Constructing Spinoza

On 2 April, a week from now Hirschhorn and his construction team will start working on the Book. After the last instruction, it was time for the group picture. These are the people who will be working 8 hours a day, 7 days a week to finish the temporary structure for The Bijlmer Spinoza-Festival.

Brunch at the Lloyd

This morning we had a brunch with the most of the team working on the project. Left to right: Nienke (coordination), Monique (secretary of the board), Jan Reinier (photographer), Marianne (editor), Layana (communication), Carel (texts), Wendela (fundraising), Harold (production), Rick (researcher), Willem (chairman of the board), Marion (education) and Bert (logistics). Not present: Simon (design), Delano (education), Gieneke, Nathalie and Eugene (artist liaisons), Stefanie (intern), and Eva (communication).

Spring finally hits Amsterdam - ZIEZO

Journalist Marlou Visser from Dutch newspaper Het Parool visited us for an interview with Helga and to get acquainted with our project. She couldn't have chosen a better time. The sun shining over the colourful market, ZIEZO in progress (okay, one minor disappointment: unfortunately a closed access to the rooftop where our information point will be) - a very good glimpse on how the manifestation will feel like in summer: lively, colourful, variety and full of surprises ;-)

Michael at the OSB

After our little experiment Michael and I visited the OSB together with Delano MacAndrew, our education coordinator. The OSB (Open Schoolgemeenschap Bijlmer) is a high school right opposite Michael's work.

We spoke to Lita van Rij, one of the art teachers at the school. Her students will work together with Michael on the Milky Way part of his work.

Measuring the water

Well, this was an interesting morning. When I picked up Michael from his hotel, he carried with him this huge apparatus, a self made depth measuring device. He had bought all the parts in the local shop: a couple of broomsticks, a candle, balls etc.
We went to the site, and dropped the device in the water, and guess what: it actually worked! I was very impressed.

Guilt trip

I am riddled with guilt. My ridiculously small team is working overtime. The production team officially consists of one person, assisted by two volunteers. The coordination team (arranging all the finances and correspondence) also is one person with one volunteer. And ditto for the communication team. And this for a project with fourteen artists and 16 works of art. And now I am leaving them to cope by themselves….I am on my way to France for a short skiing trip. I feel very guilty, but I am so tired I just need a break from my 70 hours work week. Nowadays it is not that much of a problem to be connected on the slopes … so I hope I actually can get some rest. If things really get out of hand, I can always cut the trip short and hop on the plane back to Amsterdam.

Getting to know us

Not only the production team is in full swing, so is the communication team. Next week, our website will go online, I am touring the Bijlmer, doing presentations for the neighbourhood, the invitations for the opening will go out in two weeks, and Jan-Reinier van der Vliet is visiting the artists, capturing 'the making of..'

But we are still extremely understaffed. Layana is doing what she can with the non-budget that she has. Hopefully we will get a lot of free publicity....

So if you read this...spread the word!

Unbelievable 2

HOORAY!!! Well, I am very relieved. today we presented jennifers proposal at the 'Welstand', a Dutch institution impossible to explain to foreigners. And the Welstand approved the proposal!

Clay figures...

We do the craziest things during this production stage. This may look like fooling around, but it is actually a very serious excercise on our way to getting a permit.