Capital A: a new yearly visual arts festival in Amsterdam

Amsterdam offers a unique concentration of top artist residences, renowned art organizations and museums, and combines this with a fierce underground scene. Capital A is a new initiative that aims to open up the city’s contemporary art scene to an (inter)national audience. The climax of the initiative is the yearly 3 Days of A. Non-fiction is responsible for the programme and the (online) communication.

 Capital A will be omnipresent (image taken from brand concept Capital A © Vandejong, 29 juli 2011)

The first 3 Days of A takes place from 25–27 November 2011, at various locations throughout the city, all in walking distance. The the website (www.cap-a.nl)is currently being developed and will include an extensive (visual) arts agenda. Throughout the year this website is also the central meeting place for everyone with an interest in contemporary art.

3 Days of A takes place simultaneously with the Open Studios of artists at the Rijksakademie and De Ateliers, as an integral part of the weekend. Prominent Amsterdam galleries, art institutions and museums present themselves for an entire weekend with exhibitions, artist performances and lectures of well known artists and curators, all in an exciting and unconventional way.

Capital A is a joint initiative of the Rijksakademie, Gallery Fons Welters and Gallery Martin van Zomeren and three Dutch private collectors. Fons Hof, co-founder of the international contemporary art fair Art Rotterdam has been appointed director and creative communications agency Vandejong will develop the on- and offline campaign that will play with the letter ‘A’.

© Vandejong

Participants are a.o.: artists, De Rijksakademie, De Ateliers, Stedelijk Museum, Foam, Manifesta, De Appel, Smart Project Space, NIMK, Kunstverein, Salon/Magazijn, Galerie Fons Welters, Galerie Paul Andriesse, Diana Stigter, GRIMM Gallery, Slewe, Van Zoetendaal, Jeanine Hofland Contemporary Art, Ron Mandos, Gerhard Hofland, Vous Etes Ici, Van Krimpen, Juliette Jongma, Annet Gelink Gallery, Martin van Zomeren.

The central hub of this weekend is Tommy Hilfiger’s People’s Place at the Stadhouderskade. On show an exceedingly strong programme, with the highlights of Amsterdam art. The theme is: The Future of Art. Curators of this programme are the founders of Non-fiction Michiel van Iersel and Juha van ‘t Zelfde.

The complete program will be launched here in September 2011.

© Vandejong

Extra Muros – a symposium on museums and the city

There is an increasingly strong link between museums and contemporary art institutions and the dynamics of the city. Programs at the Stedelijk Museum, the Van Abbe Museum, de Appel arts centre Amsterdam and the Gemeentemuseum Den Haag are some examples of this interaction, and many other initiatives all over the world reflect the same development, from MACBA to the Centre Pompidou. This “urbanization” of museums is part of a broader cultural development. Many artists intervene in and react to the public space. The various forms of mass media, such as television and the internet, have also freed themselves from their domestic existence, and entered into the city and public space through the increasing use of urban screens, locative media and smart phones. The demand within museums for public programs and education is increasing too, resulting in more activities such as talks, debates and courses, often in collaboration with other parties, which also take place outside the walls of the museum in locations such as community centers, schools and universities.

During this Extra Muros symposium, the Stedelijk Museum and the Lectoraat Kunst en Publieke Ruimte at the Gerrit Rietveld Academie will assess how modern art museums can manifest themselves in the city and what both the city and the museum can achieve through such interaction. How can the collection be presented in the city, outside the walls of the museum? What role do artistic practices play in the relationship between the museum and the public space? How can new media technologies help to create innovative dialogue between the museum and the city? What role do public programming and education play in breaking down the walls between the museum and the city? How can institutional theory and critique be used to approach these questions? And finally, does the museum of the 21st century still have walls or are these only physically present?

Now is the crucial time for the Stedelijk Museum to consider these questions, as the old walls are white once again and the new walls are beginning to take shape: when the Stedelijk Museum reopens inside its new walls, will the museum continue to present programs that are extramural, in all senses of the word?

During the symposium, Juha van ‘t Zelfde from Non-fiction will keep a live blog.

The Extra Muros symposium is the result of a partnership between the Stedelijk Museum and the Lectoraat Kunst en Publieke Ruimte (www.lkpr.nl).

Program, Friday, March 11:

Morning:
In the morning, a number of speakers will focus on the context of the theme “museums in/and the city” and present a variety of innovative projects for discussion with participants.

10.30 -10.40
Opening by Michiel van Iersel (Non-fiction, Amsterdam)

10.40-11.10
The Museum in the City: The Stedelijk Museum as a Case Study by Leontine Coelewij (Stedelijk Museum, Amsterdam)

11.10-11.40
Beyond the Museum: Artistic Interventions in the Urban Realm by Suzanne Lacy (artist and theoretician, Los Angeles)

11.40-12.00
Coffee and tea break

12.00 -12.20
The Museum and Public Space: A Place You Love to Hate by Jeroen Boomgaard (University of Amsterdam, Amsterdam)

12.20-12.40
Longing for Heterotopia: Museums, New Media and the Urban Realm by Margriet Schavemaker (Stedelijk Museum, Amsterdam)

12.40-13.00
Questions and debate

13.00-14.00
Lunch

Afternoon:

14.00 – 15.00
Experts from a number of museums will present their extramural activities in “Pecha Kucha” style:

Marcello Exposito (MACBA, Barcelona); Willem Jan Renders (Van Abbemuseum, Eindhoven); Pierre Muylle (Madmusee Luik, formerly SMAK, Ghent); Barbara Berger (Gemeentemuseum Den Haag).

