While I don't know the title of any of these, that shouldn't take away from their ability to inspire awe!
Tuesday, January 24, 2012
Day 15 - Rotterdam Leftovers
Did I mention that Rotterdam is an architecturally stunning city? Coming from one of those myself, I'm quite amazed at the variety and inventiveness of the contemporary architecture on hand here. The city was destroyed two-fold during World War II. Once when the Germans invaded and then again when the Allies took it on their quest to wipe out the Nazis. This left the city pretty much in ruins and in need of a facelift, much like Warsaw and Berlin...
While I don't know the title of any of these, that shouldn't take away from their ability to inspire awe!
While I don't know the title of any of these, that shouldn't take away from their ability to inspire awe!
Day 15 - Part Three - Boijmans
Told you today was a busy busy day! Now we're off to the Boijmans.
You might be asking yourself exactly what a "Boijmans" is, right? Well, the "j" in Dutch is really a "y," so that means it's pronounced "BOY-mans." That's not exactly helping you either though, so you should know that it's the major museum in Rotterdam that's dedicated to the visual arts from past to present. On view is a virtual cornucopia of works by artists ranging from the Dutch Masters (and no, not the cigar), through the Surrealists, up to contemporary works of various forms. You'll get a feast of visual delights from Vincent Van Gogh, Rembrandt van Rijn, Rene Magritte, and there's even a surprise visit by Maurizio Cattelan in one of the galleries. Check out the images below to see what I saw. We had lunch in their architecturally stunning cafeteria and while pricey, it was actually quite delicious!
You might be asking yourself exactly what a "Boijmans" is, right? Well, the "j" in Dutch is really a "y," so that means it's pronounced "BOY-mans." That's not exactly helping you either though, so you should know that it's the major museum in Rotterdam that's dedicated to the visual arts from past to present. On view is a virtual cornucopia of works by artists ranging from the Dutch Masters (and no, not the cigar), through the Surrealists, up to contemporary works of various forms. You'll get a feast of visual delights from Vincent Van Gogh, Rembrandt van Rijn, Rene Magritte, and there's even a surprise visit by Maurizio Cattelan in one of the galleries. Check out the images below to see what I saw. We had lunch in their architecturally stunning cafeteria and while pricey, it was actually quite delicious!
Entrance to Boijmans
Under installation Jean-Michel Basquiat paintings
Installed aero-plane, Boijmans cafeteria
David Salle work at Boijmans
Salvador Dali at his finest
Someone...Boijmans...
Jan Sluijters - Portrait of a Woman (Dancer)
Vincent van Gogh - Portrait of Armand Roulin
Detail from Impressionist work
Maurizio Cattelan installation Untitled
Staircase at Boijmans
Biblical sculpture in form of Trinity
Space between galleries, Boijmans
Self Portrait with Yayoi Kusama's Mirror Room
Installation in progress
Day 15 - Part Two -FotoMuseum & Boijmans
Welcome back to Day 15 here in Rotterdam. Since we've learned so much about Witte de With and Angela Bulloch, let's check out what the rest of the day had to offer.
The FotoMuseum Netherlands, hence forth known as FotoM, is dedicated to all things photographic. On the first floor is an intricately pieced together exhibit aptly titled The Darkroom, which covers the history of photography as it related to mostly the Netherlands. Upon entering the exhibit, you pick up a 16x20 inch white board from bins marked English & Dutch...obviously you're choosing which language you want to interact with. Spread across the installation are around 20 stands with what-at-first-glance appear to be empty darkroom chemical trays. Slide your handy-dandy blank board into the tray face up and a projection of water sloshing back and forth morphs into a short film on any number of topics covered...in the language you chose your board to be. Well done FotoM! You can learn all about the humble beginnings of photography in Holland, the history of the technology involved, movements in the photographic arts, and specific photographers. It's a great exhibit and accomplished in quite the inventive and interactive way.
Also on exhibit is Christian Boltanski's Chance, which wasn't exactly working at the time due to a technical difficulty of some sort. You can see a short video that I got while they worked on it below to get a drift of how it works. Also, there's a few photos to pique your interest. See more about the exhibit HERE and more about Boltanski HERE.
The rest of FotoM is mostly relegated to interactive exhibits which inform the viewer through multimedia about the history of photography in Holland and contemporary practices in the country. Of particular interest to some of our group was an interactive cinema of sorts where you could choose your own video projection from a long list of works by an equally long list of artists. The crowd favorite was commonly referred to as "A Man on a Horse." It's quite humorous, trust me...you'll be engaged for minutes, 16 of them to be more precise.
