, Hemubo.

Lectures and presentations

When I took the job as a curator, I never anticipated that so much of my time as a curator would be taken up by lectures and presentations. In the past, public speaking was not one of my great skills, but I have noticed that the more I do it, the better I get.

Yesterday evening, I gave the first presentation in English, for the Rotary Club at the Hilton. It was a good rehearsal, since I may have to go abroad next year to promote the project.

And this afternoon I presented the project to the department heads of Stadsdeel Amsterdam Zuidoost. I think that went very well indeed. I wish I had done that sooner, since now we have the full support and cooperation of all departments, which is crucial for a project in the public space.

Slide Show at Spinoza Day..

Well, I guess you can't win them all.....On 23 November there was a Spinoza Day at Paradiso in Amsterdam. It was day with several lectures and two debates so I thought it might be good to present Hirschhorn's Bijlmer Spinoza-Festival there, as a visual backdrop to all the talking.

Since the organizers thought is was a good idea, I asked Thomas to create some slides, which he did: 13 great slides explaining his perspective as an artist on his project. Unfortunately, the people of the first debate did not want us, since there were several artists in the debate and they did not want to have someone else's work in the background. Then, the first debate also rejected us (I think the term 'visual violence'' was used..). So then it was decided to show the slides after one of the lectures, but we were not allowed to introduce the project.

So in the end, the slides were shown out of the blue to an understandably baffled public...

Visit Amalia Pica

Amalia has moved to London recently, but she came over to the (cold cold cold) Bijlmer to walk the Open Source Amsterdam route with me. And guess what! We have found a perfect location for her work. I can show you where it will be (see above), but not what it will be.

Visit Michael Beutler

Michael was in town for 2 days. He gave a lecture at De Ateliers - which apparently was very well received. Unfortunately I could not make it to the lecture (stuck in a meeting, as usual), but we met up the next day to discuss his proposal for Open Source Amsterdam.

I am dying to show you his sketches, but alas....you'll have to come to the event (9 May - 11 July 2009) to see what he's created.

4rth visit Thomas Hirschhorn

Thomas was here again, his fourth visit in less than a year. And again, I was overwhelmed by his fire and energy. We actually have a GO for the Bijlmer Spinoza-Festival, which will take place from 9 May - 11 July 2009.

The sculpture will consist of a BIG BOOK (Spinoza's Ethica) which houses among others a Spinoza exhibition, a library, a Bijlmer documentation centre an internet cafe, a take-out restaurant, a workshop space and a stage. Every day, for two months, Thomas will be there, together with local inhabitants and a group of invited philosophers and art critics. There will be daily philosophical lectures, a Spinoza play (written by Marcus Steinweg and performed by an amateur theatre group form the Bijlmer), live radio or tv broadcasts, etc.

You gotta admire the man's ambition and determination.

Less of a frenzy!

Well, the financial crisis resulted in considerably less frenzy at the Frieze Art Fair than the previous years. I went with Nienke this year. It was a great trip, combining hard work (Frieze, Zoo, Tate x 2, etc) with plent of leisure (Le Caprice x 100, Michael Gambon in Pinter's No Man's Land and a splash out at Saka No Hana).

We were delighted to spot some works by 'our' artsists. Hirschhorn was of course represented (Croussel and Arndt) and we saw a very suprising work by Allora & Calzadilla at (I think it was) Gagosian. Michael Beutler - who has submitted a great proposal for Open Source Amsterdam - tranformed the booth of Galerie Christian Nagel.

Monika Sosnowksa's beautiful Portavilion was one of the public space projects. In spite of the sign, the sculpture is very popular as a climbing object for kid's and their fathers alike.

Launch of our Friends of the Street

Today two events took place at the same time.

1. the Karspeldreef, one of the border roads of our project area, re-opened to the public after a complete make-over.

2. the Day of the 1000 Cultures, a yearly event marking the new cultural season in Amsterdam Southeast.

For the Street of Sculptures, it was a perfect opportunity to launch our Friends of the Street programme. It is a programme through which people can support the project by means of a small donation (20-500 euro).

For the Karspeldreef event, we had a presentation in an abandoned store within shopping centre Kraaiennest. Unfortunately, the store was way in the back (and smelling a bit musty). And since the weather was absolutely fantastic, everybody was enjoying the sun outside on the Karspeldreef.

At the other event however, the Street had its own outdoor booth, attracting a lot of people.

Location research with Sanja

Sonsbeek 2008

The team of Street of Sculptures went to Sonsbeek to get inspiration for our own very first art event. Lots of interesting, funny and beautiful art in a beautiful park.

Studio Visit Rob Voerman

Back on track

This Summer holiday seems much longer on this blog than it actually has been! July was a bit quiet, too be honest. My work consisted mostly of preparing subsidy applications - not something to fill your blog with. And then I did go away for a couple of weeks.

Now, the whole team is back and off we go, on track to realize the first event for the Street....

Signing contracts

An initiative like the Street of Sculptures and our first international art manifestation can't take place without proper funding.

Yesterday, at the closure of the Day of Architecture in Amsterdam Zuidoost, we presented our first two main sponsors: Rochdale and De Key/Principaal - two large housing cooperations - signed their sponsor contracts.



Helga Lasschuijt gave a sneak-preview on the artists and their proposed work and the audience was asked to become Friends of the initiative. Cheers!

Open Source Amsterdam - the movie

Our first promo - spread the word

3rd visit Hirschhorn

Location research Pascale Tayou

Visit Bucharest Biennial

Mihai Oroveanu, director of the MNAC.

Bidbook

To present our project to potential sponsors, Wendela Sandberg adviced us to make a bidbook. Simon Davies showed us his design - a combination of reading the images and reading the alphabet...