15.00 – 16.15
Four parallel workshops led by experts. The aim is to bring participants together to reflect and come up with new suggestions. Themes of the workshops:

Museum in Residence – A Portable Space? (Does a museum need a portable building to present programs in the city?) By: Pierre Muylle/ Marlous van Gastel/Sophie Tates

The Museum and Society (How can museums help to tackle social issues in the city, such as improving quality of life and assisting integration?) By: Leontine Coelewij/Barbara Berger

The Collection Outside the Museum (Is the collection intended primarily for display in the museum or are there ways to allow the collection to play a role in the city – via new art production and public programming?) By: Willem Jan Renders

New Institutionalism/Institutional Critique (How can the museum carry out institutional critique and museum innovation through its infiltration into the city?) By: Jeroen Boomgaard/Marcello Exposito

The Role of the Artist (How can artists help the museum to go out onto the streets, and vice versa?) By: Suzanne Lacy

16.15 – 17.00
Plenary presentation of the workshop discussions, moderated by Michiel van Iersel and Juha van ‘t Zelfde (Non-fiction, Amsterdam)

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Extra Muros will take place at the Stedelijk Museum on 11 March. More information on the Stedelijk website.

The networked museum marathon

Here is a first reaction after our 5 hour interview marathon that took place during last Saturday’s Amsterdam museumnacht. We first would like to thank all our guests from the various institutions, our visitors in De Verdieping, and the n8 organisation for kindly letting us participate in the 10th museumnacht. We are very happy with the start of this ongoing discussion on the (changing) role of museums in 21st century cities, and the influence of networked urban environments on museums. We will take our time to write up a summary of the event, and hope to update soon.

Curating the city, a museumnacht marathon on metropolitan museums, responsive heritage and the city as cultural platform

Doug Aitken's Sleepwalker was projected on the exterior walls of the MoMA

This Saturday the 10th annual museumnacht (museum night) will be organised in our hometown Amsterdam. Non-fiction will take part with a special marathon on museums and the city, in their basecamp De Verdieping. A wide group of institutions, designers and thinkers will join us at the table to discuss how pervasive urban museums are, and how the city can become a interactive museosphere.

The programme starts at 7 pm and goes on to 12, after which Viral Radio will take over with wall-surpassing bass and rhythm collections compiled by Juha & Cinnaman with Mamiko Motto. Outside, the facade of the building will be used as an urban screen for the duration of the museumnacht by students of MediaLAB Amsterdam. Inside, artists Amie Dicke and Sarah van Sonsbeeck will host the workshop ‘Build your own mobile museum’.

Tickets are available through n8.nl, make sure you get them soon: the previous 7 editions sold out before the start.

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Programme:

19 – 00 Interview Marathon >> with Michiel van Iersel and Juha van ‘t Zelfde
We will navigate through the night together with our guests, visitors, Hyvers and Twitterati, to try to articulate the future of museums in the city.

19 – 20 MyMuseum >> Blikopeners, Zichtbaar Afwezig and Urban Screens
Students of the Rietveld, Sandberg, UvA and HvA will talk about appropriating, editing and remixing the museum.

20 – 21 Museums And The City >> Stedelijk Museum
Curators Bart Rutten, Leontine Coelewij and Marten Jongema will look back at Stedelijk in de Stad and will look ahead towards a new Stedelijk Museum.

21 – 2 The Mobile Museum >> De Appel, Platform21/Supermaker, NIMk, Mediamatic
Representatives of various art institutions in Amsterdam will talk about their transient adventures in pop-up structures and mobile pavillions.

22 – 23 The Digital City >> VURB, The Mobile City, Nationaal Historisch Museum, Habbekrats
Now things will get unphysical, with VURB and The Mobile City talking about urban informatics and the city as an interaction platform. The Nationaal Historisch Museum will talk about being a distributed museum, and design firm Habbekrats will elaborate on how cities are embedded in (music) videos on YouTube.

23 – 00 Museum = City >> everybody everywhere
How will the museums in the future inhabit the city? How can it go beyond its walls? What is a museum without a building? How can visitors become users and producers of a museum? Can a city be a museum? These questions will be addressed in the round-up discussion with all logged in.

00 – 05 Viral Radio x Beat Dimensions >> Juha & Cinnaman and Mamiko Motto.
Rhythmculture, bass experimentation and computer improvisation to ground the night after such abstraction. With Amsterdam’s digital duo Juha & Cinnaman, and the one-woman social music revolution Mamiko Motto.