bogusmedia

x-mas

2009-01-05T12:56:00.001-08:00

This is me, as my avatar Gausman, in christmas style on SL, but there was more..

For a while I did not add messages to my English blog. Only special, international occasions that call for an English approach get this special treatment. This christmas I was invited by the Salem family to join them on boxing day. An honour. Here's my good friend Bens' family:

..that accepted me in their midst, together with former collegue Heleen and her misjpoge,

Ben, hassling over fondue..

..and real English x-mas pudding..

..made my christmas 2009 in the end complete and happy: a big thank you for the Salem clan and the rest of the E. extended family for making the end of December 2008 a warm, extraordinary experience..

kluivert

2008-09-01T02:54:00.000-07:00

The most beautiful weekend this year so far. We sailed and set the kluivert, a small jib in front of the big jib..

..and then Ine dedicated herself to sailing which resulted in speeds of 5 knts and more..

..sad to know it was probably the last warm weekend of the year, luckily we have the cultural season.

season

2008-08-30T03:38:00.000-07:00

The cultural season has begun. I met miss Holland and asked if I could take a picture and instead of reacting bored she was actually flattered and posed very professionally. Here's a picture of our gang yesterday before we went to the Stubnitz, a very big fishing boat that showed videowork of MonteVideo/TimeBased Arts (I know that's not the name anymore but it is just better)

moonies

2008-08-17T10:36:00.000-07:00

two moon related items:
first on the roof of all time favorite Graham Smith of his new apartment in The Hague -near the beach..

..second a 4/5th eclipse of the moon while we were almost sleeping on the IJsselmeer:

I know there's not much to see, but that's what eclipses are about, no?

waterland

2008-07-10T11:17:00.000-07:00

Our readers abroad have the advantage of receiving a touristic tips about Amsterdam and its surrounding area's. This time we focus on Waterland, close to the North of Amsterdam and surprisingly untouched by civilization. As usual my good friend and colleague Ben Salem was invited to have a sail and a walk..

..he enjoyed the breathtaking langscape with always on the edge of the horizon the outskirts of Amsterdam..

..and don't say nothing happens in the countryside: only today a manure container almost fell in a ditch..

English readers

2008-06-30T11:12:00.000-07:00

This is an entry especially written and edited for my English-reading visitors, as all entries are in this blog. Benjamin Salem, my Algerian, French and English colleague accompanied me to Monickendam during the maiden voyage of my boat. It was beautiful..

..and Ben surprised me by diving in the IJsselmeer without any hesitation:

Also from TU Eindhoven: a wonderful football game concocted by masterstudents. It challenges even old men like the coaches to really enjoy playing soccer..

Dutch artist sells work to Brad Pitt

2008-06-05T01:33:00.000-07:00

At the opening of the very European Zuiderzeemuseum by Dutch minister of Cultural Affairs Plasterk (the one with the hat, obviously)..

..we met Dutch artist Joep van Lieshout:

Van Lieshout just placed a giant set of bowels, complete with a dito anus in the museum..

..that focuses on Dutch culture and also boasts on a very interesting collection of ceramics..

The world famous artist told us he just sold a more neutral piece to actor Brad Pitt and his wife Angelina Jolie..

..called Family Lamp:

Although van Lieshout is familiar to the burdens of stardom by now he stated that he was surprised that mr. Pitt was followed by such a large group of female admirers.

breakers, the movie

2008-06-01T11:16:00.000-07:00

My son Zoro made the installation Breakers for the Zuiderzeemuseum in Enkhuizen. Here's the movie that will play in the Zuiderzeemuseum as from wednesday. The installation will be shown at the Verbeke Foundation near Antwerp. Enjoy!

skirt-day

2008-04-23T05:25:00.000-07:00

An odd phenomenon in the low lands: skirt day, the first day of spring when ladies wear their skirts without stockings. It is often predicted but a good skirt-day just happens. I met style-guru Joyce Roodnat in the Eastern part of the city but she did not wear a summer outfit.
To comfort me she and my girlfriend Ine wore their very large shades, that Joyce called (untranslatable Dutch expression) schuifpui.

bio artist oron catts

2008-04-21T13:57:00.000-07:00

Last Sunday a lecture by bio-artist Oron Catts for Waag Society's KillerTV. Typical: when I arrived at the Waag building on my bike a couple of people already gathered in front of the door. Because they looked pretty hip I asked them if they were there for Catts' lecture. And indeed: they were. I locked my bike and opened the door. One of them said to me while climbing the stairs: 'by the way, I'm Oron..'. He's the guy with the facial hair above. Also present prof. dr. Robert Zwijnenberg, head of the Center for Arts and Genomics in Amsterdam and in the board of the Waag Foundation..

