A perfect spot for fresh air at 1.5 meters distance
This bench could be seen as a symbolic and poetic representation of the time, when we lived in a 1.5 meter long society as a result of the Covid-19 pandemic. It opened up opportunities for sustainable meetings with friends and family, as well as with strangers who could sit on the couch at the same time. It ensured that we were still able to meet at this exceptional time — even if it was from a distance.
The sofa was 2.5 metres wide, with a centre — exactly 1.5 metres — made of polished stainless steel. The intermediate part was invisible due to the mirror effect. Only the left and right sides of the sofa were clearly visible as seats. The reflection created a physical distance, but at the same time made the distance invisible.
Tuindorp Oostzaan was built 100 years ago, mainly as a garden village for the employees of the Nederlandsche Dock- en Scheepsbouw Maatschappij (NDSM). Raimond Wouda has spent the past 30 years capturing this part of Noord, which is visible in a publication and an exhibition at the city archives, and is now also shown on three billboards at the NDSM shipyard, near the source.
His mother and grandmother grew up there and he lived there for the first years of his life. Raimond Wouda about Tuindorp Oostzaan: “As I got older, my relationship with Tuindorp became more complex and ambivalent. It was a place that was both strange and familiar to me. I started taking pictures of the neighborhood and its residents to better understand what it meant to me. Tuindorp has become my most personal work.”
Inspired by the ideals of the English garden cities, the garden villages in Amsterdam were built, with Tuindorp Oostzaan being the first. Just behind the NDSM so that people could walk or cycle to work. Compared to the buildings on the other side of the IJ, the garden villages were given more space, gardens, squares and (cultural) facilities to serve as meeting places and create a sense of community. The close-knit community changed over time, the area expanded after the war, after which migrant workers and young families came to North. The most drastic change was, of course, the bankruptcy of the NDSM. As a result, the industry and other public functions such as the library slowly disappeared to a large extent.
The building boards now show a selection of photos that provide a glimpse into the larger story that Raimond has captured. A history of living and living in a changing city, a perspective on the community and surroundings of Tuindorp Oostzaan. The old obvious connection between Tuindorp Oostzaan and NDSM as a former shipyard, as a beacon in the district, no longer exists. However, it has been replaced by a new public and a so-called “cultural wharf”. The building signs reconnect the garden village and its residents and NDSM.
Raimond Wouda's photos are shown on the 'NDSM Billboards', with which Stichting NDSM-werf offers space for artists on large building boards: “In addition to the building signs on the western part of the NDSM, where construction is underway, we at NDSM-Oost give artists the opportunity to post their artistic statements on building boards. With its 10 hectares, the shipyard provides a wonderful background for large images in response to the context of the NDSM to make the work highly visible to Northerners and Amsterdammers,” says curator Petra Heck.
Credits and references
Raimond Wouda — Polder VIII, Tuindorp Oostzaan, Amsterdam 1921-2021, Thuis in de Stad. 100 jaar Tuindorp Oostzaan
The Tower of Babel project was a concept by artist Guido van der Werve. In his concept, Van der Werve took the Biblical story as a starting point. In this story, only one language was spoken on Earth and they collectively embraced the same idea: to build a city with a tower that would reach the sky. But God descended after this act of pride, made people all speak different languages, and spread everyone around the world. Because the people could no longer understand each other, construction was stopped.
What a contemporary Tower of Babel would look like, with just as many people as possible with different backgrounds, languages and voices, was what Guido van der Werve asked with this project. Stichting NDSM-werf and TAAK shaped this question in an architectural installation that expressed a certain polyphony of the city. The emphasis was precisely on the difference, the diversity and the (cultural) richness that lay therein. Watch a portrait of Guido van der Werve talking (in English) about the Tower of Babel and his art practice in the video:
WORKSHOPS
The polyphony also took shape in various specially developed workshops in which Amsterdammers and communities with different cultural, political, social or religious backgrounds of different ages participated. The starting point was how they thought about their ideal city and what values were important to them in it. The workshops were given by artists Fouad Lakbir, Tina Lenz, Mick La Rock, Olfa Ben Ali, Bengin Dawod, Rianne van Duin, Brendan Jan Walsh and Perrine Philomeen, who all worked from their own practice and discipline with themes such as ownership, visibility and storytelling and sharing.
The diverse “building blocks”, ideas and stories were translated into visual outcomes that were placed in the Tower between September 23, 2021 and storm Eunice in February 2022. There were banners, photos, a video, a sound system with stories, a Tower of Babel newspaper made by students at Klein Amsterdam primary school and a homemade brick wall that was incorporated into the tower. Brendan Jan Walsh rehearsed a libretto written by Guido van der Werve and performed on October 7 by the choir and the Promenade Orchestra, specially assembled for the tower. This is how the Tower of Babel became a metaphor for what the ideal polyphonic city could look like and what values and ideas were important to it.
For background stories about the Tower of Babel, check out the NDSM Online Magazine depot.
From May 5, 2022, Phase 2 of the Tower of Babel was visible: the tower was under construction, to indicate that it was still a work in progress. In addition to the videos and the libretto, there was a 3D sketch by Guido that illustrated how he wanted to see his ideal Tower of Babel finally realized: with a path where you could walk up and down endlessly. At that time, the path could be walked as a flat route.
The South African Artist Goldendean (Dean Hutton) made inflatable soft sculptures that depicted the contours of their own bodies. Especially for the NDSM shipyard, they created the 'Big Fat Trans Light MerQueer', a hybrid between man and sea monster that seemed to have crawled out of the IJ water — with tentacles. They were inspired by folk tales about sea-lake people, such as the “Mermaid of Edam” and “Mamlambo”, a serpent-like river goddess from South African and Xhosa mythology, who was often depicted as a mermaid. When they were captured, they allegedly brought prosperity.
Goldendean shared moments of gentle courage to affirm the right of all bodies to exist, be celebrated, and protected. They evoked tender feelings by deliberately pretending to be crazy and playful, sometimes a clown, sometimes a warrior, always vulnerable... Radically soft in an uncompromising world... A tenderqueer invested trust in an audience to respond kindly, to keep our bodies safe together, to give queer space, no matter how we sometimes failed each other.
Johannes Buttner: Free Energy II, Peak Panic
Location: waterfront near Pllek
In his sculptures, installations and videos, Johannes Büttner (Germany, 1985) addresses socio-economic themes such as energy, work in the digital age and power. In addition, he worked with people with diverse backgrounds: from mindset and business coaches and bakers to people from the “digital working class”.
