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!

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.

Unbelievable!

As I moaned on January 13th, the city district decided that Jennifer's proposal would interfere with the monumentality of the metro viaduct and that nothing is allowed in the area underneath the tracks. So you may understand my outrage this morning: that same city district has planted trees on exactly the same location as Jennifer’s’ proposed work. Unbelievable!

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?

Totem Today

This was a lovely Saturday afternoon. At around 1 PM I went to Jennifer's house to pick up my 'word totem': I got LOCAL MYTHS. With me, 9 other performers - a very diverse group of local inhabitants, children and curators - received their totems and then we started to walk, 3 minutes after each other, carrying the totem through the neighbourhood, over the market and passed the metro station. The destination was a area underneath the railway track: like the others, I carefully positioned my totem against a designated pillar. I turned around, to have a look at the overall result, and I must say it made a beautiful, poetic and somewhat mysterious picture.

We left the totems behind. I wonder how long they will stay there....

PamFlat

I just received an invitation to the opening of PamFlat, the first project of artist initiative Flatstation, a group of artists, curators, designers, scientists and musicians who live in studio apartments of the Bijlmer flat Florijn. Two participating artist of Open Source Amsterdam are members of Flatstation: Jennifer Tee and Peter Stel.

At Pamflat, Jennifer will present Totem Today, a performance, using the raised monumental metro line as a dramatic backdrop. Peter will introduce an ad-hoc campaign via a short and domestic slogan, which reflects upon the image of the Bijlmer as a transit zone.

I'll be back next week with full report!

Tee Time

YesterdayJennifer Tee and I had a walk through the Bijlmer to discuss possible locations for her work. The weather was gorgeous, so we took our time; we strolled over the market at metrostation Kraaiennest, watched a local resident feeding geese, pigeons and ducks and mingled with students of the OSB, a local high school. And before you think it was all play, play, play and no work, Jennifer did choose her site that lovely afternoon.

Rijksakademie

After the cold and wet tour through the Bijlmer, we went straight to the Open Ateliers at the Rijksakademie. The name of the institute is deliberately written with a ‘k’ and not with a ‘c’, because it models itself after the ‘classical Akademia, the place where young an old scientists and artists met to exchange ideas and knowledge.’ I was not very inspired by what was on display, but perhaps that was due to my fatigue.

Halil and Azra met up with Turkish artist Ahmet Ogut, who exhibited at the Open Ateliers (see video still). I ran into Amalia Pica, one of our participating artists, who told me she has some problems deciding on a good location, because she keeps getting lost (I really need to get a good map!). We agreed to walk the route together soon.

I had a couple of beers with Bas in the bar and then went for dinner with Jennifer Tee at a (very bad) restaurant. We discussed her participation in Open Source Amsterdam, the details of the contract and the planning.

Like some of the other artists, Jennifer wondered why I need the sketches by the end of March 2008, while the event opens in May 2009. The reason is that we suspect that it may take a long time to get all the permits sorted out. During the summer months, it is always hard to get things organized, and September would be cutting it close. So I need to present to the local authorities what is going to be where and for how long by May 2008 at the very latest. Art in the public space and red tape go hand in hand in the Netherlands!