“I don’t separate ‘Sound Art’ from ‘music’. I am one person; my ideas come from the same place.” 

- Alvin Lucier.

On Thursday 28 April the Stedelijk Museum and Non-fiction present Hear it! – a playlist for the Stedelijk Museum, with works by Dick Raaymakers, Alvin Lucier, Mark Bain, Pierre Bastien, La Monte Young and Gert-Jan Prins, and performances by Paul Panhuysen, Carl Michael von Hausswolff, Alog, Gabriel Lester, Claron McFadden and many others.

When? April 28, 2011, from 19:30 – 23:00 hrs
Location: Temporary Stedelijk 2, Auditorium, museum café and galleries
Entrance: Valid museum ticket
Language: English
Reservation: Reservation is mandatory

A playlist for the museum
Hear It! is presenting a playlist of these different types of work with sound, and is presenting different generations of musicians and artists who work with sound in their own way. This evening does not aim to provide a historical cross-section of sound in the arts, but is a personal playlist of works from the collection of the Stedelijk Museum and performances by (international) artists and musicians who are exploring the limits of the building and sound. The evening was organised intuitively by listening carefully to the building, the collection and the public, and is possibly most comparable to the way in which a DJ works, or to the musical experience you have with Soundcloud and Spotify. That is why there is a mixed succession of a Siren, a Norwegian DIY band, a Gregorian choir and the public which assumes the role of composer and performer, amongst others.

The sound of now, since 1952
It is now almost 60 years since director Willem Sandberg embraced music in the Stedelijk with his famous series ‘The Music of Now’ in 1952. Sandberg’s view was that the museum should provide room for other art forms than visual art as well, including contemporary music. Since then contemporary music has assumed many different forms and is described in various ways: as experimental music, sound art, sound performances, sound sculptures and audio culture. Some musicians call themselves ‘artists’ and some artworks are characterised as being ‘musical’. It is not always completely clear, but what is evident is that there is great deal happening at the point where the visual arts, music and sound come together.

Performances by
Aardvarck (NL) / Alog (NO) / Nathalie Bruys (NL) / Carl Michael von Hausswolff (SE) / Allard van Hoorn (NL) / Brandon LaBelle (USA) / Gabriel Lester (NL) / Claron McFadden (USA/NL) / Paul Panhuysen (NL) / Sarah van Sonsbeeck (NL)  / Schola Cantorum Amsterdam (NL)

Works by
Mark Bain (USA/NL) / Pierre Bastien (FR) / John Cage (USA) / Alvin Lucier (USA) / Gert-Jan Prins (NL) / Dick Raaymakers (NL) / La Monte Young (USA)

Introduction by: Harold Schellinx / Juha van ‘t Zelfde

Programme: Michiel van Iersel & Juha van ‘t Zelfde (Non-fiction)

Advisors: Bart Rutten, Margriet Schavemaker and Hendrik Folkerts (all Stedelijk Museum)

Research: Adelá Foldynová and Pieter Willems

Live blog: VPRO Dorst

Partners: BeamSystems, Nalden, CitizenM and Hogeschool voor de Kunsten Utrecht

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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On the brink of the 2009 Open Studios at the Rijksakademie van beeldende kunsten, architect and 2001 Prix de Rome winner (with his project ‘Shifting Horizons, Towards a non-Deterministic Urbanism’) John Lonsdale will visit De Verdieping for the Rijksakademie BeamClub. Lonsdale will talk about his activity of the last years, mapping the ‘Mudscapes of the Netherlands’ whereby he strives for the reconciliation of architecture with landscape. He sees a future where humankind can live in a sustainable way in newly created wildernesses or mudscapes.

The Rijksakademie BeamClub is an initiative by artist and Rijksakademie resident Sarah van Sonsbeeck and De Verdieping, the cultural project space in the basement of TrouwAmsterdam that is programmed by Non-fiction. It is a night where artists present works that inspire them in their own practice. Previous speakers have been Hans Aarsman, Nicoline van Harskamp and Ben Cerveny.

'We don't notice a door opening to the front.' Hans Aarsman

On tonight’s Rijksakademie BeamClub at De Verdieping, photographer, Volkskrant publicist and curator Hans Aarsman will join artist and 2009 Prix de Rome winner Nicoline van Harskamp in showing what inspires them to make their art. Doors will open at 8.30 PM,and the film starts at 9 PM. Entrance is free, and the night will be moderated by Juha van `t Zelfde.

About Hans Aarsman:
An utterly ugly doll, fabricated by his mother in the nursing home that he did not dare throw away, inspired him to reconsider photography. He photographed it and threw away it with a rested heart! A speedcourse in seeing. Or as he says himself: ‘ There is not one truth. There are at least seven.’ Has now (almost) stopped photographing, writes in the Volkskrant on photo’s of others.

About Nicoline van Harskamp:
Won Prix de Rome 2009 with ‘The Power of listening.’ A video installation and panel discussion on the basis of what an audience can remember. In the Beamclub she’ll show Wim T Schippers ‘we’re at home again’ (we zijn weer thuis) with custom made subtitles!

On Wednesday 11 June De Verdieping had its first collaboration in with the Filmmuseum in Amsterdam. The night was a pre-screening of the documentary ‘Rem Koolhaas – A Kind of Architect’ by director Markus Heidingsfelder, in honor of the DOKU.ARTS festival that is taking place in Amsterdam. Here are some pictures of the night, taken by Sarah van Sonsbeeck with Jelle Spanjaard‘s camera.

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.

John Cage explaining he does not want sound to think it is a bucket

Last night’s BeamClub was a warm welcome to the Rijksakademie from De Verdieping . We appreciate your coming, and hope you enjoyed our ad-hoc-sublevel-cinema despite the Spartan circumstances. Artists Sarah van Sonsbeeck and Gino Saccone will share their playlist soon, so you can check out what you missed if you weren’t there, or relive the moment if you were. The videos by John Cage and Frans Bromet were amusing and thought provoking.

We look forward to seeing you next month on 27 May for the second edition. This time with artists Nicoline van Harskamp and Coralie Vogelaar.

Every Wednesday night De Verdieping hosts a night of art, music or discussion. On most of these nights we invite another institution to adopt this night to present itself in our environment. This time the Rijksakademie has kindly accepted our invitation – or, better, kindly approached us – to show videos that formed inspiration for residing artists. The programme started as a small gathering of artists at the academy, exchanging videos from YouTube they enjoyed. They now have called the night BeamClub, and this Wednesday is the first edition at De Verdieping.

In their own words:

On a regular irregular basis we ask (current and former) residents of the Rijksakademie to show footage. This includes anything that can be beamed, from YouTube to documentary, from mobile phone uploads to found vhs. What will be shown is not their own art, but what inspires them to make it. This time with artists Gino Saccone and Sarah van Sonsbeeck.

The Rijksakademie is an internationally acclaimed art research residency, currently home to 60 artist with 29 different nationalities. The upcoming two nights will be kindly hosted by De Verdieping in their ongoing Wednesdaynight programme. Doors open at 20:30, movies start at 21:00. Entrance is free. De Verdieping, Wibautstraat 131. And join us on Facebook or Twitter.

You can also join De Verdieping on Facebook, but we’d rather see you in person this Wednesday.