Installation and thematic archive hosting a variety of lectures, tours, presentations and video screenings, Unlimited.NL/02, De Appel, Amsterdam. [1999]
Cake iced with the city map of Amsterdam was served in the Walk-in Reader during the opening of the Unlimited.NL-2 exhibition | Overview of space designed in collaboration with Apolonija Sustersic | Readers peruse through the space | Lecture with Anke Bangma and Ine Gevers about shifting curatorial practice
The Walk-in Reader is De Geuzen's first library of shared interests or temporary archive. Designed in collaboration with Apolonija Sustersic for the Unlimited.nl 2 exhibition curated by Hou Hanru, the space was conceived as a open resource for reflection on the various processes of urban transformation taking place in the Netherlands. Texts, videos, urls, and other materials were collected around select themes, Mapping, Moments of Convergence, Envisioning Cultural Paradigms across disciplinary Boundaries and Shifting Economies. If you would like to see the entire contents of the archive download the full inventory list of The Walk-In Reader here. [PDF] A sampling of the lecture/screening program is below:
Mapping
As a part of our research, meaning the development of “the walk-in reader” we wanted to look at how we topographically envision the environments we live in and how that is depicted beyond simple cartography. We tried to investigate both literally and metaphorically multiple methods of mapping. We looked at the subject sociologically, personally and virtually.
A walking tour was given by Dr.ROB VAN ENGELSDORP GASTELAARS from the Department of Human Geography. Starting from the Appel, we walked through Amsterdam looking at the evolution of architecture, the impact of gentrification and discussed how social planning that works invisibly to construct the fabric of the inner-city. As it was winter the tour was ended with warm tea, coffee and or jenever back at “The Walk-in Reader”.
Moments of convergence
"A monumental work, like a musical one, does not have a ‘signified’ or ‘signifieds’; rather, it has a horizon of meaning: a specific or indefinite multiplicity of meanings, a shifting hierarchy in which now one, now another meaning comes momentarily to the fore..." (Henri Lefebvre, The Production of Space, 1974)
As a part of our research into moments of convergence in the city, we invited DAVID GARCIA and KARIN DAAN to discuss the multi-faceted role of the monument. David Garcia’s lecture, FROM MOMENTS TO MONUMENTS, moved through examples such as Rachel Whiteread’s Holocaust Memorial in an attempt to examine the problems that can surface as a result of the collision of two contradictory spatial logics.
KARIN DAAN, the designer of the Homomonument, a site in Amsterdam honoring homosexuals killed during the second world war, looked at the subject from the perspective of a practitioner. She offered insights into the complexities of coping with such a large scale commission and the challenges of working in and for the public domain. Most significantly she spoke about the changes in the identity the monument as the aids crisis emerged.
DAVID GARCIA is an English artist and media critic working in the Netherlands. He is the initiator of the Next 5 Minutes and the Director of the MA Program of Interactive Design at the Kunst Media/Technology Department at the Utrecht School of Art.
KARIN DAAN is an environmental designer who has designed monuments plus served on numerous public art commissions and advisory boards such as Stroom HCBK and Kunst & Bedrijf.
Shifting economies
In looking at the process of urban transformation in the Netherlands it was crucial for us to take into account the various economic forces at work. In terms of economic structures, the division between local and global or formal and informal have become less distinct if not mutually dependent. As immigrational populations increase so too does the demand for employment. Given the limited availability of jobs, there is pressure on the allegedly over-stressed and out-stretched social security/welfare system to compensate. Operating beyond conventional legal regulations, unofficial economies flourish with a degree of governmental tolerance or acceptance. While others survive by transient or provisional means, there are also those who simply lose ground and face the more daunting prospect of existing below the poverty level.
To discuss these issues we invited Joke van Kampen, Stephan Raes and Ron Boot to give their insights from their respective fields of interests.
STEPHAN RAES teaches political economy with an emphasis on the Mediterranean region at the University of Nijmegen. Currently for his doctoral thesis he is researching the emergence of migrant operated illegal clothing firms in Amsterdam since the 1980s. He is analysing their position in relation to changes in the global economy.
JOKE VAN KAMPEN is the general editor of Z-magazine (The Amsterdam magazine sold by the homeless, also known as 'De Daklozenkrant'). She is also a freelance journalist who has contributed to such publications as 'De Groene Amsterdammer' and she is a foreign affairs correspondent for 'IKON radio'.
RON BOOT is the coordinator for Streetcornerwork in the inner city of Amsterdam, Noord, Oud-West/Westerpark. Streetcornerwork foundation is a fieldwork organisation with two target groups, homeless youth and drug-users living on the streets. Their focus is on housing, education, health, finances, legal aid, social networking and recreational activities.
