Me and you and everyone we know...

In Situ, a splendid interactive film about artistic...

Tue, 19 Jul 2011 23:43:00 +1000

In Situ, a splendid interactive film about artistic interventions in the public spaces in Europe. Watch and play with it here. Read my review there.

Mensch, Anouk Van Dijk

Thu, 14 Jul 2011 22:15:00 +1000

“The more I travelled the world and worked with people from many different cultures, the more I became interested in what ‘being different’ actually means. Identity is an elusive thing, yet many people feel called upon to safeguard it. Just look at the Netherlands, with its tradition of being tolerant and open to the outside world, though in recent years suddenly fearful and closed off. In our daily lives, too, we are continually drawing boundaries between who belongs to us and who doesn’t; boundaries that can often shift again from one minute to the next. Mensch is about human behaviour; about exposing yourself and adapting, and about feeling small in big surroundings and making yourself big in your own small world. The production Mensch is a quest for what makes us who we are, and for what connects us, divides us and makes us unique.”
Anouk van Dijk

Mensch, Choreography by Anouk Van Dijk.
Picture taken at Over Het Ij Festival, NDSM, Amsterdam.
More photos here.

Omer Fast at NIMk, Amsterdam

Tue, 05 Jul 2011 06:51:00 +1000

I don’t think that would be relevant to share or describe bits of Omer Fast’s film installations. The disconcerting and powerful experience of his work comes from the journey from one space to another, from one video to another, from one story to another. He blurs the frontier between fiction and reality and plays with anachronism but he always trusts the visitors’ intelligence, our ability to question the production and the reception of images or information. Everyone has a story to tell in Omer Fast’s movies, even the visitor. I’ve often been annoyed and surprised by bad layouts in famous museums in Amsterdam. I was so pleased that NIMk’s building and space were interacting so well with the installations and added a compelling layer of dramaturgy. No video, just a picture of a splendid scene.

Nostalgia, The Casting, De Grote Boodschap by Omer Fast, at NIMk, Amsterdam, until 23 July.

"Dans une cacophonie d’informations, chaque auditeur, en se concentrant sur certains tons et..."

Fri, 24 Jun 2011 07:35:00 +1000

“Dans une cacophonie d’informations, chaque auditeur, en se concentrant sur certains tons et certaines phrases, peut devenir un participant actif dans la création d’une expérience polyphonique unique.”

- Asterios Polyp, David Mazzucchelli.

Zuiderzee Museum, Enkhuizen, Noord Holland

Fri, 17 Jun 2011 06:09:16 +1000

Zuiderzee Museum, Enkhuizen, Noord Holland

Waikato River in central New Zealand, shot over the course of...

Thu, 16 Jun 2011 06:45:39 +1000

Waikato River in central New Zealand, shot over the course of one single day by Derek Henderson.

Via The Anthropologist.

Glow In The Dark #6. Godspeed #6, 2010. Poetic Night Pictures by...

Thu, 19 May 2011 07:07:00 +1000

Glow In The Dark #6. Godspeed #6, 2010. Poetic Night Pictures by Katrien Vermeire.

Glow In The Dark #5. The Sorry Giotto lamp by Enzo...

Thu, 19 May 2011 07:01:18 +1000

Glow In The Dark #5. The Sorry Giotto lamp by Enzo Catellani.
Via Design Folio Magazine NZ.

Photographs by Ryan McGinley. Breathtaking. Cinematic. Massive....

Fri, 06 May 2011 01:53:00 +1000

Photographs by Ryan McGinley. Breathtaking. Cinematic. Massive. Wild.
Picture taken at : Somewhere place, Galerie Gabriel Rolt, Amsterdam.

"The rule of thumb for this sort of anti-photojournalism: no flash, no telephoto zoom lens, no gas..."

Mon, 04 Apr 2011 21:56:00 +1000

““The rule of thumb for this sort of anti-photojournalism: no flash, no telephoto zoom lens, no gas mask, no auto-focus, no press pass and no pressure to grab at all costs the one defining image of dramatic violence.”
- Allan Sekula, ‘Waiting for Tear Gas’, 1999”

- http://antiphotojournalism.blogspot.com/

Antiphotojournalism at Foam (1)

Mon, 04 Apr 2011 19:15:00 +1000

Antiphotojournalism explores the practice of photojournalism from the 60’s to the present. The experts might be able to assess how the selected works challenge(d) the approach of photojournalism. The exhibition also encourages ordinary visitors like me to examine their relationship to images, especially images of conflicts.

