Artificial Amsterdam - The city as artwork

press release

In 2013, the year in which Amsterdam is deliberately promoting itself as a cultural hot spot, de Appel arts centre is going in search of the city behind the refined, historic Ring Canals and the city marketing campaigns. Artificial Amsterdam investigates Amsterdam as a city full of contradictions: historic and modern, dignified and bustling, free-thinking and liberal but also safe and reliable, open and cosmopolitan but also bound hand and foot by regulations.

Is Amsterdam an artificial city? Or do these apparently ordered façades conceal a completely different Amsterdam – one which is far from as well-regulated? How does this city function precisely, as a source of inspiration for artists? Various artists who have resided in the city and have special bonds with it have responded to these questions in the framework of this exhibition curated by Gerardo Mosquera i.c.w. Rieke Vos. In presenting concrete, focused aspects of how a city is imagined, the exhibition will go beyond the notion of artificiality to achieve revealing views of Amsterdam in its multiple complexities.

Like the participants in the show A'dam & Eve: On sex, tolerance and other dependencies (2002, de Appel arts centre) who tackled the outsider's view of Amsterdam as a sexually liberated, open and fun, free wheelin' society, the artists in Artifical Amsterdam explore the multiple faces of the Dutch capital. Among the pieces being presented in this exhibition are idiosyncratic films about Amsterdam by Lawrence Weiner (US) and Ed van der Elsken (NL), new works by artists like James Becket (SA/NL), Egle Budvytyte & Bart Groenendaal (LT/NL) and Hans op de Beeck (BE), a monumental mural by Jan Rothuizen (NL) and a ‘map’ of his famous Spinoza Monument by Thomas Hirschhorn. In her work Cristina Lucas (SP) connects Mondriaan with the erotic. Fernando Sánchez Castillo (SP) realizes an ironic ode to the Nieuwmarkt Riots. And in the autumn the Japanese artist Tatzu Nishi presents a spectacular project in our partner institution, the Oude Kerk.

Curators Artificial Amsterdam is curated by Gerardo Mosquera (co-founder of the Havana Biënnale and the Johannesburg Biënnale) and Rieke Vos. Since the early 1980s the Cuban Mosquera (b. 1945) has organized many exhibitions in which public space plays a central role, in Mexico City, Liverpool, Santiago, Cordoba, Madrid and other cities. Since 1995 this world traveler has been calling in several times per year at Amsterdam, where he is a guest lecturer at the Rijksakademie voor Beeldende Kunsten. The Dutch art historian Rieke Vos (b. 1981) curates exhibitions in contemporary art and architecture. She was a participant in the de Appel Curatorial Programme, and has developed various projects in public space for SKOR, the Foundation for Art and Public Space.

Participating artists: Lara Almarcegui (Spain/NL), Mounira Al Solh (Lebanon/NL), Linda Bannink (NL), Hans op de Beeck (Belgium), James Beckett (South Africa/NL), Egle Budvytyte & Bart Groenendaal (Lithuania/NL), Ed van der Elsken (NL), Carlos Garaicoa (Cuba), Kendell Geers (South Africa/Belgium), Bert Haanstra (NL), Inti Hernandez (Cuba), Roderick Hietbrink (NL), Thomas Hirschhorn (Switz./France), Philipp Kremer (Germany), Glenda Leon (Cuba), Cristina Lucas (Spain/NL), Arnoldus Montanus (NL), Tatzu Nishi (Japan), Jan Rothuizen (NL), Fernando Sánchez Castillo (Spain), Kuang-Yu Tsui (Taiwan), Barbara Visser (NL), Lawrence Weiner (US) and others.

Side programme A diverse range of activities are being organized in connection with the exhibition: an interview with the curators and artists, evening walking tours of the Wallen in cooperation with the Oude Kerk, performances in the city centre, and educational workshops.

Artificial Amsterdam
The city as artwork
Kuratoren: Gerardo Mosquera, Rieke Vos

Künstler: Lara Almarcegui, Mounira Al Solh, Linda Bannink, Hans Op de Beeck, James Beckett, Egle Budvytyte & Bart Groenendaal , Ed van der Elsken, Carlos Garaicoa, Kendell Geers, Bert Haanstra, Inti Hernandez, Roderick Hietbrink, Thomas Hirschhorn, Philipp Kremer, Glenda Leon, Cristina Lucas, Arnoldus Montanus, Tatzu Nishi, Jan Rothuizen, Fernando Sanchez Castillo, Kuang-Yu Tsui, Barbara Visser, Lawrence Weiner...