Artificial Amsterdam

From 29 June through 13 October, 2013, de Appel arts centre is presenting the exhibition Artificial Amsterdam. Artificial Amsterdam is comprised of a group exhibition in de Appel arts centre and a select number of art projects and interventions in public space. The latter are chiefly situated in the immediate vicinity of de Appel, in the Nieuwmarkt neighborhood.

De Appel and Amsterdam in 2013
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.

Exhibition
Is Amsterdam an artificial city? Or is there a completely different Amsterdam behind the façade of apparent structure and order, which is far from as well regulated? Is Amsterdam a sophisticated village? Precisely how does this city function as a source of inspiration for artists? Various Dutch and international artists who all have special bonds with the city have responded to these questions. Among the pieces being presented in this exhibition are idiosyncratic films about Amsterdam by masters like Lawrence Weiner (US) and Ed van der Elsken (NL), new works by young artists like James Becket (South Africa/NL) and Egle Budvytyte & Bart Groenendaal (Lithuania/NL), and a monumental mural by Jan Rothuizen (NL). In her work Cristina Lucas (Spain) connects Mondriaan with the erotic, Fernando Sánchez Castillo (Spain) realizes an ode in bronze 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), Tatsu 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. 

With thanks to SNS Reaal Cultuurfonds, AC/E, RONMANDOS