The Museum Night, organised by the Van Abbemuseum, took place last Saturday night. This 4th edition was connected to the project Be[com]ing Dutch. Visitors were encouraged to find out how the diversity of Holland can be connected to art. Everybody who was not afraid to be confronted with situations that excite the senses and trigger emotions could walk around in the museum for free. Children and adults of all ages took part in workshops and went to see performances given by a diversity of artists.

*Take my hand to travel back in time and cross the van Abbe once more* Continue Reading »

Due to the strike in France the lecturer of today, Catherine David could not be here. Instead there was an impromptu panel with Deborah Cherry, Galit Eilat and Shaheen Merali. Deborah Cherry introduced the other two speakers and told the audience how these hours would be filled. Continue Reading »

The panel of Nezha Haffou, Kitty Zijlmans and John Clark talked this afternoon mostly about the position of foreign artists in a new country. How do they cope in a new environment, a different culture and alsmost always a different language? They started by each giving a short presentation and their point of view. Continue Reading »

To understand our society we must first know about our history, says Charles Esche in his opening speech. Knowledge is crucial to understand certain things, so not only must we know our own history, we also need to understand the history of other countries around us. This is why in today’s panel there were three international guests who all presented their projects. In a packed auditorium curator Tone O. Nielsen (Denmark) starts with the presentation of her project ‘Rethinking Nordic Colonialism’ (A Postcolonial Exhibition Project in Five Acts). Continue Reading »

This morning at eleven o’clock the second public weekend of the Be[com]ing Dutch Eindhoven Caucus started with an introduction by Annie Fletcher. She immediately made clear that this welcome was actually meant to be for the non-participants because the participants heard this story more than once. With a short explanation about the goal and purpose of Be[com]ing Dutch she informed the audience about what they could expect. Continue Reading »

The audience was waiting with anticipation, ready for the workshop given by writer/journalist Abdelkader Benali. Unfortunately Abdelkader Benali was stuck in traffic. Although Holland is a relatively small country, the traffic is an absolute nightmare, especially on a Friday afternoon. But the visitors didn’t mind. Everyone just got an extra cup of coffee and waited patiently. Continue Reading »

here are my answers. please understand I have to be short because of lack of time, but I tried to be precise.

very best,
Thomas Hirschhorn

Continue Reading »

Hoe gaat het met de hedendaagse beeldende kunst in Istanbul? De uit Istanbul afkomstige Erden Kosova toont tijdens zijn workshop een dia van een Turks geldbiljet. Op de rechterkant van het briefje staat Atatürk, zijn gezicht verborgen achter twee opgestoken handen. Alsof Atatürk kiekeboe speelt. Volgens Kosova staat die afbeelding voor schaamte. Atatürk zou zich schamen voor de waarde van de Turkse munteenheid. Ook Kosova lijkt niet erg trots te zijn op het land waar zijn roots liggen. Continue Reading »

ok caucus is going for abouth 1 week high enthausiasme great human beings coming together to share some learning proces talking together and with invited people abouth what has to happen!! we are getting used to eachother the energy is becoming stronger and stronger where it will go nobody knows but one thing we have in common the willing to use personal energy to connect like no words are needed only action!! one of the highlights untill now for me was erden kosova ya-sev ya-terket couldn t say it better for me the things i hear feel whatever are abouth sharing public space and testing the limits from the social control system and that art needs to touch also tolerance comes from above /denial powerstructure/ erase the problems of identity…..healing…. on the other hand the desire to destroy expectations

On to the streets, into the city and look for a confrontation with other people. That seemed tot be the central thema during the presentations of a couple of artists of the Caucus, wednesday morning. Michael Smit, Bastiaan Arler and Allard van Hoorn showed some of their work to the other Caucus-participants.

Continue Reading »