The FotoMuseum Netherlands, hence forth known as FotoM, is dedicated to all things photographic. On the first floor is an intricately pieced together exhibit aptly titled The Darkroom, which covers the history of photography as it related to mostly the Netherlands. Upon entering the exhibit, you pick up a 16x20 inch white board from bins marked English & Dutch...obviously you're choosing which language you want to interact with. Spread across the installation are around 20 stands with what-at-first-glance appear to be empty darkroom chemical trays. Slide your handy-dandy blank board into the tray face up and a projection of water sloshing back and forth morphs into a short film on any number of topics covered...in the language you chose your board to be. Well done FotoM! You can learn all about the humble beginnings of photography in Holland, the history of the technology involved, movements in the photographic arts, and specific photographers. It's a great exhibit and accomplished in quite the inventive and interactive way.
Also on exhibit is Christian Boltanski's Chance, which wasn't exactly working at the time due to a technical difficulty of some sort. You can see a short video that I got while they worked on it below to get a drift of how it works. Also, there's a few photos to pique your interest. See more about the exhibit HERE and more about Boltanski HERE.
The rest of FotoM is mostly relegated to interactive exhibits which inform the viewer through multimedia about the history of photography in Holland and contemporary practices in the country. Of particular interest to some of our group was an interactive cinema of sorts where you could choose your own video projection from a long list of works by an equally long list of artists. The crowd favorite was commonly referred to as "A Man on a Horse." It's quite humorous, trust me...you'll be engaged for minutes, 16 of them to be more precise.
Swinging cool photo from FotoM's collection
Christian Boltanski's Chance installation
Boltanski's Chance - detail
Boltanski's Chance - detail
Day 15 - Rotterdam - Witte de With, FotoMuseum & Boijmans
It's Day 15 and we're winding down on the trip. We arrived in Rotterdam last night with just enough time to get a bite and hit the sheets for what looks to be a busy busy day today. On the books are scheduled stops at three of Rotterdam's finest art institutions. We start at the Witte de With, which is centrally located in the arts district of Rotterdam and is a center for contemporary art that I can honestly compare to my former employer Artpace in San Antonio, Texas.
Witte de With is a center for contemporary art and is a world class institution. Our group was received by the almost-brand-new director Defne Ayas, who gave us a quick history of WdW and where they're headed in the future. She turned us over to their curator Amira Gad, who gave us quite the intensive tour, breaking down then intricacies of the current exhibit: Short Big Drama: Angela Bulloch. If you haven't heard of Angela Bulloch, you'll learn a little bit here.
Bulloch is consider part of the YBA, or Young British Artists group as they're called. The biggest name you might recognize from the YBA is of course Damien Hirst. Bulloch declines the association with the group and if associated at all, it would mostly be in the later years of the movement, if at all. Bulloch was on the short list for the much esteemed Turner Prize in 1997, the year in which the prize had an entirely female short list, with Gillian Wearing ultimately taking home the trophy...aka £40,000 in prize money!
Anywho, I digress. Bulloch's work in the exhibit are wide ranging, yet work harmoniously as a show. You'll see her drawing machines, which use various forms of sound and physical input from the viewer to create drawings on the gallery walls. Also on hand are several of the artist's Pixel Box works that represent a communication of music and sound through a constantly changing visual means of light boxes that are hooked centrally to a "black box" controller that provides code for color combinations of pixels as translated by various soundtracks. In practice, it looks much simpler than its deployment actually is. Bulloch and her studio have perfected every detail to produce clean and imaginative spaces for interaction without having to worry about technical details...of course your curiosity will get the best you as mine did.
Bulloch's other works in the galleries deal with the hierarchy or rules and systems for not only interpreting those rules, but implementing them as well. On hand are rules sets scattered across gallery walls that inform the audience how to interact with not only Bulloch's work, but other artist's work, social interactions and historical events. Bulloch references the Earth works of Robert Morris, the Cosa Nostra and also the War on Terror in installations that both humorous and thought provoking. See the photos below for examples...better yet, go see them in person to get a firm grasp on the ideology and graphic nature invested in each set of Bulloch's rules to live by.
Next up: Photo Museum & Boijmans.