Johannes Büttner showed sculptures that he made for Into Nature, an exhibition in Bargerveen, Drenthe, curated by Hans den Hartog Jager, where energy was key. Büttner's luminescent sculptures were battery-operated made of aluminum, magnesium and alum crystals. The story went that they recharged over and over again, so that these batteries would provide infinite energy. Büttner had the batteries designed by “free-energy engineers”, an online community that believed that environmentally friendly, sustainable and free energy sources had been around for a long time, but that they were hidden by large companies and governments out of self-interest. Somewhere between truth and fiction, (pseudo-) science and faith, and in response to the lack of opportunities to verify this, the work evoked alternative ways of imaging.
In addition, Johannes showed lightboxes with advertising-like photos of “survival hacks” for a post-apocalyptic scenario. How did you make light in times of crisis? Faced with a pandemic and climate change awareness, 2016's work was now seen differently. DIY creations and creativity to deal with new catastrophes seemed inevitable.
Alice Wong & Crys Leung: COHESION
Location: LOAD OUT
Alice Wong was a story designer. By showing how our perception of reality was constructed, she tried to turn complexity into understandable stories. For this project, she worked with Crys Leung, communication designer, who investigated the role of media and the relationship to identity in her work.
Alice and Crys revealed 'COHESION', a large-scale installation that connected fragmented elements on the NDSM. The reflective circle stood for unity and collectivity; one could all come together and become more than the individual parts. Because the total circle could not be understood from a single position in space, the work created an infinite number of perspectives, depending on the point of view. The process of interacting from different angles, heights and distances made it clear how people collectively shaped a shared reality, where no perspective should stand above the other. Visible and invisible, seen and unseen were all equally valuable.
There were wild animals at the NDSM shipyard in 2021!
Designer and Illustrator Luca Boscardin was one of the two winners of the Open Call launched in 2021 by Stichting NDSM-werf. His project Animal Factory consisted of minimalistic metal animals, such as a crocodile and a giraffe. The works invited you to sit on or climb up and thus played with the idea of the NDSM shipyard as an urban jungle.
Animal Factory was a collection of animals designed in a simple and abstract way, each maintaining the exact size and proportions of the real animals. The objects — a giraffe, gorilla, crocodile and wolf — were characterized by a minimal shape, made of metal tubes and a minimal use of color: each one was painted in a single shade to encourage passers-by to open their minds and let their imagination run wild. Where, from a certain angle, the steel structure did not seem to have a specific shape, the contours of a gorilla were clearly visible from another location. This is how the animals were surprises in the industrial landscape.
With the objects, Luca Boscardin hoped to encourage creativity and multifunctional use of the shipyard. For example, the gorilla could also serve as a play object, the giraffe may have been an alternative workout tool, and the crocodile was a suitable place for visitors to sit down with a cup of coffee. As a toy designer, Luca drew space rockets, fantasy creatures, imaginary characters and super-fast cars every day. Using the life-size metal animals, he gave shipyard visitors the space to use their own imagination and invited young and old to play, hang out or exercise.
Animal Factory was created with the help of steel carpenter Iwan Snel, who was also based at the NDSM shipyard. The entire project was designed and produced in the immediate vicinity of NDSM. Nowadays, they can be found on the west-side of NDSM next to the Noord-Dok building in a park.
When ADE was canceled due to the Corona pandemic, we came up with something else at NDSM
For this edition of ADE, Stichting NDSM-werf invited the art and activist group Tools for Action + Floor out to use their site as a public rehearsal space for RÆV REHEARSAL. They invited the audience to rehearse new forms of togetherness. With a Bluetooth speaker system, floating inflatable sculptures and a minimalist techno beat, they moved around the city like a radiant, dancing swarm. The streets became the club, the steps, roundabouts and benches acted as temporary stages.
RÆV REHEARSAL
RÆV REHEARSAL was initiated in Rotterdam in the summer of 2021 by visual artist Artúr van Balen, founder of Tools for Action, and choreographer Floor van Leeuwen. Every week, they rehearsed the dancing swarm in public space with a fixed group of twenty ravers, which in some editions grew to more than eighty people. After two massive editions of Unmute Us, the protest march for a more open event and night culture in Amsterdam, there was a strong need for people to come together, dance and have fun. By dancing, people were able to express their protest in a peaceful way.
Artúr van Balen, founder and artist at Tools for Action, explained: “Actually, this was intended as a new form of manifestation with the potential to become a protest. We used the rehearsal as a format because, from a legal perspective, it gave us the opportunity to meet with more than a hundred people in the open air, regardless of the changing corona rules.” Floor van Leeuwen added: “I saw the rehearsal as a way to practice collective movement together, coordinate, meet new people and even dance with people remotely, even when they were on their balconies.”
Swarms
RÆV REHEARSAL was based on the movement principles of swarms. Like a flock of birds, there was no central point or hierarchically organized movement; the direction was determined by the group as it moved. During each rehearsal, people had to move and dance about three meters apart. Based on these principles, the audience was invited to participate on October 15, 16 and 17 and to rehearse this collective movement together.
Music
RÆV REHEARSAL worked with a different DJ each time. As the swarm moved through public spaces, from iconic places to residential areas, the goal was to find sounds that resonated with the local environment or aroused curiosity. During previous editions, DJs performed such as Sukubratz, a Chilean DJ who combined techno with reggaeton, Cheb Runner, a Moroccan DJ who mixed electronic dance music with chaabi (a style of Moroccan folklore), and DJ Dance Divine, a queer artist from Brussels.
ADE
On October 15, 16 and 17, a group of up to a hundred people gathered at the NDSM shipyard to dance through Amsterdam-Noord. Various collectives, DJs and communities joined this initiative. The line-up was announced later. These were three unforgettable nights where a dancing swarm moved through the city, letting its heartbeat ring during the pandemic and activating spaces with bodies, music and light.
As an echo of the transformations in club culture, RÆV REHEARSAL highlighted the need to explore new forms of sociality and interrelationships by reclaiming and reprogramming public space.
In collaboration with Nieuw Dakota, Stichting NDSM-werf presented Public Air Filters by Anne-Jan Reijn at NDSM
Public Air Filters was one of the two winning entries for the 2021 NDSM Open Call. For this work, artist proposed Anne-Jan Reijn the question is what actually happened in the outside air that we breathe. By filtering air in public spaces, a dichotomy automatically arose: filtered air and unfiltered air. This immediately raised a question: maybe the unfiltered air could not be trusted? The series of sculptures by Anne-Jan was on display between July and October and was changeable during this period. This slow process was, in fact, the essence of the work.