..Catts held a rather general lecture on the use of bio-engineering in arts and the issues involved. Later this week the video can be watch on www.killertv.nl..

..pretty much the complete bio-art community in the Netherlands was at the Waag, that by the way got a negative advise of the Arts Council of Amsterdam which means that there is a chance they will not get any municipal arts-money the next 4 years. Although the Waag is one of the few places where artists like Catts are welcome.

mythical kitsch

2008-04-17T09:00:00.000-07:00

Everything I write about and take photo's of, dear reader, is part of my ordinary life. Around the corner gallery Koch Bos that shows wonderful symbolic kitsch art. Very fashionable..

..it refers to childrens literature and 19th century attics. Masterpiece is this large sculpture..
..all works by Pepijn van den Nieuwendijk..

taxi!!

2008-04-17T07:55:00.000-07:00

A warning for blogfriends who come to Amsterdam: never, under any circumstance, take a taxi in our beautiful city. Especially not from the central railwaystation. Drivers take you for a ride and worse. There are bicycle taxi's that are fine. And Tuktuks. Right now it is virtually impossible to get a taxi from the central railwaystation anyway. The reason? The new price-system does not stimulate drivers to take short rides.
On the background of the second picture a hobby of the Amsterdam municipality: collecting bikes that are not places in the bicycle racks.

it's ok we're from the internet

2008-04-14T12:45:00.000-07:00

this young man protests against the Scientology Church at the Central Station in Amsterdam. Is there a communication specialist who wants to contribute to this noble cause? They need it!

tips for art travellers

2008-04-14T12:25:00.000-07:00

The contemporary art-traveller is always on the lookout for something new. In Amsterdam the motors of the art scene are the independent artist run centers. A couple of days ago I showed you one of the oldest, from the time of the 'krakers', W139. This weekend I was at the 'Service Garage', a combination of art space and studio's..

..this is the talented Oscar Peters, who shares his studio with the young and upcoming artist Zoro Feigl, who happens to be my son. In his studio Zoro showed us the model of the big piece he made for W139..

..here's another piece at the Service Garage of an unknown artist studying at the Rietveld art school:

zoro feigl in the w139

2008-04-05T13:34:00.000-07:00

Yesterday Zoro opened his show in w139, the artist run centre i already wrote about. Here's a small clip of his work..

For me as a father it was stressfull, so for the artist it must have been even worse. But he delivered and delivered well. The 'wee' was crowded and had a line in front of the building. Note the sign above the door. Also made by Zoro..

montevideo/royal waitingroom

2008-03-30T14:06:00.000-07:00

Two things: Our royal family never travels by train but they maintain waiting rooms. Like this one in Baarn, where they used to reside..

The most stable art institute in Amsterdam is undoubtedly Montevideo/TimeBasedArts. Run by Heiner Holtappels is produces a steady series of high quality exhibitions that provides Amsterdam with a view on contemporary art that the larger museums obviously fail to do. Here's a view of the crowd at last fridays opening of an exhibition that is completely not announced on the somewhat irritatingly hip but otherwise deaf and dumb website.

work in progress

2008-03-28T09:08:00.000-07:00

My son Zoro is building an art show in the centre of Amsterdam. Almost every busstand in the city has the poster with the announcement.

I visited him while he was building and he showed me one of the pieces. Because he produces his show in co-operation with the Zuiderzeemuseum (an open air museum a couple of miles north of Amsterdam, his show contains old Dutch artefacts. Like boats..
In exactly one week the show opens.
www.zorofeigl.nl
www.w139.nl

late Easter

2008-03-25T14:09:00.000-07:00

Working in the oldest secular building in Amsterdam, as mentioned before, has its drawbacks ans advantages. Here's both of those; the wonderful Anatomical Theatre, where an Easter Brunch was organized, a couple of days late and then a speech by managing director Klaas who spoke of 'new beginnings, new idea's'. Not a word about ressurections nor the easter bunny. But one cannot blame a person for his lack of imagination, as my dear mother used to say.