Witte de With is a center for contemporary art and is a world class institution. Our group was received by the almost-brand-new director Defne Ayas, who gave us a quick history of WdW and where they're headed in the future. She turned us over to their curator Amira Gad, who gave us quite the intensive tour, breaking down then intricacies of the current exhibit: Short Big Drama: Angela Bulloch. If you haven't heard of Angela Bulloch, you'll learn a little bit here.
Bulloch is consider part of the YBA, or Young British Artists group as they're called. The biggest name you might recognize from the YBA is of course Damien Hirst. Bulloch declines the association with the group and if associated at all, it would mostly be in the later years of the movement, if at all. Bulloch was on the short list for the much esteemed Turner Prize in 1997, the year in which the prize had an entirely female short list, with Gillian Wearing ultimately taking home the trophy...aka £40,000 in prize money!
Anywho, I digress. Bulloch's work in the exhibit are wide ranging, yet work harmoniously as a show. You'll see her drawing machines, which use various forms of sound and physical input from the viewer to create drawings on the gallery walls. Also on hand are several of the artist's Pixel Box works that represent a communication of music and sound through a constantly changing visual means of light boxes that are hooked centrally to a "black box" controller that provides code for color combinations of pixels as translated by various soundtracks. In practice, it looks much simpler than its deployment actually is. Bulloch and her studio have perfected every detail to produce clean and imaginative spaces for interaction without having to worry about technical details...of course your curiosity will get the best you as mine did.
Bulloch's other works in the galleries deal with the hierarchy or rules and systems for not only interpreting those rules, but implementing them as well. On hand are rules sets scattered across gallery walls that inform the audience how to interact with not only Bulloch's work, but other artist's work, social interactions and historical events. Bulloch references the Earth works of Robert Morris, the Cosa Nostra and also the War on Terror in installations that both humorous and thought provoking. See the photos below for examples...better yet, go see them in person to get a firm grasp on the ideology and graphic nature invested in each set of Bulloch's rules to live by.
Next up: Photo Museum & Boijmans.
Angela Bulloch's Pixel Boxes at Witte de With
Bus/Train Stop work by Angela Bulloch
Rules for Morris' Body, Space, Motion, Things
More rules to live by
Rules for the War on Terror
Graphic in nature
Rules for la Cosa Nostra (aka Mafia)
Set of rules for the Rules
Drawing machine activated by sitting process
Bulloch's Bus Stop
Pixel Boxes installation at Witte de With
Angela Bulloch at Witte de With
Monday, January 23, 2012
Impressions of Amsterdam
What to say about Amsterdam...what to say about Amsterdam...
Well, for starters, people love their bicycles. After being in Brussels for close to a week, Amsterdam was definitely a change of pace. While Brussels was "crunchy," as I said earlier, Amsterdam was busy as hell. There's a million ways to get around the city, be it on the aforementioned bicycle, a tram, a train, a metro, a car, a cab, or just plain walking...everyone is going somewhere, almost all the time. It was actually reminiscent of New York City, which (maybe not) coincidentally was originally called New Amsterdam. I'm pretty sure that it's just a coincidence, but it sure reminded me of the go, go, go of NYC. As I said, coming from the more laid back and chilled out Brussels, Amsterdam is a hustle-and-a-bustle!
Some things learned from the Amsterdam experience: people like to get high...and it's easy. There's "coffee shops" everywhere and--although I am not a smoker--apparently it's as easy as pie to get high. Gotta love my rhyme though, right? Although that's the most basic concept of the city to a foreigner on his first trip, Amsterdam is actually a pretty complicated city overall...with that being said, so is Holland.
Lesson two: now's either a horrible time or the ideal time to be an artist in Holland. The Netherlands, aka Holland, has had a recent retooling of their government and the newest regime is one of a staunchly conservative nature. So much so that they're revamped the entire funding of the arts community system, putting many institutions at the brink of extinction in the process. It used to be that institutions could receive government grants on an annual basis after a common application was submitted and this was how the arts communities in Holland not only survived, but thrived as well...it really is quite the vibrant community when you look at it.
They have been doing more (dare I say) for contemporary arts in Amsterdam than I've seen in Chicago or my former city of San Antonio in the last few years. Don't take that the wrong way...I'm not saying there's nothing happening in these cities, but Amsterdam flat out has them buried, as you can read in the posts below. That brings us back to the current problem of reworking the system so that every single project must have it's own application versus the institutional applications for annual funding. The idea is to re-tool the system to be more like The USA's system of semi-private and commercial ownership over the arts. The effect is that many institutions are scrambling to figure how to survive.