In theory, every cubic meter of filtered air left a residue on the outside of the filters. The artist wanted to play with this residue, creating an archaeology of air filter pollution, where a form of manipulation was allowed. What if that residue on the filters formed the most amazing colored crystals? Did that have a direct psychological effect, making the air we breathed, for example, undesirable or unpleasant? Reijn played with the idea of danger that we couldn't see. Invisible risks that were in the air, such as asbestos or a virus, were scary but could also evoke a form of awe. With this work, the artist offered a different perspective on this issue by materializing the invisible. “We were constantly connected to invisible matter — and therefore the risks — and we systematically tried to eliminate it. At the time, the relationship of trust we had with science and politics was under great pressure,” says Anne-Jan Reijn.
Under no circumstances did the artist claim that filtered air was safer than unfiltered air: “This was really a work of art that played with the idea of distinction.”
Also read the interview with Anne-Jan Reijn in the Digital Depot - Online Magazine.
Credits and references
Visuals: Robin van Dijk, Benjamin Kotek, Gert Jan van Rooij
In the spring of 2021, it was quieter than usual at the NDSM shipyard. This had everything to do with the Corona pandemic that gripped the entire country, and the whole world. Due to social safety restrictions, programming at the outdoor area of the NDSM shipyard was a challenge. Nevertheless, at the NDSM-werf Foundation, we looked for ways to make NDSM's public space as beautiful and accessible as possible, even though it was quieter than previous years during this period.
From this idea, the NDSM Yard Gardens came into being: 30 to 50 garden boxes where NDSM residents could use as a small piece of urban garden. All at least half a meter apart, so that users could garden while respecting social distancing”. It turned out to be a great success: all gardens were immediately used by residents, visitors, artists, neighbours, and some entrepreneurs at and around the NDSM shipyard. From early spring to autumn, flowers, vegetables and other plants were grown in the square between the Y slope and the Noorderlicht. Workshops were also given to small groups of gardeners and at the end of the season, a real NDSM garden community was created.
In 2021, the first expressions in the (Un)monumenting program series were published on NDSM, including on the NDSM Billboards
What should or could a monument be today, for whom, and who decides this? For their programme series (Un) Monumenting, Stichting NDSM-werf invited makers and artists to reflect on these questions by creating a (temporary) work at the shipyard. For (Un) Monumenting #1, the collective Frerara — Frederick Calmes, Raquel van Haver and Raul Balai — invited to make the Drawing Assignment 2020, which they realized for the Amsterdam City Archives, visible at the NDSM shipyard. (Un) monumenting #1 presented Frerara with images from “Breathing of the City”, which focused on understudied Amsterdammers and their stories.
From April 9, 2021, three construction boards at the shipyard showed drawings by Frerara, which they made as part of “Breathing of the City”. The collective saw the city as a “living organ that wakes up every morning and never sleeps in its entirety.” Especially at that precarious time, it became clear who had the luxury of being able to work from home, and who didn't. Cleaners, sex workers, bus drivers; diverse characters starred in the drawings that portrayed, fascinated or embodied the three artists separately. At the building signs, visitors were able to listen to audio clips about the images and/or the people portrayed with their smartphones. The three artists brought together themes such as the archive, transition, art and culture and the city's signature in their work. To do this, they investigated the residents of the city of Amsterdam and specifically into continuing the tradition of keeping the city alive as a ritual. For example, with the drawings, they showed a different face of Amsterdam and created a temporary 'monument' for a number of understudied townspeople. On April 9, not only did the presentation start at the NDSM shipyard, but Frederick, Raul and Raquel also physically handed over the drawings to the City Archives for inclusion. The collection of drawings was published by the City Archives in three separate zines, which could be viewed and purchased, and they worked towards a fine publication that year. What was special was that the topic “Breathing of the City” was submitted by Frerara to the City Archives even before the coronavirus pandemic, and it had only gained in urgency since then.
Continuation of (Un)monumenting
The global conversation about monuments meant that the Foundation used this moment to bring the shipyard's history more to the surface. What could a memorial be, mean, and who had a say in it? And asking who deserved to be present in public spaces and who felt represented (and who didn't)? Based on the wish of the NDSM-werf Foundation for a polyphonic public space, the foundation commissioned several artists to give their views on this on the shipyard. The (Un)monumenting project consisted of several episodes: for each chapter, the foundation invited one or more artists to reflect on the theme of 'monuments' of the future. At that time, work was underway on (Un)monumenting #2, a video work by Turkish-Dutch artist Belit Sağ, in which she highlighted the invisible history of the NDSM shipyard. In the video, a collaboration with the Institute for Sound and Vision, Belit Sağ investigated the role of female Turkish migrant workers at the shipyard using archival material.
An exhibition with an audiowalk that took place in the future
Plastic Hypersea is was an interactive, site-specific work by an artist Sissel Marie Tonn commissioned by Sonic Acts and was experienced at the NDSM shipyard in Amsterdam.
Set in 2099, Plastic Hypersea was a guided, spatial and interactive experience that speculated on a possible future in immunology, merged with the topic of environmental health. As listeners explored the terrain, they were invited to imagine the environment as an extension of their immune system and to consider the many ways their bodies intertwined with microplastics in the sediments of Amsterdam's waterways. Ultimately, Plastic Hypersea asked listeners to leave behind the war metaphors that haunted immunology and to think about a more expansive sense of self.
Produced in collaboration with musician Vincenzo Acquaria Castellana and sound and recording artist BJ Nilsen, the localized sound experience was complemented by custom boat sails and ceramic sculptures created by Sissel that acted as “membranes” encoded with material and immaterial data about the hydrophobic, industrial waste that flowed through the waters of the Netherlands.
About the artist
Sissel Marie Tonn was a Danish artist based in The Hague. Her practice focused on the shifts in perception that occurred when people became entangled in their surroundings, blurring the boundaries between body and environment. Her artistic research often resulted in interactive, sensory installations.
Plastic Hypersea was built on Echoes, an interactive GPS-enabled mobile app for audio walks. To access the work, you had to download the app from the App Store or Google Play. They then put on headphones and wandered around the area of the NDSM shipyard while following the sails and ceramic sculptures. The gradual unfolding of the work was activated while walking and exploring the environment.