On the radio

Today at 3.15 PM I was interviewed by artist Rombout Oomen, live on the culture radio show at Amsterdam FM. It was only a 12 minute item, but it was nice to talk to Rombout - even though we both wished we could have gone more into detail on the artistic and conceptual aspects of Open Source.
The location of the radio studio is fantastic: on the 4th floor of the new library. It just consists of a table with mics, a piano and the director's table. And all in the open, so the public can just stand or sit there and watch the broadcasting.

The long journey back

After our meeting with Pascale, Nienke and I went for a quick visit to the SMAK (featuring a solo show of Guillaume Bijl). And then it was off with the train to Antwerp.
Unfortunately, when we arrived in Antwerp, all the trains to Amsterdam were cancelled, due to a fire at the train station in Brussels. So we had to get a hotel in Antwerp (see photo). I guess we can call this an evening of team building and bonding. Fortunately, this morning the trains were back on track - be it with almost an hour delay. All in all, we had 25 hour journey for a 2 hour meeting in Gent!

Pascale Marthine Tayou

Yesterday morning Nienke and I went to Gent to talk to Pascale Marthine Tayou. It was a great meeting; what a fantastic energy he has. In one sentence, he can switch from very serious stuff (like identity politics) to a very funny joke in a second. It is so great to meet somebody who can be so positive and light about the whole postcolonial discourse.

He will come to the Bijlmer within two weeks to research the location. I cannot wait to meet him again.

To show or not to show

While Layana and I were still talking to Delano, Willem Kwekkeboom (the chair of the board of the foundation Street of Sculptures) and his wife Marianne walked in with a spectacular model of the proposal by Rob Voerman. They had picked it up at Rob's studio in Arnhem.

It was great to see the enthusiasm of both Willem and Marianne. To fuel their excitement even more, I showed them the model of Jennifer Tee's proposal as well.

An interesting discussion has now come up: Layana, seeing how Willem and Marianne reacted to the models, insists that we should show all sketches and models to the public as soon as possible. Willem and I however, feel that that would ruin the surprise. Layana's arguments on how the publicity and marketing of the project would benefit, are very convincing.

So the question now is: is there another way to raise that same level of enthusiasm of the public? Ideas anybody?

Delano Mac Andrew: our educational expert

Layana, Delano and I met at our office this morning. Delano is our new team member: he is an artist and teacher, perfectly equiped to coordinate our educational projects. He is developing programmes for both elementary and high schools. I am so pleased with him, because, frankly, my kids handling skills are far from perfect. It is great to discuss the content of Open Source with him and to see how he translates my ideas in such a way that it fits with the pupil's environment.

Sleepless in Amsterdam

Today Michael arrived from Amsterdam for his location research. Nienke picked him up at the airport. He was exhausted: he has been working long days on his work for the Psycho Buildings: Artists and Architecture show at the Hayward. And on top of that, he had partied all night through, so he had not had any sleep.

We went to my appartment, so he could have a nap and a shower. The plan originally was to go by bike, but since time was running out, we went by car - not the most ideal way because some parts are only accessible by foot or bike. Anyway, Michael got a fairly good feel of the place and he will be back in July to choose the location for his work.

Before we took him to the airport, we had an ice cream with Peter Stel at the Gaasperplas. A perfect ending to this very warm day....

Breakfast at Ellen's

I had a breakfast meeting this morning. Ellen de Bruijne Projects. The meeting was meant for Close Connection, a programme allowing international curators to visit several art institutions in Amsterdam during Art Amsterdam.

Now I must admit, the morning is not my best time of the day, cetrainly not before 10 AM. So I found it a bit difficult to cope with all the excited and energetic people joining me at the breakfast table. The awful things was that I forgot to bring flyers or even business cards, so I could not explain without words what Open Source is all about.

But, Chikako gave a nice presentation and I got a chance to see her installation, which is a preview of her Open Source project.

All in all, zero points for networking, but ten points for art experience!

News from artists 3: Locked In

Thomas Hirschhorn features in an exhibition curated by my friend and colleague curator Maria Bojan. The exhibition is called Locked In and shows at Casino in Luxembourg until 29 June.

Other participating artists are Carlos Amorales, Pierre Bismuth, Michaël Borremans, Heather & Patrick Burnett-Rose, Mircea Cantor, Sebastián Díaz Morales, Tessa Farmer, Miklos Gaál, Douglas Gordon, Antony Gormley, Sagi Groner, Nanna Hänninen, Boukje Janssen, Jesper Just, Victor Man, Melik Ohanian, Marilène Oliver, Stéphane Pencréac’h, Victor Răcătău, Jérôme Schlomoff, Speak UP! Tanja Nellemann Poulsen & Grete Aagaard, Yves Trémorin, Vera Weisgerber and Guido van der Werve.

News from artists 2: Sorry for the metaphor

Amalia is showing at Artis in 's-Hertogenbosch. Until May 18th.

Walking down the Street

For those who would like to plan ahead: here the route of Open Source Amsterdam.

Open Source Amsterdam (May-June 2009) covers the whole area between Station Bijlmer/Arena and subway station Kraaiennest.

Reading at the Rozemarn

I did some community service this morning. Raymonde Roebana, one of the teachers at the Rozemarn, an elementary school in the Bijlmer, invited me to do some reading for six-year-olds.
I liked the school very much - it is very art-minded, with artist's studios in the hall ways and all.

Meeting Michael

An hour before heading back to Amsterdam, Nienke and I had a quick talk with Michael Beutler. He is truly racing around Europe from exhibition to exhibition, so this last moment meeting was the best we could do for now. He'll come to the Bijlmer in May.

Berlin Biennial

It was cold, cold and cold
Skulptur Park of the Biennial
Simon (our designer) created a flyer especially for the Berlin Biennial.