And the weather. well the weather is the weather. In Holland, we don't need mountains, we have clouds, and light..

gallery in Amsterdam, sculptures in Heerlen

2008-03-24T07:22:00.000-07:00

Harry Heyink is one of the key players in the Amsterdam Art scene and even runs his own art school: the European Exchange Academy that gathers every year near Berlin to produce art.
The Amsterdam branch of EEA http://www.eeacademy.eu/ is located next to one of the two old artist clubs in Amsterdam: Arti et Amicitiae on the Rokin. The first exhibition is of Erik Alkema, who makes huge puppets for parties:

And then there was my journey to the south, to the old miner-city Heerlen, that is irrestebly ugly..

..as this city centre illustrates. Christel Lechner from Witten, Germany, produced dozens of sculptures and scattered them around town..

On my way back, through hailstorms. I passed the Dutch Deep (Hollands Diep) the widest river of our delta where I saw the new tracks of the Very Fast Train, that does not run yet, parallel to ours: awesome. I can't wait to get to Paris in only 3 hours!

By the way: it took me nearly 4 hours to get to Amsterdam from Limburg (about 150 miles)...

Free Tibet

2008-03-19T04:18:00.000-07:00

Also in Amsterdam Buddhists demonstrated for a religiously and otherwise free Tibet. The Dutch press is reluctant to express any sentiments in relation to Tibet because there is no free press allowed into the country. In my opinion this fact alone is sufficient to critically approach the subject and the Chinese government. But bacause op the olympics the Dutch stay indifferent to the monks' protest. They don't want to frustrate the 'human rights leap forwards' that the games will produce. All according to the Dutch government and the press -who is not allowed into...etc.etc.-

contemporary..

2008-03-17T06:21:00.000-07:00

This blog is also meant to get rid of some very persistant prejudices about our beloved city (Amsterdam). Like the idea that everubody is continuously high. People from Amsterdam do not smoke. It's the tourists that smoke. That's how we recognize them: bleary eyed on rental bikes smiling at you because they assume you're part of the world wide pot-family. This is not true. We make money, grow weed and have the best economy of Europe, together with Estonia and Austria.
Another widely spread misunderstanding is that Amsterdam would be an artistic city. Also not true. Amsterdam is so un artistic that the city council had to start a department to help artistic people to start their own artist run centre. Amsterdam closed down the Rijksmuseum (right,where all the Rembrandts are) and the Stedelijk Museum (modern art) for indefinite time to renovate the lot. No estimations are being made at what date the museums open again but it is already like this for a couple of years and it will last at least until the 2010's.
Amsterdam has, even at the best of times, no museum for contemporary art. For this you have to go to the south of the Netherlands, to Tilburg, where an old textile plant harbors one of the finest art collections of the country.

The De Pont Stichting shows an impressive retropsective of Dutch artist Job Koelewijn who works with almost all materials available and is hard to classify. In this work, that he originally produced for the Amsterdam based gallerist Fons Welters, he stopped clocks but moves the space to which the clocks are confined. He also took the part of the Welters gallery and rebuilt it around the work in Tilburg. Ridiculous and astonishing..
Another contemporary art eat your art out was the performance of the Brabant born artist Carina Diepens who has work in the projectspace.

The collection od De Pont is balanced and international. There are two small works by Kapoor that are wonderful..

..and there are a couple of Dutch artists here and there that are legendary and this exhibition has works by René Daniels, who is originally from the city of light (Eindhoven)..

But all in all the magnificence of Koelewijns work goes well with all international and national stars in Tilburg. When you are visiting Holland and you want to have an impression of contemporary art from a Dutch perspective, don't hesitate to take the train to Tilburg and leave Amsterdam for what it is: cocksure and self centered but trusting on a reputation that is not supported by facts.

Eleni Yzatzalos at Biederberg

2008-03-15T10:29:00.000-07:00

Our neighborhood gallery, Suzanne Biederberg, shows a Greek artist: Eleni Tzatzalos. Here the gallery, the artist, the gallerist and then Carl, Suzannes boyfriend..

Carl just came back from a demonstration against Scientology but he was unable to find them. The exhibition itself was rather nice, I thought, and Ine agreed for a large part. Here's one of the sculptures..

..and an impression of the gallery: with Greek speaking people mingling with neighborhooodies and out-of-towners. I asked Carl what the son of the twin brother of my cousin would be called in American. He answered: 'just a fucking' cousin, I guess', (he's from Texas). In a couple of minutes Pim, the son of the twin brother of my cousin, Pim, wil have dinner with us, together with the cousin. Cheers!

shopping for stockings in amsterdam

2008-03-13T12:57:00.000-07:00

It's shopping-time and because I'm a fan of our city and these consumerist/technocratic times I look around. First girls in a shop called the Beehive:

..and then a girl shopping..