SEXYLAND was an art project in the form of a temporary society. For 365 days, the club had a new owner every day. He was able to implement the program as he wished, ranging from art expressions to sporting events, from gangster rap to stroboscopic light dinners. SEXYLAND was a tabula rasa that could be described in any way. SEXYLAND strived to mark every unknown corner of Amsterdam and show the enormous diversity the city had to offer.
In 2021, Sexyland moved from the NDSM shipyard to the other side of Amsterdam-Noord under the name: Sexyland World. As part of Sexyland's departure, we spoke with stakeholders Aukje Dekker and Samira Ben Messaoud in a podcast episode of NDSM X. Listen to it below.
On the way to school or work, kissing behind a corner of a building, sprinting to the ferry, giggling from a car, chewing gum on the ground, fishing in the dock: daily activities at the NDSM shipyard. In NDSM Nursery Square, a project by Studio Makkink & Bey they looked at daily activities at the NDSM shipyard asking how they could reprogram them through cultural activities.
From October 2019, there was a temporary square to visit where there was space to intervene with a flexible infrastructure and influence the behavior in the shipyard's public space. The square therefore never looked the same, moved with its visitors and was sometimes coloured by artists in residence. For example, park furniture could be borrowed and there were singers and artists who sang to the sailors during rush hour in September.
Artist Antoine Guay built a bread oven in a container, after which the bread baked therein was distributed to visitors on a number of Saturdays in exchange for a nice gesture or action. City poet Gershwin Bonevacia spent a while at Nursery Square as a “poet-in-residence”. A documentary was also shown in the Nursery Square of Nina Swaeny Cherry. And because this was also a public square, by and for Amsterdammers, designer Jurgen Bey and curator Jules van den Langenberg also invited local residents and parties at the shipyard to make their own programming proposals.
NDSM X winter special: in conversation with national photographer Marwan Magroun
tekst:
NDSM X is back with a special winter edition. Indeed, the NDSM Billboards have been given a new interpretation: three images from Marwan Magroun's KROSI photo series can now be seen at scale across the NDSM shipyard.
Architecture, fashion, social themes, design and street culture; the Dutch-Tunisian photographerMarwan Magroun sees the metropolitan context as his playground. Since November 2022, he has been allowed to apply for two years Photographer of the Fatherland mention. A position that is in line with his mission to make (visual) culture more accessible. We will talk to him about his work, sources of inspiration and his affinity with the NDSM shipyard.
Credits and references
Luister
NDSM X winter special: in conversation with national photographer Marwan Magroun
What is the importance of International Women's Day for the cultural sector in 2023?
tekst:
Robin van Dijk
NEO-LOGOS (2018) | Annaïk Lou Pitteloud, visual: Gert Jan van Rooij
Zanele Muholi (2022), visual: NDSM-Werf Foundation
Desire Lines (2020) | Ike Gers, visual: Luuk Kramer
Not Forever (2021) | Sijben Rosa, visual: NDSM-Werf Foundation
An-sisters (2022) | Belit Sag, visual: Gert Jan van Rooij
What is the importance of International Women's Day for the cultural sector in 2023? In conversation with Petra Heck and Ewa Scheifes from the art programming at the NDSM-werf Foundation. Throughout this article, you will find images of art installations by and about women at the NDSM shipyard.
March 8, a day that focuses on equal rights and opportunities, women's freedom and militancy around the world. Throughout history, tremendous progress has been made towards gender equality, but we are far from there. Little by little, however, change is beginning to take effect, partly due to individuals who safeguard these values in their work. But what do you actually encounter as a curator and/or program maker when you work for an inclusive and equitable cultural sector? As soon as all three of us have a good cup of tea for us, Ewa gets started: “What equality and inclusiveness mean, and how they are implemented, is different for each cultural institution. I see that at NDSM, we are more concerned with accessibility from a broad perspective. I was very impressed with Sarah van Lamsweerde's performance at the Stedelijk in 2020 where, together with the visitors, we investigated how sharpened senses enable you to “see through” the works on display. At the foundation, we have been working with diversity and accessibility since 2020; who feels welcome in the public space, who can be there?”
“Woman (s) *” is used here as a term for any person who identifies as a woman.
“Since we relate to the public space,” Petra continues. We literally program outside and feel that these are necessary questions to ask. Through projects, we question the public nature of public space, that it is actually about making a multitude of different voices sound. Ask artists which under-represented people or themes deserve more attention. In the context of developments at ndsm, how do you ensure that you do not develop exclusive (public) spaces where only large chains nest for a certain group of people, but public space is created, programmed where the white straight cis man is not the norm. For example, we are now working with AFARAI's Afaina de Jong on a design for a “square/installation” at NDSM where she looks at various challenges from a feminist perspective and mainly wants to relate to the normative, white, male image of public space and its design. '
Then I ask my two interlocutors whether they still think International Women's Day is necessary. Ewa is the first to elaborate on this: “I would hope many things are no longer necessary: feminist march, international women's day, protests against racism, extinction rebellion, but we live in a reality where I think we should be glad that people are not accepting the current status quo and going out on stage for change. Unfortunately, there are a lot of reasons why March 8 remains necessary; femicide and abuse worldwide, the wage and orgasm gap, the unpaid work that is often done by women (tip, check the studies by Women Inc.)”. “And often not as unpaid work”, Petra adds, “but seen as' care '”. Ewa nods: “just to name a few examples”. “But I also find it complicated sometimes,” says Petra, “fighting for one issue seems to push the other issue for attention, even though so many issues are important. You can't rank them by importance.” I did tell my kids about International Women's Day today, but in the end, it's about leading by example.”
“Especially within the cultural sector, many steps have been taken in recent years,” Ewa continues, “at the front, better representation of non-dominant perspectives in collections and exhibitions (for example, look at enhanced collections from major museums, platforms such as Titty Mag, podcasts such as Naked on a Dress, etc.), there is more attention for forgotten/invisible icons, and a growing number of (young) non-male directors at the back. Making numbers or percentages leading doesn't seem like the sustainable solution to me, it's about embracing representation in the broadest sense, of different worldviews.”
“We also can't tar all women with the same brush and expect everyone to look the same.” Petra adds, “feminism is quickly seen as something that defines your identity, while education, background, etc. are also enormously decisive and are reasons why not every woman thinks or expects the same about feminism. Feminists and activists also sometimes attack each other harshly for not being activist enough or reacting or acting incorrectly. This makes it difficult. The sensitivities can also be crippling.”
