Artist Monika Dahlberg has been commissioned by Framer Framed to create two sculptures that will have a permanent place at the entrance of the Framer Framed building. On Thursday 29 September, at 15:45, the work, titled Gatekeepers will be unveiled by Arts and Culture alderman Touria Meliani and district councilor Oost and art and culture portfolio holder Jan-Bert Vroege. A children's parade by the collective Pretvormer will take place during the opening to celebrate the sculptures' arrival in the neighbourhood.
Gatekeepers is an ongoing project in which Dahlberg explores ideas of inclusion and exclusion within the art world. The work exudes critical playfulness, while at the same time confronting the audience. The collaboration with Dahlberg arose at the request of curator Zippora Elders to Framer Framed to contribute to the programme of Constant 101: a large-scale collaborative project to mark the 101st birthday of artist Constant Nieuwenhuys. Framer Framed and Monika Dahlberg entered into a collaboration that led to the realisation of a new permanent work in - and reflecting on - public space.
The sculptures will have a permanent place on the quay, where they will increase the visibility and identity of Framer Framed. Both Monika Dahlberg and curator Zippora Elders will be present at the unveiling.
DATA: 29 September 2022, 15:45-17:00 - free admission
LOCATION: Oranje-Vrijstaatkade 71, 1093 KS Amsterdam
ABOUT
Monika Dahlberg was born in 1975 in Kericho, Kenya, and graduated from Minerva Art Academy in Groningen in 2001. In the years after graduation, she experimented with different media and disciplines, but her main focus is photography, especially the intersection between pop culture and lifestyle.
Dahlberg was inspired by the 1948 Manifesto written by Constant Nieuwenhuys (1920-2005), better known as Constant, for Reflex, the organ of the experimental group Holland, which would merge into the Cobra group later that year.
Destroying social structures and cultural conventions would liberate both the masses from a ruling upper class and also art from its isolation.
"This destruction is a prerequisite for the liberation of the human spirit from passivity and the blossoming of an all-embracing folk art (...) a folk art is that expression of life which is nourished solely by a natural urge for life expression. An art that does not solve the problem posed by a pre-existing conception of beauty, but that recognises no standards other than expressiveness, and spontaneously creates what intuition inspires".
In his manifesto, Constant shifts the emphasis from the individual artist to the self-expression of the masses. From the individual creator to collective creation. In other words, he advocated the democratisation of the arts. He also put experimentation and experience ahead of aesthetics and results.
Pretvormer consists of Nina de Jong and Nena Duinmeyer. They organise, invent and create parades in neighbourhoods and at festivals. The parades at both festivals and in neighbourhoods are a low-threshold way for people to get to know each other better.
MADE POSSIBLE WITH SUPPORT FROM
Ministry of Education, Culture and Science; Amsterdam Fund for the Arts; Stadsdeel Oost;
Hollyhock Foundation.
English (UK) 
Nederlands 
Français 