...myself in a bar..

..and my fiancée Ine after surviving a stocking shopping spree..

perspective

2008-03-13T04:50:00.000-07:00

To put things in perspective for my foreign readers: my name is Sam Nemeth and i live in Amsterdam. I'm one of the lucky bastards that work in the oldest secular building of the city: the waag, which means weighing house.
De waag is a medialab that does many interesting things: research, organise lectures and debates all related to eCulture.

In the near future I will tell much more about our institute (although it is only one of my activities: I also teach and research etc. etc.) but for now I show you our close relationship with India. We supported our sister organisation Sarai in Delhi and Lipika went to visit them and wrote two articles about new media-education in Delhi, Kolkota and Mumbai.

Hyves and Ben down

2008-03-12T15:42:00.000-07:00

This week two events of major importance:
- Ben Salem broke his leg after fainting in the toilet: 'I went to the toilet and woke up on the floor with a broken ankle', he states. We wish him all the good luck he needs now he's recovering in his large, six bedroom apartment in the city of light.

- Eva Kol presented her major study on Dutch web community Hyves. The Dutch think this is the only one in the world and are really happy with it so who am I to deny them their hidden pleasures?

image and sound

2008-03-11T05:06:00.000-07:00

In the Netherlands film and video has only recently been recognized as cultural heritage. A couple of years ago Beeld en Geluid, Image and Sound, a foundation that preserves the Dutch media, built an enormous palace. All Dutch TV and radio of the past 100 years is shown here in what is called an experience. Although aimed at a broad targetgroup, I like it, also because they show a lot of old hardware. Me and my colleague bart were invited for a tour with lectures on preserving and tagging media.

Parallel to that they started together with the Amsterdam Filmmuseum and other partners a project to preserve and disseminate a large quantity of films and other media called 'beelden voor de toekomst', images for the future (and you are right: the Dutch are very straighforward in choosing names). This is really amazing also because of its incredible budget: 180000000 euros. Where do the Dutch get all this money? Gas, that we borrow from mother earth (that's what we tell her..), we sell for hard currency.

art

2008-03-08T06:08:00.000-08:00

Only one event of international importance: the open air gallery of my cousin Piet Linnebank on the Noordermarkt in Amsterdam. Obviously enjoying himself he shows his current work.
he states that it is not the sales that matter but the fact that people get acquainted with his work and discuss it.

Kif Tebbi

2008-03-02T12:13:00.000-08:00

If you come to Amsterdam visit the old filmmuseum in the Vondelpark -yes our 'central park', the biggest park in town- that is not only beautiful but has one of the largest movie collections in Europe. Kif Tebbi (Mario Camerini 1927) is set in 1911, when Italy was at war with the Ottoman empire in Libya. An Arab nobleman with western sympathies is threatened by the Turks. The Italian troups rescue him at last and he marries his desert girl. A wonderful and interesting movie that was shown for the first time fully restored with live music by Yaniv Jachum (saxophone), Martin de Ruiter (bandoneón) and Erik Winkelmann (bas).

first bogusmedia entry

2008-03-02T05:45:00.000-08:00

Because I'm lazy, it took a while to start blogging in english. First of all, I wanted to practice in Dutch and second of all I wanted to find out what would be interesting for international readers and what for my local friends and admirers.
Right now I think there's a hige overlap but that's not a bad thing. Dutch readers will be able to read my rudimentary version of the English and still have their own corner where I blog about local stuff (my mother/street/food etc.). Whereas the English-reading visitors will have a brand-new source of news about whats going on in the world of new media and far beyond in Amsterdam and far beyond. The point is that almost half of my friends don't speak Dutch and most of them are avid internet users so now i include them in my audience. and audiences, off course, can't be big enough.
Here is a first picture in bogusmedia. Steve Shapiro, photographer and practitioner of old media, was in Amsterdam. When a foreigner comes to our town we dress up:

This is gallerist Wouter van Leeuwen with in the background my fiancée Ine Poppe. And here's the man himself, surrounded by well dressed locals:

Another happening was the exhibition curated by Dutch artist Arno Coenen. Theme: hardrock!

This new gallery is an offspring of an artist run art center in the east of the Netherlands -in Enschede- that is run by Viola and Kees: http://www.planetart.nl/