Festicumex
On 30 June, 1 and 2 July 2006 the Van Abbemuseum and the area around it will be dedicated to Festicumex, a three-day expressive art event with ‘cumbia experimentales’ as its central theme. This multi-media work of art in the form of a festival is an expressive and musical amalgamation of sensual madness from Argentina and the Dutch province of Brabant. Festicumex was compiled by the artist Dick Verdult from Eindhoven in association with the Van Abbemuseum, within the framework of the Eindhoven Projects. These projects are part of the museum’s policy designed to strengthen bonds with the Eindhoven region. On Friday, 30 June and Saturday, 1 July, Festicumex begins in the afternoon and continues until the wee hours. On Sunday 2 July, the event will seamlessly give way to the Doe de Dommel event.
- Artists on talk: Michael Blum, Alexandra Ferreira, Toos Nijssen, Agung Kurniawan and Tintin Wulia. Photo: Peter Cox
Question Paintings (Asking is not Answering)
- Question Paintings March, 24 May 2008, Eindhoven. Photo: Peter Cox
This art project by artist Surasi Kusolwong, which lead to a big colorful, joyful performance through the city of Eindhoven on 24 May 2008, extended along a period of six months and involved the participation of a very diverse group of people, including: the museum staff, the contribution of the museum visitors, local social organizations, local artists and musicians, art students from Eindhoven and from different Dutch academies (Rietveld Academy, DAI, Design Academy, etc.) and many other creative people from Eindhoven.
The art work showed the relevance of being able to ask, to freely ask, to think poetically about all kinds of different questions and the right to show them. The artwork took different forms: it started with a workshop, continued in the form of an installation where people could contribute with their questions, was followed up by questions painted by local organizations about our local context in Eindhoven and moved forward with the coordination with the different participants: musicians, costume makers, dancers, performers, and artists. We all marched on the day of the opening of the Be(com)ing Dutch exhibition along the city, showing the questions that were asked and painted during the six months. The question paintings at last came to the installation in the exhibition.
A Stop for the Crowd
The installations for the artwork A Stop for the Crowd by artist Erwin van Doorn looked like normal bus stops with time tables, yet their location differed from the bus route. Pedestrians, that in this case became the public, encountered not the bus routes, but an image recalling the artwork that artist Stephen Willats developed in Eindhoven in 1979, and a list of words intended as motives to start a conversation about. Words such as "becoming", "culture", "caucus", "Dutch", "museum" or "participation" were listed in a similar form as the bus route numbers in bus timetables. The words that Erwin Van Doorn chose referred to the Be(com)ing Dutch dictionary. The locations he chose were the ones that artist Stephen Willats explored in his work Concerning our Present Way of Living in 1979. In total, there were three stops installed: one in front of the main entrance of the Van Abbemuseum, another in the Anne Frankplantsoen and a third one nearby the flats in the Echternachlaan.
- Photo: Pery van Duijnhoven
- Photo: Peter Cox
Eindhoven Projects
This project took place within the framework of
translate: Beyond Culture. The Politics of Translation.
No False Echoes
- The installation in the Be(com)ing Dutch exhibition. Photo: Peter Cox
- Film shoot in Radio Kootwijk. Courtesy: Wendelien van Oldenborgh
No False Echoes was the name of a video installation that was on view during the Be(com)ing Dutch exhibition. Yet, the artwork also included a semi-public moment: the actual shooting of the film. In the installation we could follow a visual story told by different characters about the colonial history of the Dutch East Indies. They were looking back on the history of the PHOHI, the radio station founded by Philips. The radio linked in many ways both geographies. The story linked time and reflection.
The shooting of the film took place on 30 March 2008 in Radio Kootwijk. This building –formerly a radio station of much importance for the communication with the Dutch colonies and now a monument– hosted the staging of the story and the collective moment of reflection from different voices. Academics (Baukje Prins, Edwin Jurriëns), professionals (Wim Noordhoek, Joss Wibisono) and a singer (Salah Edin) executed –and reflected after– the voices of the past: the radio founders, the nationalist groups in Indonesia, the personal positions through stories that were recovered during the research period. Past and present came together in the experience of a very emotive way of reflection that was then projected and continued in the video installation.