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!