Two such places (this might be breaking news), de Appel and SMART Project Space have decided to merge this year, in order to make the process easier on themselves. The theory here is that by merging, they are cutting down on the applicants applying for case-by-case funding. Not a bad idea necessarily and it seems like it's nothing new to this part of the world and particularly the Netherlands. Many institutions are venturing towards alternative forms of funding too, ranging from sales of artist's works to event planning to generating funding from private parties by creating charity drives. The feeling overall is that everything should work out for most places, but several others might return to an "underground" form of operations for the near term and reemerge later wholly or at least partially intact.
So, in short, Amsterdam was great! Crazy busy (as usual on this trip) and eye opening, to say the least. It's both extremely encouraging to see some great art being made and also saddening to think that the opportunities available in the recent past may go be going away and the community itself might feel a bit more stagnant. It will most definitely be worth a trip back to see what happens in the next few years. Good luck to them all with whatever happens!
Well, for starters, people love their bicycles. After being in Brussels for close to a week, Amsterdam was definitely a change of pace. While Brussels was "crunchy," as I said earlier, Amsterdam was busy as hell. There's a million ways to get around the city, be it on the aforementioned bicycle, a tram, a train, a metro, a car, a cab, or just plain walking...everyone is going somewhere, almost all the time. It was actually reminiscent of New York City, which (maybe not) coincidentally was originally called New Amsterdam. I'm pretty sure that it's just a coincidence, but it sure reminded me of the go, go, go of NYC. As I said, coming from the more laid back and chilled out Brussels, Amsterdam is a hustle-and-a-bustle!
Some things learned from the Amsterdam experience: people like to get high...and it's easy. There's "coffee shops" everywhere and--although I am not a smoker--apparently it's as easy as pie to get high. Gotta love my rhyme though, right? Although that's the most basic concept of the city to a foreigner on his first trip, Amsterdam is actually a pretty complicated city overall...with that being said, so is Holland.
Lesson two: now's either a horrible time or the ideal time to be an artist in Holland. The Netherlands, aka Holland, has had a recent retooling of their government and the newest regime is one of a staunchly conservative nature. So much so that they're revamped the entire funding of the arts community system, putting many institutions at the brink of extinction in the process. It used to be that institutions could receive government grants on an annual basis after a common application was submitted and this was how the arts communities in Holland not only survived, but thrived as well...it really is quite the vibrant community when you look at it.
They have been doing more (dare I say) for contemporary arts in Amsterdam than I've seen in Chicago or my former city of San Antonio in the last few years. Don't take that the wrong way...I'm not saying there's nothing happening in these cities, but Amsterdam flat out has them buried, as you can read in the posts below. That brings us back to the current problem of reworking the system so that every single project must have it's own application versus the institutional applications for annual funding. The idea is to re-tool the system to be more like The USA's system of semi-private and commercial ownership over the arts. The effect is that many institutions are scrambling to figure how to survive.
Two such places (this might be breaking news), de Appel and SMART Project Space have decided to merge this year, in order to make the process easier on themselves. The theory here is that by merging, they are cutting down on the applicants applying for case-by-case funding. Not a bad idea necessarily and it seems like it's nothing new to this part of the world and particularly the Netherlands. Many institutions are venturing towards alternative forms of funding too, ranging from sales of artist's works to event planning to generating funding from private parties by creating charity drives. The feeling overall is that everything should work out for most places, but several others might return to an "underground" form of operations for the near term and reemerge later wholly or at least partially intact.
So, in short, Amsterdam was great! Crazy busy (as usual on this trip) and eye opening, to say the least. It's both extremely encouraging to see some great art being made and also saddening to think that the opportunities available in the recent past may go be going away and the community itself might feel a bit more stagnant. It will most definitely be worth a trip back to see what happens in the next few years. Good luck to them all with whatever happens!
Day 14 - Back at it! NIMK, University of Amsterdam...Rotterdam bound
It's Monday and the football gods have spoken...your 2012 Super Bowl shall feature a rematch of the 2008 event with the New England Patriots squaring up against the New York Giants. Not exactly (or at all) the game I was looking for, but it'll be interesting to see if the Pats can with this time or whether Ely Manning will surpass his brother Peyton in SB rings. Either way, it's almost the end of the football season and that's probably a good thing since this semester is going to be hella busy!
