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VISUAL

Everything in museums, galleries, on roundabouts and village squares, and hanging over sofas. And Marina Abramovic

Hidden past and new insights in 'Groninger Museum 150 years - Behind the Scenes'

Hidden treasures. Like other museums, the Groninger Museum houses many objects that deserve to be exhibited. Interesting paintings, sculptures or archaeological splendour of which visitors are unaware. Happy birthday is a treat. The Groninger Museum celebrates its hundred and fifty-year anniversary with - among other things - an exhibition in which you get a look behind the scenes. Objects... 

Created with DALL-E via the prompt: 'A brave female knight fighting against diversity advocates in the form of dragons.'

The Free Left fights against code diversity without sound arguments.

Free art is in danger. At least that is what the Free Left Foundation claims. The article goes around persistently on facebook: "Unfree art is not really art at all." Actress Femke Lakerveld breaks a lance for the free arts in this interview with journalist Joep van Ruiten. The occasion is a manifestation in Groningen, which will feature a number of speakers on whether... 

Illustration © Mart Veldhuis 1920x1080

Exhibition Other people's guilt at the NUT - Open house and theatrical talks at Berlin Square

From Wednesday 6 to Friday 15 March, you will find a special exhibition at the NUT studio (Berlijnplein, Utrecht). Other people's debt explores the world of debt through the lens of visual art. One in five households in the Netherlands faces money problems. Unfortunately, help often comes only when debts are already sky-high. In Andermans... 

GvNH campaign image

FRANS HALS MUSEUM AND AMSTERDAM MUSEUM LAUNCH PORTRAIT CONTEST FACES OF NORTH HOLLAND

It is time for new faces and stories that reflect the diversity of North Holland. On Monday 5 February 2024, the Frans Hals Museum and Amsterdam Museum's portrait contest will be launched. This contest - which calls on creators with and without experience to capture residents of North Holland - aims to show the diversity of the province... 

In Museum Arnhem, Wilders haunts the mind

Our intended prime minister wants to abolish almost all cultural subsidies. Only art that can be properly understood by 'real Dutch people' still deserves financial support. Wilders targets cultural subsidies from an ideological background. Anyone visiting the exhibition 'Art in the Third Reich - Temptation and Distraction' at Museum Arnhem cannot escape seeing disturbing comparisons. Wilders sees art as a... 

The future of theatre is flexible. In conversation with Huub Huikeshoven and Arjen Berendse on ´What is a good theatre?'  

"There is something strange going on. Municipalities have no money to build or furnish such a theatre, and companies have too little money to make productions. So it is chafing on both sides." Huub Huikeshoven, trained as an interior designer, works at Theateradvies, an organisation that advises on the layout and design of theatres. There, it turns out quite... 

Marcel Duchamp, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons

Duchamp's urinal is said to belong to female artist. Or does the business stink?

It had been hanging in the air for a while, but now there seems to be fairly incontrovertible evidence that Marcel Duchamp did not invent his urinal artwork himself. A book to be published next month claims that the inventor of 'conceptual' art nicked his thing from German artist Elsa von Freytag-Loringhoven. That in itself was a longer-running ... 

Follow Van Gogh's footsteps in Drenthe.

On 11 September 1883, Vincent van Gogh disembarked at Hoogeveen train station. Away from The Hague's urbanisation and back to nature. The painter spends months in the area around Hoogeveen, Nieuw-Amsterdam/Veenoord and goes to Zweeloo for a day. He uses his period in Drenthe to unwind and experiment with themes, colours and... 

Amersfoort Court

IN PERSPECTIVE 17: BEFORE Amersfoort was by the sea (Is it better for a municipality to stop embarking on large-scale new construction or renovation projects of art institutions?).

Still Amersfoort by the Sea is not a reality. Sea level rise is taking a bit longer to materialise. In the meantime, then, the city is still just centrally located in the country, with the largest national hub for train traffic, an average population profile, a historic city centre, a unique training programme for carillonneurs, as well as the 'music factory' in the Veerensmederij and the art gallery KAdE...., which scores well in reviews. 

Image from Rikkie and Slingertje

#Zomergasten 2023#5 was the three and a half television nights with Theo Maassen on which women did not exist.

Nice how things coincide, on 'Summer Chairs'. Last week, I reported on the BBC breakfast show's Red Bench, and what a torture device it is. On Sunday 20 August, an almost exact equivalent of that semi-circular Red Bank came along in Summer Guests with Kamagurka. This Red Bench was in a Flemish theatre with Johan Anthierens, who in his show 'At... 

The Silence: A festival, premiere, dernière and summer

During the 7th edition of the Brabants International Children's Festival (BRIK), our latest performance Voor de Draad Ermee premiered and we presented Mankind with Paul van Kemenade and Stevko Busch for the last time. For the Wire With It premiered On Saturday 24 June, For the Wire With It premiered to a full house in the Chassé Theatre!.... 

image from the film by David Hannan

Thanks to Wallworth at the Holland Festival one last look up from beneath a dying sea.

The dome of Artis Planetarium is made for stars; it is not a shiny Imax canvas. That the images in Coral: Rekindling Venus by Lynette Wallworth therefore do not splash off the screen is to be expected. Wallworth, a close friend and colleague of ANOHNI, is prominent at this year's Holland Festival and made Coral, Rekindling Venus exclusively... 

Ed Atkins Photo by Kiasma

Poetic gem by Ed Atkins knows exactly how to strike a chord

That he prefers not to hear news about the weather, but that there were once people alive who he knew, and what the weather was like then, Ed Atkins cannot talk about that often enough. So he repeats that phrase endlessly. A 'loop', then, as we know it from music and video art. But performed live. Is... 