Then I ask about the practices at NDSM: what are the challenges you face when it comes to diverse and equal art programming at NDSM? Ewa: “We use the context of NDSM and the scale of the site to create large installations in the public space. However, finding female artists who work on the large scale that fits in a field like NDSM is sometimes a challenge.” The word phallus art (by men) is mentioned for a moment. “So here's an appeal to all female artists who have big plans/works or are looking for a place to grow in them,” Petra adds, “call us, all tips are welcome.”
“At NDSM, we try to work from an intersectionality, along different axes. A good example of a project last year that dealt with this theme was 'An-Sisters [NDSM] 'by belit sağ. belit commissioned us to create an audio-video installation in which they illuminate the invisible stories of Turkish female migrant workers by means of video portraits. belit interviewed several women for this work who worked at NDSM in sewing workshops after the shipyard, and a daughter of them who were now working at NDSM. happens to live at NDSM. We think it's important to realize such projects and show them in public space, in order to let a wide audience learn about these kinds of pieces of history of the place, of Amsterdam and the Netherlands, that are really underexposed.”
Finally, I ask Ewa and Petra if they have any reading tips for those interested in this theme. Ewa council I Am My Muse by Loes Faber, “about quirky women who changed art history”. Continue to check out the artist's work Carmen Schabracq, Umaversity, Yamuna Forzani's projects and love for my girlfriend Tina Fariteh which is now a expo curated with work by female Iranian artists.” Petra: “my little Bible until something takes its place is Witches, Witch Hunting, And Women by Silvia Federici. Shocking, but super relevant, and also check out videos/lectures of her, an incredibly inspiring woman! Furthermore, the artist inspires Agnes Denes me because of her grand project with the grain field in New York. In addition, I've been a fan of the Feminist Handicraft Party. And I would like to give a shoutout to a number of friends and power people in my life, such as Ama van Dantzig, and Orlando Maaike Gouwenberg, director of Jester and curator of the NL entry of the Venice Biennale with Melanie Bonajo (heart).”
Credits and references
NEO-LOGOS (2018) | Annaïk Lou Pitteloud, visual: Gert Jan van Rooij
Zanele Muholi (2022), visual: NDSM-Werf Foundation
Desire Lines (2020) | Ike Gers, visual: Luuk Kramer
Not Forever (2021) | Sijben Rosa, visual: NDSM-Werf Foundation
An-sisters (2022) | Belit Sag, visual: Gert Jan van Rooij
Lees
What is the importance of International Women's Day for the cultural sector in 2023?
NDSM X Sustainability and festivals with Tamasj Beffers
tekst:
NDSM X season 4 is a go! In this first episode of the new season, we get off to a great start with Tamasj Beffers, sustainable producer at Revolution Foundation, who, among other things, assists the DGTL festival at NDSM on sustainability issues.
DGTL has been the opener of the festival season at the NDSM shipyard for 10 years and is fast becoming the world's first circular festival. But what does it actually mean to set up a sustainable festival site and what challenges are involved? Tamasj Beffers is opening a book about this, because although the NDSM wharf is of course the most beautiful inner-city festival site in Amsterdam (and the only one), it is not always easy to make it a sustainable site as well. Now listen to the entire podcast via your favorite podcast app.
Credits and references
Luister
NDSM X Sustainability and festivals with Tamasj Beffers
NDSM X Kites with Bertjan Pot and Maurice Scheltens from the Kiteclub
tekst:
The second episode of NDSM X Season 4! This time, designer Bertjan Pot and photographer Maurice Scheltens are both joining the Kiteclub founders.
Program maker at NDSM Ewa Scheifes will talk to the guests of this episode about everything related to kites and kites. NDSM asked Bertjan and Maurice of the Kite Club namely, as part of May 5, at The Great Cultural NDSM Liberation Meal, to exhibit their homemade kites and release them at the shipyard. What is the creative process behind flying kites and making kites, what does flying a kite actually mean? Now listen to the entire episode here, or via your favorite podcast app.
Credits and references
Luister
NDSM X Kites with Bertjan Pot and Maurice Scheltens from the Kiteclub
Interview with Daniele Frazier about her work at the shipyard
tekst:
Robin van Dijk
Visuals: Gert Jan van Rooij
Daniele Frazier is launching her work 'A Vital Mess' and 'It Takes Two' at the NDSM shipyard this week. These works of art, consisting of so-called “sky dancers”, play with the conflicting connotations of art and commerce. We spoke to Frazier to learn more about her way of working and why the NDSM shipyard is an excellent location for her installations.
Daniele, can you tell us a little bit about yourself and your background?
I was born in 1985 in San Francisco, California. I moved to New York City to study at the Cooper Union for the Advancement of Science and Art and graduated in 2007. Since then, I've stayed in New York, and I currently live between Manhattan and the rural north of the state. Here I have a studio where I sculpt, draw and write. My work usually deals with the politics inherent to public art itself, within that framework I address topics such as gender inequality, the difference between public and private space, and the definition of ownership.
Can you explain the idea behind the work 'It Takes Two'?
'It Takes Two' is a piece that uses the material language of advertising to address issues of cooperation, miscommunication, the politics of urban development, and the use of public space. As undermines many of my works, 'It Takes Two” familiar images to humorously encourage people to think about complex issues — in this case the relationship between art and gentrification. As the hammer and nail try ceaselessly to carry out their goal (the hammer that hits the nail on the head), their unfortunate movements and repeated failures comically signal to passers-by that on the empty lot they occupy, construction activities are “really coming soon”. Unlike an ad for a car shop or a car wash, these anthropomorphic figures announce the futility of their own message: that change is imminent and there is nothing you can do about it.
'It Takes Two' is now available on NDSM. We found it interesting to exhibit your work in the context of the former shipyard, but also with current housing developments on NDSM-West and the relationship between those two identities with the many artists who now have their studios and maker spaces in this area. But It Takes Two has also been shown at other locations, can you delve deeper into these locations and what they mean in the context of this work?
'It Takes Two' was originally designed specifically to be installed on a vacant lot in Miami, Florida, that was intended to be developed into luxury real estate. While the circumstances of the occasion were unique, the phenomenon of gentrification is universal, contributing to the portable nature of the work. Other locations asked for the work to be shown because the message, while nihilistic, uses humor to appeal to viewers who wouldn't normally think about the politics of empty public space.
The work is an intentional “vulgar extravaganza”
The work has been shown at Socrates Sculpture Park (a former landfill that has now become a public art site), The Oxbow School (an interdisciplinary high school boarding program in the rapidly gentrifying Napa Valley), Central Park (a man-made piece of nature), Sweet Pass Sculpture Park (an artist-run nonprofit site in a vacant lot in Dallas, Texas), and City Hall in Boynton Beach, Florida (not far from affluent West Palm Beach and Mar-a-Lago, areas that are seriously threatened by rising sea levels due to climate change).