Feeling at home: a sense of be(longing)
The term 'home' conjures up many meanings. At a very rudimentary level it is a shelter from the outside elements, a physical encasing for the necessities and comforts of living. But beyond its practical function, home is a space where someone feels a sense of belonging. Seen in this light home talks more about the way we inhabit a space, a culture or a city.
Introduced by Lennaart van Oldenborgh, this video screening focused on the complex ways in which home is envisioned.
Videos Screened with descriptions
Home is where the heart is
Sian Evans, 1992
27 mins. English spoken
According to Evans, fairy tales derive their power from their common central premise: that of building a new home in a strange place . She examines the importance of this place we call 'home' by interviewing construction workers and inhabitants of Ft. Greene in Brooklyn, NY, most of whom have moved between cultures at some point in their lives, and interweaving these interviews with a variety of materials, including nursery rhymes and quotes about children’s developmental psychology.
Happy hour Tel-Aviv, October 1995
Smadar Dreyfus, 1996
4 mins.
Smadar Dreyfus takes a taxi-ride down memory lane in Tel-Aviv, retracing the way home from her old highschool, past her old army base, with the music surging from the taxi's stereo. As we can surmise from the answering-machine message at the end of the tape, this was just before the assassination of Rabin, in a time and place now irretrievably lost.
The story of one woman’s struggle with her fear of architecture
Polly Gould, 1998
19 mins. English spoken
‘There’s no place like home for giving birth’, according to the philosopher in this tape. But where is this home, inside an architecture, a language, whose linear structural logic seems so alien to the speaker? follow her circular argument with a view on the rigorous angles and perspective of Dutch social architecture and her final question ‘how did the agrophobe cross the road’ takes on an almost sinister quality.
Envisioning cultural paradigms
Given that Unlimited-nl took place in the cultural institution, De Appel, it was important for us to look at how art might move outside of its own conventional boundaries. We wanted to talk about how it could engage with other discourses, social issues and networks.
Part One
With respect to their own practices as educators and curators, Ine Gevers and Anke Bangma were invited to reflect upon the potential of introducing art into new environments. They addressed possible interactive models and forms of collective creativity plus discussed how art along with its supportive mechanisms could facilitate a communicative and responsive relationship with the broader public.
ANKE BANGMA is currently co-ordinator of post-graduate studies at the Piet Zwart Institute in Rotterdam. She has curated exhibitions such as 'The Rotterdam Project' and has written for such publications as the Witte de With Cahiers and Archis.
INE GEVERS teaches at the Jan van Eyck Akademie in the Department of Theory and has organised symposia there such as 'Place, Position, Presentation, Public'. She has co-curated with Jeanne van Heeswijk the exhibition, 'I + the Other. Art and the Human Condition' and co-edited 'Beyond Ethics and Aesthetics’.
Part Two
IT SIL HEVE: The trick is there is no trick it's just a click
As a part of our research on culture crossing boundaries, we invited Renée Kool, Gabriëlle Marks, Jacob Bijker and Stefan Kunzmann to talk about their project IT SIL HEVE (translated: it will happen!). The project was developed at the request of The Provincial Service for Exhibitions of Artworks and was a part of a mobile exhibition which toured through Frysian schools. Going beyond coupling art history with pictures, it taught students how to learn from their own eyes and ears and also emphasized the act of collective making. In a mixture of theatre, exhibition and workshop students experienced alternative ways of seeing and visualizing ideas.
RENEE KOOL is an artist who made videos, installations and presentations in/for amongst others: Festival a/d Werf, Stedelijk Museum De Lakenhal and Manifesta I
STEFAN KUNZMANN is theatremaker and worked in various media for film, theatre and musical productions.
GABRIELLE MARKS is a graphic designer currently working on 'SanctuaryCity', an interactive installation in the public space.
IT SIL HEVE! was developed in collaboration with JACOB BIJKER, student of the Noordelijke Hogeschool Leeuwarden, department of Art and education.
Part Three
ANTIOPEE: a tour through the Unlimited.NL-2 exhibition with Nic. Tummers
Nic Tummers founded the University of Social Space (Universiteit van de Socio-ruimte) in 1966 to create a cross-disciplinary forum for research of urban environments. Connecting a variety of fields of study, literature, fine art, social sciences, architecture and urban planning, this situationist proposal has through time moved from the purely conceptual to a reality. Tummers moved through the Unlimited.nl-2 exhibition, connecting past Situationist practices to other exhibited works. Equipped with a with a simple grocery cart filled with objects from the library.He reflected upon the possibilities of integrating creative practices with aspects of everyday life.
NIC. TUMMERS is an artist, teacher and politician. He is the founder of the University of the Socio-Space and publisher of the 'New Babylon Informatief'.
Also connected to: ENVISIONING CULTURAL PARADIGMS ACROSS DISCIPLINARY BOUNDARIES