Lynette Walworth by Cassandra Hannagan

Lynette Walworth brings empathetic art. That takes some getting used to at the Holland Festival

A TED Talk, but not 15 minutes as prescribed by that scattershot ideas organisation, but an hour and a half. In How To Live (After You Die), the monumental artist Lynette Walworth takes you through a story-with-light images about the temptations of sectarian faith, which, via the Amazon and the Outback, over Donald Trump and along the steppes of Mongolia, ends in the caves... 

Nelson Carrilho working on the Mama Baranka sculpture, summer 1984. Photo collection Nelson Carrilho

40 years after murder Kerwin Lucas Duinmeijer mini-expo on Mama Baranka | Amsterdam Museum presents small exhibition around Nelson Carrilho's memorial statue

It was 40 years ago this summer, on 20 August, that 15-year-old Antillean Kerwin Lucas Duinmeijer was murdered. His death, often seen as the first racist murder in Amsterdam, led to many protests as well as cooperation between migrant organisations to fight racism. Curaçao-born sculptor Nelson Carrilho made a sculpture in response to... 

Arrow by Anohni

Amsterdam Museum presents multimedia exhibition by artist and musician ANOHNI at Huis Willet-Holthuysen

From 4 June to 29 October 2023, ANOHNI, the Holland Festival's associate artist, presents a multimedia exhibition at Huis Willet-Holthuysen: She Who Saw Beautiful Things. With this art display, ANOHNI honours its former collaborative partner Dr Julia Yasuda. Also on display are photographs taken by her now-deceased wife Erika Yasuda. These are now on display for the first time. Back to... 

Artwork at TFAF 2023. Photo by author

TEFAF 2023: is the art world still about art? 

Every year, the most important collectors, the museums with the greatest buying power, the best art dealers and the people with plenty of disposable income head to Maastricht to look at and (dis)buy art at art fair TEFAF. The champagne flows, designer bags dangle from every shoulder, and over a tart imported from Paris, or an oyster, a decision is made whether to buy a... 

Still from the documentary White Balls on Walls by Sarah Vos

White Balls on Walls: fascinating image of a museum in panic

There is quite a stir among mostly people of certain (white) colour and age about a documentary now playing in movie houses. In White Balls on Walls, maker Sarah Vos shows how the Stedelijk Museum in Amsterdam has to get used to a new era in which old self-evidences are shaking to their foundations. The uproar revolves mainly around the artworks created by established... 

Photo of presentation with participants Cathelijne Broers, Renée Steenbergen and Rien van Gendt.

4 coming revolutions involving art and money.

The Dutch government distrusts citizens. And that stands in the way of a healthy art sector. This emerged on 17 January during a well-attended symposium at Amsterdam's Veem House. The occasion was the essay published in book form by Renée Steenbergen, who also published articles on this site. At the event, co-organised by Veem and Platform Beeldende Kunst, many makers were... 

Created with Midjourney AI, via the prompt: dog staring picasso style

Beware the new myths of anti-woke

Scored a new bullshit bingo card, today. 'Art must no longer tingle, I quit'. Big headline in a quality newspaper, with below it the terrible story of gallery owner Jeanette Dekeukeleires of Gallery Art Kitchen. The 60-year-old says she is quitting her job because nothing more is allowed. (Read the story here) For instance, she received complaints from young people about the famous PSP poster with that naked woman.... 

A collage of photos belonging to the exhibition at the amsterdam Museum, with many images of woven artworks

Continue This Thread. Karim Adduchi x Tess van Zalinge - New exhibition on the power of crafts at Amsterdam Museum

Dresses made from Moroccan embroidery appliques and patchwork couture from upcycled designer fabrics. In recent years, Amsterdam-based fashion designers Karim Adduchi and Tess van Zalinge gained a lot of name recognition with their designs inspired by historical and regional handwork techniques. With sustainable collections like 'Natural' (Van Zalinge, 2022) and community projects like the 'Social [Distancing] Fabric' (Adduchi and The World Makers, 2021), both fashion designers offer... 

created by Midjourney AI with the prompt: black female artist exposition

The art world is still white and male.

The website where the Dutch umbrella organisation of museums, the Museum Association, keeps track of audience and number of people employed by its members was unreachable today. Perhaps that is because today the leading website Artnet also came out with revealing figures on the arts sector in the US. The report, titled The Burns Halperin Report, includes an overview of the... 

'Versace broke the traditional male-female image' - exhibition on fashion designer and 'kitsch king' Gianni Versace at Groninger Museum 

Why is the largest retrospective on Italian designer Gianni Versace yet on show in Groningen? "Why not?" jokes Andreas Blühm, general director of the Groninger Museum. Indeed, it seems like a bizarre choice, but if you look a little closer, you will discover a few commonalities between the museum in the down-to-earth north and the maximalism of Gianni Versace, who on 2... 

Amsterdam Museum acquires artwork Aukje Dekker about first female mayor

The Amsterdam Museum has acquired the work Woman on top (2022) by artist Aukje Dekker. The work, which Dekker uses to highlight the fact that Femke Halsema is Amsterdam's first female mayor, was officially unveiled on Tuesday in Mayor Halsema's office at City Hall. The work Woman on top (2022) by Aukje Dekker (visual artist, co-founder Sociëteit Sexyland) consists... 

An eruption of beauty at the Drents Museum

'See Naples and then die' were Goethe's famous words. If the German philosopher was as surrounded by beauty as I was during the new exhibition Dying in Beauty - The World of Pompeii and Herculaneum, I can understand his statement. For the Drents Museum, it is a peculiar choice: an exhibition on an already much-discussed period and society.... 

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