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“Ambiguously schizophrenic…”

Ten MFA graphic design students from Otis College of Art and Design based in Los Angeles, are currently participating in a three week mentorship program in Amsterdam, graciously created and facilitated by the designers of COMA Amsterdam/New York. During their intensive three week graphic design and arts tour of Amsterdam and environs they have been meeting artists, designers and all between and beyond these “professions”.

On Friday 18 March they all dropped by at our office and we were more than delighted by their presence. After a presentation, which can best be described as “Non-fiction in a Nutshell”. It consisted of more than 100 000 slides that aimed to present all the activities, missions and approaches of the office. Next we suggested to our guests to go on a field trip to the Temporary Stedelijk 2 and we did. After that we continued introducing the creative environment within which our office is located and we visited the studio of the artist Amie Dicke which can be found just across the hallway.

All those cultural trips had its specific purpose. The students, inspired by Mondrian, Flavin and Dicke, were asked by us to come up with a proposal for our new “corporate” identity which could have ranged from a logo, slogan to even renaming ourselves. We were surprised by the scope and depth of the ideas which were presented to us. Some of the proposals were flattering and made us blushing (“You are funny, cool and serious at the same time.”), some made us think about fundamental things like the name of the office (“How does the name relate to what you do?”) but all of them inspired us and helped us to trace our raison d’être (“You are ambiguously schizophrenic and you are OK with it”).

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Otis College of Art and Design @ De Verdieping on March 28, 8 PM

Finally, we offered to host an evening at De Verdieping on Tuesday 28 March, presenting the students eclectic body of work, as well as selected YouTube videos showcasing Los Angeles. The students are from various disciplines, ranging from photography, theater, engineering and fine arts.

Participating students are: Carlos Avila, Cindy Lee, Gilbert Garcia, Joy Scopa, Marina Murad, Monica Maccaux, Nicolas Sanchez, Ramon Tejada, Sam Anvari, Tom Ahn

Please come and join us for a casual evening of show and tell, chat and mingle. Check Facebook to learn more.

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Photos by Otis students

Posted by Adéla Foldynová on March 28, 2011

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For the January edition of Time Out (magazine) Amsterdam our office for cultural innovation Non-fiction was asked to give a vision of the city in the year 2020, together with KesselsKramer, LAgroup, Concrete and Benthem Crouwel. Since we discard the idea of a blueprint for the city of the future and strongly believe in the power of co-creation and collaboration, we invited a few dozen of people we know and/or admire to to speculate on the future of the city (of Amsterdam). By juxtaposing perspectives from both in- and outsiders and by combining utopian visions, critical reflections, personal fantasies and (more) mundane thoughts, we wanted to provide a kaleidoscopic view of the future of the Dutch capital.

We had been given a two-page spread (basically two A4 pages) to present our vision of the future and in order to maximise the number of ideas we invited our friends and colleagues across the globe to answer a simple question: “What will you be doing in Amsterdam in 2020?”, in 140 characters. A Twitter-message from the future. As we are moving into the next decade, Twitter is at the very front of communications innovations, and gathering all these tweets into a tweetdeck gives a recognizable and playful collaborative vision of the city (of Amsterdam) in 10 years.

The final result (thanks to our buddies at Vandejong) is a densely packed information-grid, giving an overview of 36 seemingly unrelated opinions and doom scenarios. But upon closer inspection fascinating patterns appear: our participants think that Amsterdam eventually will merge into a bigger metropolitan area, that it will suffer severe flooding, that the historic city centre will become an abandoned open-air museum and that the outskirts will become the new hubs of urban vitality and (re-)development.

In contrast, there are also people who hold a unique believe that by 2020 the city will be either connected to Utrecht by a high speed electro-magnet train, will still lack a new art museum or subway line, or simply will be and stay the ‘same old, same old’.

The magazine just hit the stores, so check it out or contact us if you wish to receive a copy! And please join us for the ‘2020 vision’ event at De Verdieping on Thursday 28 January at 8 pm in collaboration with Time Out Amsterdam, bringing together the contributors and other visionaries to discuss the propability of our predictions…

We wish to thank all the contributors and the people who are still sending us their submissions. We are very happy with the outcome of this collaborative effort. In the new year we will continu this ‘crowdsourced’ investigation into the future potentials and failures of a complex city.