You have 'A Vital Mess' created especially for the NDSM context, can you share your ideas behind this work with us?
'“A Vital Knife” is my first text-based work. The title comes from Learning From Last Vegas by Roberts Venturi, Denise Scott Brown, and Steven Izenour, a groundbreaking architectural text that formally explores the postmodern architecture and signage of the Las Vegas comic in the context of the history of architecture in general. Equipment closes'“A Vital Knife” similar to many of my public kinetic and wind-based works because of the convenient ability to reach a monumental physical scale (8 meters high in this case) with hollow volumes such as these. Since my work in the past has undermined the typical associations of the materials I use (plastic-based performance textiles for outdoor use), '“A Vital Knife” also the thing itself: a roadside ad — visual pollution — designed to make people stop and watch. To quote Robert Venturi again: “The play is an intentional 'vulgar extravaganza'”. Instead of criticizing capitalism's visual and material language sideways, this hodgepodge of “sky dancers” loudly proclaim themselves as a monument to the stickiness and tactlessness of contemporary ways of persuasion and seduction. The human-like forms and anthropomorphic movements reflect the viewer; they are a mirror. The culture has been hypnotized by these omnipresent roadside spectacles that look like us, which is why we recognize ourselves in them. We are the ad and the ad is us.
Both works use a medium that is often used for advertising purposes: the “sky dancers”. Why do you specifically use this medium?
What undermines the material and shape of these objects is the text. I specifically chose phrases and words that are vague, philosophical, open and confrontational. The messages on both sides of the sky dancers are contradictory. The entire “system” that dictates the rules of this piece is intended to challenge the principles of advertising but ironically deliver the same in the sense that I propose that the promises of the visual capitalist lexicon are empty. These promise everything and nothing. These types of signs indicate desperate and cheap requests for attention, but what I present are the signs as the destination itself, imploring the viewer to expect one thing from afar, only to see that expectation distorted upon investigation: an 8-meter-long figure adorned with TRUTH, APPEARANCE, SHAPE, CONTENT. I ask the viewer, what is the truth and content of the shape and appearance of our commercial visual landscape?
Then a little bit more about yourself and your approach to work: What do you like/find interesting about making work in public spaces? And how does this relate to other art you make?
Making work in public spaces satisfies my desire to work outside, generate work on a large scale and to make the viewer's creation and reception of work social and egalitarian. Most traditional galleries are inevitably linked to (commercial) market systems and rely on selling works of art to maintain space. I'm drawn to working outside that system, literally and figuratively, in the idealistic hope that art that doesn't depend on ownership will be inherently radical.
I keep notebooks full of fragmented ideas
What are your general thoughts about NDSM, what do you think about the idea of making art for a place like this?
NDSM is a suitable location for my work because of the diverse functions that the warehouses and outdoor spaces have. It's an excellent place for me to address the complexities of art and commercial endeavors, which sometimes share the same physical space.
And finally: which artist (s) inspires you and for what reason (s)?
I can really fill hours so I'll keep it short: here's a short list of artists I appreciate for their humor, criticism, use of materials, and attitude to the culture of the art world: Lawrence Weiner, Mike Kelley, Rosemary Mayer, Ree Morton, Rosemarie Trockel, Robert Smithson, Paul Thek, Hans Haacke, Fred Wilson, Christo & Jeanne Claude, Isa Genzken.
Credits and references
Visuals: Gert Jan van Rooij
Lees
Interview with Daniele Frazier about her work at the shipyard
NDSM X Inventing and designing new rituals with Yasser Ballemans
tekst:
In this third episode of the fourth season, we talk to artist Yasser Ballemans, who often addresses rituals in his work and explores how meaningful art can be created together.
Together with children from Klein Amsterdam primary school, Yasser Ballemans created 'Cloud Gate', the beginning of a new tradition for all group 8 children leaving school. 'Cloud Gate' is now at the NDSM shipyard at the ferry landing, but moved to its permanent location in the Klein Amsterdam schoolyard on June 25. Where do you start when you want to come up with a new ritual, and how do you do that with children as an art jury? Yasser tells us all in this episode of NDSM X, don't miss him!
Credits and references
Luister
NDSM X Inventing and designing new rituals with Yasser Ballemans
Designer and queer activist Yamuna Forzani joins NDSM X. In this episode, she tells us all about her work 'Dazzle Trip' at the NDSM shipyard, her inspirations, and the place of queer people in the current cultural climate.
'Dazzle Trip' consists of several expressions at the NDSM shipyard: three images on the NDSM Billboards, a video work in a shipping container, 'A Big Heart' inflatable, and a bedazzled ferry that sails between Amsterdam Central Station and the NDSM wharf. We asked Yamuna about her thoughts behind these works, but also about her work as a queer activist. Yamuna organizes ballrooms, among other things, where fashion, celebration, and individual identity come together. What about the representation of queer people in the public space? Listen to it now in the new episode of NDSM X!
Young Curator Anne-Jet de Nas about her program 'Infrared'
tekst:
Robin van Dijk
Every year, the NDSM-werf Foundation invites a novice curator to intervene in the public space of the NDSM under the name “Young Curator”.
A pop-up exhibition, spatial installation or a performance; the interpretation is open. The idea is to open up and make working in public spaces, outside a white cube setting, more accessible. This year is Anne-Jet de Nas invited as Young Curator. On Thursday, September 28, 2023, she will program a performance with Henk Schut's work IN TUNE, a bronze tuning fork in the water of the Y-slope at NDSM that addresses the balance between people and the environment. Time to get to know this young Amsterdam curator better and hear all about the program she wants to show at NDSM.
Anne-Jet, can you tell us about yourself and your background?
I've been fascinated by art, fashion and design all my life. As a creator and as an observer. That's why I graduated from ArtEZ (a Dutch University of the Arts, ed.) and took a Master's degree in Art History. To learn how to use my creativity more broadly and commercially, I worked as a creative at an advertising agency. With these experiences, I learned to speak the language of the artist, art and the wider public. And I call myself a creative translator. Someone who connects and builds bridges. Someone who listens, watches, thinks and translates. Someone who brings ideas to life.
Nowadays, you work, among other things, as an independent curator, for example, you have the exhibition this summer About.Life. co-curated at Sexyland World. Which artists or works inspire you?
