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open monuments day amsterdam 2022
News from Nowhere
(Nelly&) Theo van Doesburg Foundation and private art collector Casper van der Kruk invited a group of property developers, experts, collectors and press to one day exhibition titled News from Nowhere on Saturday afternoon 10th of September 2022.
News from Nowhere is a one day group show in a private home bringing together alumni of Dutch art academies and works of the private art collection of Casper van der Kruk relating to agrarian society, biology, class mobility, liquidity and water management. News from Nowhere is the first in a series of exhibitions in private spaces curated by Jules van den Langenberg.
The series is named after a publication of the arts&crafts publication News from Nowhere (an epoch of rest). This soft science fiction points out how socialism will entail not only the abolition of private property but also of the divisions between art, life, and work. Making it a conversation piece and reference point for the exhibition series. In the novel, the narrator falls asleep after returning from a meeting of the socialist league and awakes to find himself in a future society based on common ownership and democratic control of the means of production. For the News from Nowhere exhibition a bespoke interior in the Byzantium building, one of Rem Koolhaas’ first realised OMA projects, sets the stage for pairings of works from the art collectors collection and emerging artists. Works are associated by topic and materiality, reimagining the interior with duo presentations inhabiting different rooms. Spread over several spaces, an utopic household is accumulated.
News from Nowhere’s internal programme aims to network the artists involved and a public programme engages invited guests to tour the exhibition and meet the artists. Amongst others works of Josefina Anjou, Sven Kroner, Machteld Rullens, Erik van Lieshout, Maaike Fransen, Folkert de Jong, Wouter Paijmans, Amie Dicke, Jing He, Job Koelewijn, Bin Koh, Florian & Michael Quistrebert, Antonin Giroud, Maria Roosen, Josse Pyl.
News from Nowhere takes place on Saturday 10 September during Open Monuments Day in The Netherlands and takes place on the top floor of the Byzantium, a building designed by Rem Koolhaas, Kees Christiaanse and Ron Steiner in the first ten years of OMA’s architectural production. "I want it urban; you want it suburban. I want a round window; you make it square Why the hell did you hire me?” screams a cartoon figure Koolhaas in the publication S, M, L, XL (1995) where Koolhaas’ son illustrates the troublesome process between property developer and architect. The Byzantium is located at a prominent spot in the city center of Amsterdam in between the central park Vondelpark and metropolitan streets, the design tries to do justice to both conditions by using the metropolitan scale to screen the idyll. The building is characterised by a gold coloured element sticking out on the top floor, somewhere in between an airport control tower and castle. For the News from Nowhere exhibition this space is programmed and shows a publication about the building process.
Interested in supporting a group show or public art work in the City of Amsterdam with the (Nelly&)Theo van Doesburg Foundation? Email info@theovandoesburgstichting.nl.
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2019-2022
Table of Contents
The artist Bin Koh created a public artwork in Amsterdam’s newest neighbourhood, Zeeburgereiland. It is located on Eef Kamerbeekstraat, between three high-rise buildings by the architects Arons & Gelauff. The work is revealed in the summer of 2022 and intended to last at least ten years.
Entitled Table of Contents, the artwork is a tiled, concrete barbecue table that combines grotesque elements with a cosy, familial spirit. The inhabitants of the three surrounding WOON& buildings, are invited to write their favourite recipes which are integrated on a web platform by the artist. Following its completion, Koh will organise multiple events around the work with her gastronomy collective Comfort Ball, notably on the fetishisation and alienation of Asian women in Western culture.
Bin Koh: “When I was a child, my mother would put whiteboard markers next to the glass dining table so that we could draw whatever came into our minds, directly on to the table. I’m not a product designer or an architect, but this childhood memory of eating, drinking, digesting and sharing experiences with specific objects kept flooding back to me when I was considering a public art project for WOON&.”
The work invites inhabitants to contemplate savoured memories of cooking and to share a table. People can sit together, put charcoal in the middle of the table, grill food and enjoy their meal. Inspired by the difficulty of breaking set hierarchies in Korean culture, Bin Koh considers the potential of a common table to influence social codes. In essence, the artwork is asking: what makes for an intimate setting with neighbours? What creates intimacy between people? What enables people to speak out?
The integration of a public artwork into a given place ultimately depends on the response of its users. Unlike artistic interventions that are not context-specific or have only a single function, Bin Koh has opted for a remarkably open approach. While she is inviting the inhabitants of Eef Kamerbeekstraat to participate — inviting them to write down recipes, organising future events — she is also keeping things open: the artwork is an open-ended proposal addressed to all.
The public art work is developed in the context of a collaboration between Sandberg Instituut, (Nelly&)Theo van Doesburg Foundation and BPD property development that aim to position artists and their works in the public space of Amsterdam.
Table of Contents is a public art work in Amsterdam’s Zeeburgereiland, resulting from a public programme in which seven invited artists, the municipality, property developer, researchers and other guests took part. Other artists involved are Fabian Reichle, Niels Albers, Franziska Goralski, Kitty Maria van Ekeren, Elise Ehry, Cindy Wegner, Willem Schenk.
Interested in developing or supporting a public art work in the City of Amsterdam with the (Nelly&)Theo van Doesburg Foundation? Email info@theovandoesburgstichting.nl.
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2020-2022
Polder Triennial
Polder Triennale shows, discusses, and unpacks ideas about the changing relationships between cities and the countryside. (nelly&)theo van doesburg foundation and polder triennale foundation collabroate to introduce three Amsterdam based artists and three regional organizations to develop contemporary meanings of heritage, gastronomy, and well-being together. Read more in the Polder Triennale publication.
Artist Natasha Papadopoulou collaborated with Museum Schokland on a participatory performance, Artist Duo Kitty Maria van Ekeren en Elise Ehry worked with Flowerparade Sint Jansklooster on their first flower covered float, artists Bin Koh worked with chefkok Peter Lute on an alternative potato dishes tasting.
De Polder Triënnale is supported by Floriade B.V., Land Art Flevoland, Prins Bernhard Cultuurfonds, Cultuurfonds Almere, Creative Industries Fund NL