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A recent performance by Pierre Bastien at De Verdieping (photo: René Passet)

Another week of Non-fiction events in Amsterdam, starting with the collaboration with the Filmmuseum and DOKU.ARTS festival on Wednesday at De Verdieping. We will screen the documentary ‘Rem Koolhaas – A Kind of Architect‘, with a brief interview with festival director Andreas Lewin. Entrance is free of charge. More information on this on Facebook.

On Thursday there will be the second and final Aura Salon at Castrum Peregrini. After last week’s abstract performance by Machinefabriek, now we have our French friend from Rotterdam Pierre Bastien. He will be joined by Theu Boermans (actor, director and screenwriter), Amie Dicke (artist), Dragan Klaic (theater scholar and cultural analyst), Tracy Metz (journalist), Macha Roesink (director Museum de Paviljoens) and Henk van der Waal (poet).

Thanks for your interest once again, and we look forward to welcoming you this week.

Strangely enough, the article is (not yet) available online, so the following image is the best we can offer right now. (For our Dutch-speaking audience, notice the missing part in the title of the review: onderduikadres). And of course now we look forward to the next review.

On Thursday May 28 from 20:00 hrs, we will organize the first of a series of Aura salons with a guided tour, performances, statements and music with contributions by (a.o.) Allerd van den Bremen, Machinefabriek, Erik Lindner, Renée van Marissing, Joachim Umlauf, Ton Venhoeven. We hope to see you there.

Source: Parool, May 22, page 15

Last Thursday we celebrated the opening of the Aura project: an exhibition and a series of events in the historic premises of Castrum Peregrini Foundation, where in WWII young German Jews survived in hiding. The opening was very well attended and people responded enthusiastically.

The 96-year old Castrum founder Gisèle allowed us to show three of her works together with other remarkable pieces from the collection and seven newly made and site specific installations by contemporary artists, including Amie Dicke, Chris Kabel, John Kleckner, Susanne Kriemann, Jan Robert Leegte, Alexandra Leykauf, Renee van Marissing and Allerd van den Bremen.

The following photos by our dear friend Simon Bosch give an impression of the evening, in case you weren’t there (or want to relive it). The next few weeks we will organize a series of so-called Aura salons with guided tours, performances, statements and music by Machinefabriek (May 28) and Pierre Bastien (June 11).

See more photos and read more about the Aura-project on www.castrumperegrini.org
Non-fiction’s Michiel van Iersel (l) and Castrum Peregrini’s Lars Ebert (r) welcoming everybody in front of an installation consisting of recycled furniture by industrial designer Chris Kabel.
Artist and Castrum-founder Gisèle d’Ailly van Waterschoot van der Gracht (left, center) and handsigned book by Walter Benjamin with graphic designer Eric Wie (left) and artist Sarah van Sonsbeeck (center) standing in the background.
Among the visitors was Roger Willems (right) of Roma Publications who designed the super-stylish Aura booklets.
The American artist and Aura participant John Kleckner (seen from the back, with beard).
German artist and Aura participant Alexandra Leykauf (l) standing in front of photo installation by Susanne Kriemann.
Installation by Amie Dicke in the abandoned living room of Claus Victor Bock, one of the people who was kept in hiding at Castrum Peregrini during WWII and who passed away last year.
Dutch artist and Aura-participant Jan Robert Leegte (l) and his computerprojection in the archive of Castrum Peregrini (r), which is situated in the basement of the new project space.

What does a contemporary artist do with the vibrant past of a former hiding place on one of Amsterdam’s canals? Is it the aura, the uniqueness and authenticity of this place to be captured and can it be transformed into something new and relevant? Those questions live at the heart of the art projectAura: an exhibition and a series of events in the historic premises of Castrum Peregrini Foundation, where in WWII young German Jews survived in hiding. As a modern Noah’s Ark the hiding place at the Herengracht manoeuvred through the horrors of persecution, with a group of friends under deck to enshrine a sphere of freedom through art and human culture.

Since the war the time seems to stand still in this labyrinth of rooms and passages. A small part of the first generation lives there to date, in the middle of countless antique objects, books and pieces of art they produced and collected. This inner world is still covered by a monumental 17^thcentury façade. In the coming years the house will be partly opened to the public. To mark this transition nine artists from different disciplines were asked to choose a historic object, a story or a person as a point of departure and use it for a new artwork. The results of this ‘artistic recycling’ vary from installation art, ink drawings, photography and film to conceptual furniture, poems and a short contemporary radio play. The exhibition of works will start in the new project space of Castrum Peregrini, moving up the old staircase into the deserted apartment of a late inhabitant where the past is still perceptibly present.