Yes, that's right. In collaboration with artist, curator and collector Appie Bood, an (un) retrospective exhibition has been made of his art and collections. The most important point of this was that we completely let go of time and chronology in order to arrive at new insights and installations. Along with Sexyland World we turned these ideas into a physical exhibition.
Apart from the fact that working with Appie Bood (and his wife Agata Zwierzyñska, also a good artist!) inspiring me, I also recently developed a fascination for the American painter and musician Issy Wood. Her work evokes a melancholic, powerful feeling in me. She paints everyday objects in a tangible yet anonymous way. Because she often paints with oil paint on velvet fabric, her work becomes almost fetishistic. I find it fascinating how she attracts but also repels with her work.
I am very curious about the future of NDSM, and about the future of sanctuaries like this in the city
You will soon be curating an intervention at NDSM with Henk Schut's work IN TUNE. How do you know NDSM as a terrain, what is your association with the place?
Hmm, a tough question! My association with NDSM varies. For me, the NDSM symbolises creativity, freedom and autonomy on the one hand. The history of NDSM as a sanctuary shows that you can make big changes with art and literally take up space to give art a voice. But on the other hand, for me, this place also stands for urban LED culture regeneration, or gentrification through art. In a way, art and artists at the NDSM are also an instrument for (cultural) policy and gentrification in this urban district.
Fortunately, the NDSM-werf Foundation is carefully considering the impact that gentrification has on the original function of this site. It is important that a place like NDSM continues to strive to be a place to thrive as a person and an artist, and not to become a particular urban experience. I am very curious about the future of NDSM, and about the future of free spaces in the city. Where there used to be room to claim a free spot, this is more difficult today. I therefore hope that the city takes care of this place.
Your intervention focuses on the work of Henk Schut, an installation of a tuning fork in the dock near the Y slope. What was your first impression of the work when you saw and heard it for the first time?
Yes, the big iron tuning fork in the dock. I really like the installation to blend in with the environment, as if it has always been there. Coincidentally, the sound of IN TUNE sounded right away the first time I was there. A low frequency spread across the Y slope, which also subsided. To be honest, I felt a bit awkward for a moment. What exactly should I feel? I became aware of myself for a moment. Henk's work is about finding a new balance between people and the environment. And it took a while for the sound to work on me, but I later realized that experiencing this conscious awkward feeling might be the goal.
The city seems to be overcrowded in many ways, and IN TUNE calls on us to think about this.
Can you take us into your creative process; how did you end up with an idea?
After my first impression, I started to delve into Henk Schut's work. What does he want to achieve with the work? I particularly noticed two aspects here; firstly, the appeal to people's ability to hear and listen through sound. Secondly, with this installation, he asks questions about the value of emptiness, both in the city, at the NDSM shipyard, and in ourselves. This value of emptiness also inherently reveals the problems of our city. The city seems to be overcrowded in many ways, and IN TUNE calls on us to think about this. These insights were the starting point of my own creative process.
Because the city, the immediate surroundings and the people in the city are at the center of Henk's work and are connected by a sound, I thought it would be nice to follow this up by having a voice respond to this sound. A voice that can expand and question the underlying ideas of the work.
It's the first time you're curating a performance in the public space, what makes that context different from what you're used to?
I've only just started my own business and this is indeed the first time I'm curating a performance in the public space. What makes this different, for example, from the exhibition at Sexyland World that ran over several weeks, is that I now have to think about how to create a powerful story and a lasting impression within a much shorter period of time.
What are you looking forward to the most?
I think I would formulate it as 'the moment of the transfer'; the moment N TUNE creates a new work of art, Ray's spoken word performance. I'm looking forward to seeing Ray's words and how they resonate with me and the audience in their own way. Just like Henk's sound does it in its own way.
Credits and references
Lees
Young Curator Anne-Jet de Nas about her program 'Infrared'
In this episode of NDSM X, multidisciplinary artist Willem de Haan talks. He tells us all about his work at NDSM called High-Rise Camping: Nature City.
Imagine: you get off the ferry by bike or on foot and, in addition to all the new high-rise apartments on the west side of the NDSM shipyard, you see a high-rise campsite building on the left. This is the work of Willem de Haan, a high-rise campsite that responds to the scarcity of space in the Netherlands and how it is filled. But where exactly did this idea start? Find out and listen to the new episode of NDSM X now!
Hold on tight, because another amazing cultural program is waiting for you this year at NDSM during Museum Night on November 4. We understand that this may sound a bit overwhelming, so we've listed all the highlights for you here!
Art on the ferry from CS
Your Museum Night 2023 starts on ferry F4 from Amsterdam CS to NDSM. It Amsterdam Ferry Festival at Museum Night, in collaboration with the Van Gogh Museum, presents how the changing city is a subject that fascinates artists. Six contemporary photographers (Sem Langendijk, Hans Boddeke, Simone Peerdeman, Anna Swagerman, Hanane El Ouardani, Sanja Marusic) who capture today's Amsterdam with their cameras have been invited to make new work. The ferry between CS and the NDSM site will become their 'canvas' from 4 November during Museum Night. For this presentation, they are not only inspired by the frayed edges along the IJ, but also by the paintings that Van Gogh and his contemporaries made of the transition areas around Paris.
In addition to watching these images, you can also listen to a spoken-word performance at the point between NDSM and CS by Luna Wicks between 19:00 — 20:00. Under the musical accompaniment of musician Froodough (Daniel Lee), this duo takes you into a story about the changing city.
Grand light installation by Boris Acket
NDSM-werf Foundation and Kinetic North Foundation will present two site-sensitive works during Museum Night, to be seen and listened to on this evening only. Boris Acket creates a grand passage that plays with the notion of boundaries, an installation of light and sound that connects the outdoor area with the interior of the NDSM Loods. The soundscape's echo system is powered by field recordings made around NDSM in the weeks before the event. We had a conversation with Boris about his work at NDSM during Museumnacht, you can find the entire interview in our online magazine.
With music specially composed for NDSM, Off-Track adds an extra layer to the environment, the water and the monumental buildings, and allows you, as a visitor, to experience NDSM in a different way.
New Dakota Art Space
Bee New Dakota you can immerse yourself in love and what love means. Artist duo Tengbeh Kamara & Sophie Engels take you on a loving journey into the exhibition Yes, I Do where you can also have yourself and your loved one (whether that's your partner, family member, or pet) captured. You can immediately take the polaroid photo, which is taken by the artists, as a witness to your special band.