During my first visit, I particularly looked into:

RFK Funeral Train by Paul Fusco is ‘a series of slides chronicling the reactions of mourners to the passage of the funeral train of assassinated American presidential candidate Robert Kennedy, as it travelled from NYC to his burial in Washington. […] (the work) is a kind of litany, a long, moving farewell to Kennedy and what had been a short season of hope.’ (Antiphotojournalism)

Untitled, From RFK Funeral Train, 1968 by Paul Fusco
Photographers in conflict by Goran Galic and Gian-Reto Gredig, is a moving and fascinating series of photographs and long form videotaped testimonies from photojournalists accustomed to work in zones of conflict or disaster. ‘In the aftermath of Abu Ghraib and the Tsunami, a cross-section of 32 photographers was invited by the two artists into a Spartan, black painted studio, in order to capture their still portraits and video interviews. By isolating the photojournalists and placing then in front of their camera, Galic and Gredig reverse the asymmetrical power relationship between photographer and subject, and explore the self-perception of the photographers.’ (Photographers in conflict)

Samantha Appleton / NOOR © 2008 - 2011 Galic & Gredig

The long-form videos allow the photographers to open up about different aspects of their ‘job’, the difficulty to come and go from these places, the difficulty to calm down at the end of the day, the compromise they have to make about the use of their photographs, the rumors according to which photojournalism is threatened by amateurs…
After years of work in zones of conflict, these photographers still refuse to be cynical, try to ‘capture breaths of peace’, find ‘hope in darkest places’. (Tomas Van Houtryve). In that sense, they are heroic.

Antiphotojournalism, at Foam, until 8 June 2011.

Strandbeest by Dutch artist Theo Jansen. Via OpenCulture

Fri, 01 Apr 2011 18:26:39 +1000

Strandbeest by Dutch artist Theo Jansen. Via OpenCulture

Memento Mori

Mon, 28 Mar 2011 19:01:52 +1000

Saturday.
Rêve d’automne by Jon Fosse takes place in a cemetery. Patrice Chéreau chose the museum to stand for this place where generations of visitors meet dead artists endlessly. The repetitive language of Josse is made with bones. The direction by Patrice Chéreau is made with flesh and sensuality. The result is fascinating, provoking and it will make you cry and laugh about the human condition.

Bravo Stadsschouwburg (Amsterdam) and Theatre de la Ville (Paris) for this collaboration.

Sunday.
Walk in Huis Te Vraag, an old, beautiful, peaceful, graveyard, on the edge of the city. I heard the place is threatened by greedy developers… Pauvres mortels.

Sense of uprootedness

Mon, 14 Mar 2011 18:54:00 +1000

Huis Marseille Museum For Photography is located in a maison bourgeoise built in 1665. Despite the innumerable rooms, the stuccorwork, and the ceiling paintings by Jacob De Wit, I felt at home. The photographies of interiors by Bert Teunissen and Marrigje De Maar participated in that cosy atmosphere.
Until June 5, 2011, the museum highlights an interesting parallel between the works of these two talented Dutch photographers.

I am moved by the nostalgic search behind ‘Domestic Landscapes’ by Bert Teunissen, by the tact, the respect, the humility with which both photographers approach their work.

I’ve copied some excerpts of the epilogue of ‘Domestic Landscapes, A portrait of Europeans at home’. They are written by Saskia Asser, curator at Huis Marseille.
The text begins with a reference to Ignatieff’s ‘The Russian Album’ :
‘No one lives in the house where they grew up or even in the town or village where they once were children’ (…) ’ Because emigration, exile and expatriation are now the normal condition of existence, it is almost impossible to find the right words for rootedness and belonging’ (…) ‘Our need for home is cast in the language of loss. Belonging now is retrospective rather than actual, remembered rather than experienced , imagined rather than felt’

‘To give shape to this sense of uprootedness, Ignatieff retraced the steps of his own family history. Bert Teunissen turned to photography and began to photograph people who were indeed rooted in the place where they were born and in the houses where they grew up’.

‘Just as landscape never moves but instead gradually but irrevocably changes in appearance these people have slowly become intertwined with their interior surroundings.’

Ruurlo #7R, 8/11/2009 12:16, Bert Teunissen

Yunnan, 2010, Marrigje De Maar

Links & Sources :

Huis Marseille, Museum For Photography
Bert Teunissen
Marrigje de Maar

Queerosities, The Human Spider, Brooklyn Bridge Via @urbain_

Sun, 13 Mar 2011 03:11:00 +1000

Queerosities, The Human Spider, Brooklyn Bridge

Via @urbain_

Around Your Word or the reason I have neglected ‘Everyone...

Wed, 23 Feb 2011 20:18:51 +1000

Around Your Word or the reason I have neglected ‘Everyone We Know’ lately…
Around Your Word is a personal city guide of Amsterdam, a great excuse to meet people and a funny way to learn Dutch words.

I am small, and not really comfortable on a bike. Hard to find...

Wed, 23 Feb 2011 20:08:48 +1000

I am small, and not really comfortable on a bike. Hard to find bikes with small wheels in Amsterdam. Now, I look like Fellini riding a bike.

ridesabike:

Federico Fellini rides a bike.

"The real meaning of travel, like that of a conversation by the fireside, is the discovery of oneself..."

Sun, 13 Feb 2011 18:56:26 +1000

““The real meaning of travel, like that of a conversation by the fireside, is the discovery of oneself through contact with other people, and its condition is self-commitment in the dialogue.””

- Dr. Paul Tournier (via franziskakrueger)

I wish I was a red head #2

Wed, 05 Jan 2011 01:46:00 +1000

Melisse and Jacquelien, break before the photoshoot, Leidseplein.

Gelukkig Nieuwjaar!

Mon, 03 Jan 2011 18:53:52 +1000

Amsterdam, view from the Magere Brug.
To possibilities!