Participating artists

Amie Dicke (beeldend kunstenaar, NL)
Chris Kabel (industrieel ontwerper, NL)
John Kleckner (beeldend kunstenaar, USA)
Susanne Kriemann (beeldend kunstenaar, D)
Jan Robert Leegte (beeldend kunstenaar, NL)
Alexandra Leykauf (beeldend kunstenaar, D)
Erik Lindner (dichter, NL)
Renée van Marissing en Allerd van den Bremen (theatermakers, NL)
Henk van der Waal (dichter, NL)

More at castrumperegrini.org and Facebook.

On 28 May Machinefabriek will perform on the first Aura Salon. On 11 June Pierre Bastien will do the same.

The Non-fiction office has relocated from the Scheepvaartmuseum to the former laboratory of the Netherlands Institute for Cultural Heritage, right in the busy museum district and the cultural heart of Amsterdam. Overlooking the famous Museumplein and neighbouring the Stedelijk Museum and the Rijksmuseum, the Van Gogh Museum and the Concertgebouw, we are (again) in good company (and so are they).

On your way to or from one of our big(ger) neighbours you are always welcome to stop by for a chat and a fresh coffee or to visit the studio of our girl next door Amie Dicke.

What does a contemporary artist do with the vibrant past of a former hiding place on one of Amsterdam’s canals? Is it the aura, the uniqueness and authenticity of this place to be captured and can it be transformed into something new and relevant? Those questions live at the heart of the art project Aura: an exhibition and a series of events in the historic premises of Castrum Peregrini Foundation, where in WWII young German Jews survived in hiding. Since the war the time seems to stand still in this labyrinth of rooms and passages. A small part of the first generation lives there to date, in the middle of countless antique objects, books and pieces of art they produced and collected. In the coming years the house will be partly opened to the public.

To mark this transition Non-fiction’s Michiel van Iersel invited nine artists from different disciplines to choose a historic object, a story or a person as a point of departure and use it for a new artwork. The writings of pre-war German literary critic Walter Benjamin formed the basis for the project, and his signature is included in the show. The results of this ‘artistic recycling’ vary from installation art, ink drawings, photography and film to conceptual furniture, poems and a short contemporary radio play. The exhibition of works will start in the new project space of Castrum Peregrini, moving up the old staircase into the deserted apartment of a late inhabitant where the past is still perceptibly present.

In conjunction with the exhibtion a series of Aura-salons with guided tours, performances, statements and music will be hosted by Castrum Pegrini. Non-fiction’s Juha van ‘t Zelfde has invited the French composer and multi-instrumentalist Pierre Bastien and Dutch electro-acoustic musician Machinefabriek to perform during two consecutive Aura-salons. For more information on the Aura-salons, the exhibition and the official opening please visit: Castrum Peregrini website

Aura-exhibition
From 14 May until 21 June 2009
Wednesday through Sunday 13:00 – 18:00 hrs
Admission 5 Euro, 18 years and younger free

Location
Castrum Peregrini
Herengracht 401
1017 BP Amsterdam

Participating artists
Amie Dicke (visual artist, NL)
Chris Kabel (designer, NL)
John Kleckner (visual artist, USA)
Susanne Kriemann (visual artist, D)
Jan Robert Leegte (visual artist, NL)
Alexandra Leykauf (visual artist, D)
Erik Lindner (poet, NL)
Renée van Marissing & Allerd van den Bremen (theater-makers, NL)
Henk van der Waal (poet, NL)

And original works from the collection by
Max Beckmann
Walter Benjamin
Gisèle d’Ailly van Waterschoot van der Gracht
Simon van Keulen

Official opening Aura-exhibition (free for all)
Thursday, 14 May, 18:00 – 21:00 hrs

Aura-salons
Thursday, 28 May, 20:00 – 23:00 hrs
With contributions by Allerd van den Bremen, Machinefabriek, Erik Lindner, Renée van Marissing, Joachim Umlauf, Ton Venhoeven

Thursday, 11 June, 20:00 – 23:00 hrs
With contributions by Jan Baeke, Pierre Bastien, Theu Boermans, Dragan Klaic, Tracy Metz, Henk van der Waal

Finissage Aura-exhibition
Sunday, 21 juni, 14:00 – 20:00 hrs

Informal Aura-drink
Every friday 17:00 – 19:00 hrs

The Aura project is being made possible through the generous support of:
Amsterdams Fonds voor de Kunst
VSB Fonds
Prins Bernhard Cultuurfonds
Lira Fonds
Goethe Institut Amsterdam
Genootschap Nederland Duitsland