During the evening, artist Marieke van Rooy, also one of the participating artists in the exhibition, will Yes, I Do, be present to perform an ongoing performance. In addition, New Dakota also organizes a silent disco where you can let your (and your loved one's) feet off the floor.
Restaurant and art space Contrast
Bee Contrast celebrate the wonders of the water. Immerse yourself in conceptual cocktails and delectable snacks while listening to live DJs, and descend into an exhibition exploring Symbiosis' intricate dance in a project by Italian photographer Giacomo d'Orlando. Learn how more than 3 billion people depend on marine ecosystems for their livelihoods and consider the delicate balance that is being disrupted by climate change and overfishing. An evening of music, art, and awareness.
STRAAT Museum
STRAAT, the largest street art museum in Europe, also opens its doors during Museum Night. In addition to wandering around among the impressive murals, you can also have several artists at work live on this evening. Do you prefer to take control of the spray can yourself? Participate in a collective work of art and let your creativity run wild.
So a lot to do at NDSM during Museum Night! Do you still want to know more about the program of other museums for this special evening? A special “Route Noord” has also been put together so that you can see all the gems of Amsterdam North during Museum Night. Click the button below for more information.
NDSM X confrontational nature of borders with Clinton Kabena
tekst:
Listen now to the new episode of NDSM X where designer and visual artist Clinton Kabena joins us.
Clinton Kabena responds with his installation Landed Rockat NDSM on the subject of migration. The work, which looks like a car fell from the sky and crashed into the Load Out at the NDSM shipyard, gives visitors an idea of what it's like to end up in a completely different culture. In addition to this work, there are also three visuals on the NDSM Billboards to see that address the fantastic, human and confrontational nature of borders. The confrontation of the grandeur of these monumental structures with the fragile threads of unity that they try to maintain invites introspection.
Credits and references
Luister
NDSM X confrontational nature of borders with Clinton Kabena
Interview with artist Boris Acket about his work at NDSM
tekst:
Robin van Dijk
Visuals: Valentine Stomp
On November 4, during Museum Night Amsterdam, Acket will use the philosophical concept of borders as the starting point for a work of light and sound at NDSM. The work can only be seen this evening. Time for a catch up with this versatile artist.
On November 4, during Museum Night Amsterdam, Acket will use the philosophical concept of borders as the starting point for a work of light and sound at NDSM. The work can only be seen this evening. Time for a catch up with this versatile artist.
In your installations, all kinds of disciplines come together to create an experience together. As an artist, this now gives you a recognizable style that continues to develop. How would you describe your own practice, the point where you are as an artist right now?
My practice has always had sound as a starting point. In the beginning, this was always' musical 'sound; in recent years, this has changed more and more in the sound of the installations: sound that is characterized by the rules, parameters and boundaries of the artwork itself. In my work at NDSM, for example, I will use my echo system, a system that I developed with a classmate at art school and then developed into a complex instrument with percussion in The Hague, among others, into a complex instrument that develops an endlessly drastic effect of duplicates in light and sound from a single sound source.
The cool thing about this very temporary work is that it will be located in a place that is very dear to me, the Docklands and the NDSM Loods at NDSM. A few years ago, I made SKYLINE I in the North Strip, in collaboration with 4DSOUND and Bob Roijen, among others. This work was also located in a transition area, above an entrance where 20,000 people had to go through every day anyway.
Where does your inspiration come from?
I love philosophy, science and human issues about their own consciousness. I think that experiential or phenomenal art is the ultimate way to trigger people's thoughts. Time, and our experience of it, fascinate me enormously. How a person, with all her memories and expectations, always constructs their own 'now', completely different from that of the person next to her, them or him, just because you have a different background and a different expectation for tomorrow, fascinates me immensely.
Time, and our experience of it, fascinate me enormously. How a person, with all her memories and expectations, always constructs their own “now”.
In the experiences I make, I often notice that the conversations between visitors or participants afterwards are very interesting. The shared experience of a new ritual — for example in an ultrasound piece in collaboration with Slagwerk Den Haag — can remove social boundaries. Although everyone has seen, experienced, and constructed a completely different experience, everyone who shared the experience can still talk to each other and sometimes even come closer to each other.
Impression of Boris Acket's work on NDSM, credits anna bogmolova, blitzkickers
My practice — just like it always was — is actually still very diverse. From theater scenography to a full exhibition, and from a show for a pop idol to a temporary sound light tunnel like this one at NDSM. For me, the constant lies more in themes and thoughts than in media and project form, and I love that.
Your work has been shown in clubs such as De School and festivals such as DGTL and Down The Rabbit Hole, as well as in public spaces such as the upcoming Museumn8. What fascinates you about working in the public domain?
When it comes to this specific work, I am reminded of the theme of PASSAGE — a work I made at the shipyard last year in collaboration with Bob Roijen. I then found a book by Thomas Nail about borders:
“Fundamentally, boundaries are inflection points where flows change direction. Any social construct — fence, wall, passport, browsing history — that changes people's movements is part of the social kinetics of borders.
It follows from this definition that borders are not about stopping things from moving, they are about movement itself.” — freely after Thomas Nail
I think this is the ultimate definition of public space. Public space is full of man-made borders, temporary villages that call themselves festivals, barricades that function as a doorway again a day later. NDSM is one such area, and I think it's very important that we cherish and preserve these kinds of areas. That is why I am so close to that with the theme of the work on 4 November.
In the experiences I make, I often notice that the conversations between visitors or participants afterwards are very interesting. The shared experience of a new ritual can remove social boundaries
The sounds that run through the echo system all come from the environment itself — I go out in the week of the museum night with a field recorder. This way, the work becomes a kind of feedback loop that suddenly makes the tranquil place a little more important. Acoustic ecologist Gordon Hempton — someone I worked with a few years ago — aptly said that everything you put a microphone on becomes more important. You could say that in this journey, you spend a moment listening and watching a self-manifesting piece of living NDSM, in light and sound.
As with all my works, the exact meaning may not be very interesting, but the conversations and interpretations of people who have walked the procession: ultimately, it's about them.
Credits and references
Visuals: Valentine Stomp
Lees
Interview with artist Boris Acket about his work at NDSM
By clicking “Accept all cookies”, you agree to the storage of cookies on your device to improve site navigation, analyze site usage, and assist with our marketing efforts. Check out our Privacy Policy for more information.
.avif)
.avif)
.avif)
.avif)
%20door%20Gert%20Jan%20van%20Rooij.webp)
