From 23 June, a new edition of Collecting the City on show. For the third time, museum and city join forces to bring stories of Amsterdam into the limelight. This time, the spotlight will be on Amsterdam tokes, portraits with stories of women from Nieuw-West, Noord and Zuidoost can be heard and a special moment in history will be looked back on: the 1998 Gay Games, which took place 25 years ago this year in Amsterdam.
Stories from the city
At Collecting the City #3 as in previous editions, different stories and perspectives from the city come together. The exhibition opens with portraits with audio stories of women from New West, North and Southeast. In the following rooms, the exhibition on 25 years of Gay Games on display, looking back at this special moment in history. The final spaces will be filled by the presentation Toko Mokum, which interactively and theatrically tells the story from the Indian community about food culture and tokos in Amsterdam.
Women of...
The first rooms will feature a presentation of portraits and stories of women from Amsterdam Southeast, North and New West. Also exhibited are dolls from the shop Colourful Goodies by Ellen Brudet, who sells toys that everyone can identify with. Also on show is a new photo series taken from the ongoing collaboration between the Amsterdam Museum and emancipation centre Vrouw en Vaart in Osdorp. The photo series comes from the magazine Spice mix from New-West, created by herbalist Leoniek Bontje. Using herbs, she drew up stories about family, origins and identity.
Gay Games 1998
In the following rooms, you can see an exhibition on the Gay Games held in Amsterdam in 1998. This event put Amsterdam on the map as one of the most tolerant cities in the world after a long struggle for emancipation. Using objects, photos and moving images, visitors are taken to the grand opening in the Amsterdam ArenA, the sports and cultural programme and the parties, in which people from all over the world took part. In addition to existing material, new stories were actively sought. Photographers Tengbeh Kamara and Jonnah Bron took portraits of eight LGBT+ key figures, sharing their memories of this festive week. The exhibition was created in cooperation with, among others IHLIA and Queer Amsterdam and was created in collaboration with guest curator Feargal Agard, director of Humans of Film Amsterdam, and Gay Games Amsterdam 1998-2023 Initiative Group.
Left: Bodybuilding presentation (ahead of Gay Games 1998), 1997, Marian Bakker.
Right: Referee Smashing Pink (ahead of Gay Games 1998), 1997, Marian Bakker.
Toko Mokum
In the exhibition Toko Mokum will present an interactive installation on Indian tokos and food culture in the Netherlands. Riboet Verhalenkunst, a collective of artists with Indian and Moluccan roots, sees more and more traditional Asian tokos disappearing. In the exhibition, they tell the stories of a number of iconic Indonesian tokos and show how new generations translate the tokos feeling to our times. They also call on visitors in the exhibition to share a recipe or memory of their own, or lend objects.
Left: Toko Samoeaada, P.C. Hooftstraat, Stadsarchief Amsterdam, Eilers, F. Bernard (1878-1951)
Right: Toko Sarinah, Stadsarchief Amsterdam, Martin Alberts
Operation Living
During this edition of Collecting the City is also the exhibition Operation Living still to be seen. In Operation Living looks back on a century of Amsterdam housing culture from the present. The visitor sees the development of housing situations in certain Amsterdam neighbourhoods, zooming in on the current housing crisis. Is there a difference between how you want to live and how you can currently live? And what is the solution to this?
Collecting the City #2 - Museum around the corner Operation Living. Photo Amsterdam Museum.
About Collecting the City
Collecting the City is the place where the Amsterdam Museum collects and presents its vibrant city, in cooperation with various parties and groups in the city. During this period, neighbourhood museums, networks, local artists and inspired residents share their stories and objects about Amsterdam. Every six months, new makers are invited to showcase their ideas. Think of an innovative perspective on the past, a beautiful or painful moment in the present or a new future vision of the city. Permanent partner is the foundation Museum om de Hoek, to which 23 neighbourhood museums from Amsterdam belong.
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