Today we're off to NIMK, formerly known as Montevideo. They changed their name about a decade ago, but still seem to be stuck with the moniker. NIMK/Montevideo specialize in the exhibition and archiving of unstable media. What exactly is "unstable media" you might ask? Well, for starters, it's any kind of media with a definite shelf life, such as performance art or electronic multi media that is problematic in its archival properties. Say you're an artist and you created an installation in the mid-90's with video, sound and sculpture--now you can't exactly have that space you built your installation in for the unforeseeable future, so there should be some kind of documentation of it, right? That's exactly the type of thing they do.
Another form of unstable media would be considered any kind of performance art, which itself if ephemeral in nature. NIMK works to preserve documentation of performance by ensuring that the remnants of said events always remain viewable to interested audiences. This means archiving video and sound of performance art, then ensuring that the digital formats remain viewable throughout the future. With video and sound standards in a perpetual state of flux, this is extremely important for future generations to have access to what is now avant-garde work, but will be of historical performance in the future.
Is this making sense to you? If not, you can check out NIMK/Montevideo's site HERE for more info.
Also on the agenda today is a visit to the University of Amsterdam and a brief look at what they're accomplishing in their fine arts department, particularly their Master of Arts Program, which is an English based study program for international students. There's a wealth of possibilities for study in the curriculum and we met a few students with former ties to SAIC as well. It's pretty cool to see what others are doing across the globe in the arts communities and even cooler when you see somewhat familiar faces doing so well with where they're headed.
And now...we're off on the train to Rotterdam, the pinnacle of the trip and the IFFR--or International Film Festival Rotterdam, which looks to be very promising, now the schedule for the festival is out. See you there!
Today we're off to NIMK, formerly known as Montevideo. They changed their name about a decade ago, but still seem to be stuck with the moniker. NIMK/Montevideo specialize in the exhibition and archiving of unstable media. What exactly is "unstable media" you might ask? Well, for starters, it's any kind of media with a definite shelf life, such as performance art or electronic multi media that is problematic in its archival properties. Say you're an artist and you created an installation in the mid-90's with video, sound and sculpture--now you can't exactly have that space you built your installation in for the unforeseeable future, so there should be some kind of documentation of it, right? That's exactly the type of thing they do.
Another form of unstable media would be considered any kind of performance art, which itself if ephemeral in nature. NIMK works to preserve documentation of performance by ensuring that the remnants of said events always remain viewable to interested audiences. This means archiving video and sound of performance art, then ensuring that the digital formats remain viewable throughout the future. With video and sound standards in a perpetual state of flux, this is extremely important for future generations to have access to what is now avant-garde work, but will be of historical performance in the future.
Is this making sense to you? If not, you can check out NIMK/Montevideo's site HERE for more info.
Also on the agenda today is a visit to the University of Amsterdam and a brief look at what they're accomplishing in their fine arts department, particularly their Master of Arts Program, which is an English based study program for international students. There's a wealth of possibilities for study in the curriculum and we met a few students with former ties to SAIC as well. It's pretty cool to see what others are doing across the globe in the arts communities and even cooler when you see somewhat familiar faces doing so well with where they're headed.
And now...we're off on the train to Rotterdam, the pinnacle of the trip and the IFFR--or International Film Festival Rotterdam, which looks to be very promising, now the schedule for the festival is out. See you there!
Staircase at NIMK/Montevideo
Golden cassettes, part of an installation at NIMK
Another amazing sky in Amsterdam
View from the hostel room with reflection
Sunday, January 22, 2012
Day 13 - Finally, a breather...whew!
Today is Sunday and we've finally got some down time. We have to meet our advisor and discuss exactly what's to come from our trip in the form of a project or a paper...luckily for me, it's in the form of a project because I'm kinda sick of writing papers after last semester. There's a experimental video in my future and you'll get to see it when it's complete, for sure. Check back and I might even post some rough cuts before the final edit goes up. Also, today is Sunday, so you know that means there's some football on somewhere, just not exactly at the right time. We're going to watch the conference championship games, but probably won't make it through both of them since the first game starts at 9:00 p.m. here in Amsterdam and the second won't even kickoff until 12:30 a.m.! Enjoy a couple of shots from today and tonight below.
Smile!
The football sized calzone I had for dinner...delicious!
One Kate Pollasch working on her blog and doing
laundry at the same time
Seems to be the place to be!
Photo-Synch shot of the square outside the
bar we watched football at
Everything is still soooo green in Amsterdam
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