Here is the first part of a two pronged project in Almere, the design of an exhibition space and an invitation to be one of the artists in the exhibition.
Almere is a medium large city east of Amsterdam that typifies the engineering prowess of the Dutch: within 40 years a major population hub was stamped out of a former lake bottom. Yet this modern city still lacked a dedicated art museum commensurate to its importance. Now with support of the state, the province and the city the newly christened —and as of yet unhoused— Museum M is making its mark. One of its first projects is a “pop-up” exhibition in the commercial center of town. In an empty space along the main drag Museum M, which is dedicating itself to the provinces of Land Art and immersive installations, has created a showcase for 5 immersive artists. Studio Todd van Hulzen received the task of uniting these installations into a single conceptual whole. To this end we —specifically Artistic Director Olga Ruitenbeek— conceived a kind of labyrinth. Due to space constraints we opted for a “Bluebeard’s Castle” solution, where instead of multiple dead-end corridors, we create dispersal spaces of several doors, a number of which are blind. Leaving each installation, you arrive in hall of doors and find yourself the task of testing each one to see which leads to your next destination. Multiple possibilities unfold. Each functional door transports the viewer into a new world, the world of an artist’s installation.
5 artists created 5 installations. I was one of these artists of these installation with my project Black Eden and will treat it in a separate entry. But here’s a view of the different solutions that the other artists took to answer the question: what is the future of Nature? In addition to designing the exhibition, allotting and unifying the disparate parts, I was also tasked with “coaching” all of the artists in the making of a public exhibition where practicality, accessibility and safety can interfere with pure creative expression. The participating makers, Anke Portier, Ruben Raven, Clinton Kabena, Jurrian van der Haak, and myself, united to make a very satisfying experience. Come one, come all!
Address: Citadel 22, Almere. Until October 2022
