The J.R. Ritman Library

Today Thomas, Nienke, Raggae (Thomas's temporary PA) and I went to see Esther Oosterwijk-Ritman and Cis van Heertum at the J.R. Ritman Library, a.k.a. Bibliotheca Philosophica Hermetica. I have known about this library for a long time, but I never had a chance to visit, so I was thrilled to finally see it.

Esther and Cis are great. They showed us some very precious books and letters, about and by Spinoza. Cis knows a lot about them. And Esther is very generous indeed. She may lend Thomas some of the works.

The extraordinary collection, the smell of the room, the beautiful handpainted manuscripts, made this a memorable visit.

Big Book

A meeting this afternoon with the structural engineer and the supervisor about Hirschhorn’s Big Book. It is one of the most complicated things in OSA. Of course it has to comply with all sorts of regulations, so that the book – which will be 11 meters high! – will stand for at least 2 months. We should also find some way so that it won’t sink in the blubber (the Bijlmer is a polder after all and one with an extremely high ground water level at that). Then we have to use materials that won’t cost that much money. And last but not least, it should be low tech enough so that it can be built by amateurs i.e. inexperienced youths from the Bijlmer. If this isn’t a challenge, I don’t know what is…but we are very fortunate to have a top class structural engineering firm and architectural office working on it. And the supervisor is a retired, very experienced building inspector. So I am optimistic.

There is other good news: Thomas just e-mailed me from New York, where he is working on an exhibition at Gladstone. He has contracted the first world famous philosopher to come to the festival. I am dying to tell who, but I may not (yet).

The website for The Bijlmer Spinoza-Festival will go on air pretty soon. Maybe he'll disclose the name on the site.

Adventure

Nicky Zwaan came by today discuss her project, Invisible Colours. It is an exciting work, because the materials she is going to use are highly experimental and never used in this way or on this scale. The problem with experiments is always getting a guarantee by the manufacturer. And then trying to persuade the commissioners to accept the work without any guarantee. So now, in China they’re doing a durability test, but even if the results are positive, we are not sure if a guarantee is possible. What an adventure this project is!

In the meantime....

While here in Amsterdam we are running from one problem to the other, Rob is quietly working in his studio in Arnhem. It is coming along nicely - sorry about the pixels, but the actual design has to be a suprise.

This morning, the whole OSA crew, including the communication team, showed up to help Jennifer try out a possible new location for her work. So in the freezing cold, we held on to 5 meter high models of the totems, arranging them in different ways. Despite the harsh weather conditions, we were all happy because the new location looks very good indeed.