NRC nieuw orientalisme 14 April 2011
Goed artikel van Raymond van den Boogaard waarin ik en mijn medereizigers worden geinterviewed over hedendaagse kunst in het Midden-Oosten.
De Gele Koe als startpunt voor Saoedische kunst
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My current exhibition in Amsterdam: The New Middle East
Installation View of the New Middle East
The wave of popular uprisings throughout the Arab world have revealed a new Middle East – young, dynamic, secular, pragmatic and creative – which few people in the West knew about. It did not however come out of nowhere: as this exhibition shows, contemporary Middle Eastern culture has been developing very quickly over these last few years. Continue reading
The future is Wilders
Wilders, the radical anti-Muslim nationalist and populist leader of the Dutch “Freedom Party” has manoeuvred very smartly. He has promised to support the coming right wing Dutch government on the condition that his political programme be followed by it; but he will not become part of that government. Continue reading
The fear of Big Brother
The fear of Big Brother is justified as long as political power sits on top of us and has the means to lock us into a subordinate relationship of control. In the 1920s and 30s we saw how dictatorial regimes came into power in democracies through elections, so the sole fact that a political system is democratic is not sufficient to guarantee that civil liberties will be protected. In theory the Netherlands or any other democratic country could become a dictatorship after the next elections (and step out of the European Union and other binding international agreements if necessary). Continue reading
My plans for establishing a contemporary art department at the ethnographic ‘Tropenmuseum’ in Amsterdam
The Tropenmuseum was looking for a contemporary art curator, and I applied. They asked me what I would do were I to get my job. As with the vacancy of director for De Balie (see below, in Dutch) I got through to the last round but ultimately didn’t land the job (the main reason being that they thought I didn’t have a sufficiently solid theoretical basis in art history). However since I enjoyed writing these plans, and thinking about how a ‘stuffy’ old ethnographic museum that wants to renew its appeal could go about doing it, I’m sharing them with you here: Continue reading
Mijn plannen voor De Balie
Ik ben tot de laatste ronde gekomen in de sollicitatieprocedure voor de functie van Directeur van De Balie. Jammer dat ik het niet geworden ben, want dit was ik van plan: Continue reading
De echte integratie drama
Wat mij betreft is het werkelijke drama van integratie van ‘allochtonen’ dat ze zo’n bleek beeld weerkaatsen van de Nederlandse cultuur. We zouden hen het hoogwaardigste van onze Nederlandse cultuur (humanisme, literatuur, intellectuele vrijheid) kunnen meegeven in plaats van de laagste gemene deler, zoals dat met de inburgering geschiedt. Bewaarden ze tot ze dat niveau bereikten maar meer van hun cultuur van oorsprong! Want zelfs de populaire, dorpse cultuur waaruit het meerendeel van hen afstamt (gekenmerkd door bijv gastvrijheid, eergevoel, onderlinge solidariteit) is een stuk beter dan het krasse materialisme en egoïsme van de Febo cultuur waarin ze belanden, door ons overtuigd dat dit het ware Nederland is!
The Green Box Museum
I was surprised to discover the existence of this cabinet-museum dedicated entirely to contemporary art from Saudi Arabia – apparently the only one in the world. It is in the centre of Amsterdam. See Green Box Museum. Continue reading
Borders Book Launch
Coming soon...
On Thursday 10 June I’ll be presenting my recent book at Mediamatic, on the Vijzelstraat 68 in Amsterdam. The booklaunch starts at 6 pm and I’ll give a presentation of current trends in Middle Eastern contemporary art. Drinks and music for all – don’t miss it!
City Branding vs Artistic Freedom
The prospect of having performance artists dressed up like Disney’s Snow White parading with toy guns in the city hall caused quite a stir in The Hague over the last weeks. It is not that the Dutch are easily scandalized – they are rather hardened in matters of artistic provocation – but the consistency in the branding of a city such as the The Hague is becoming a more important principle than artistic freedom. The Hague likes to present itself as the international capital of peace and justice, and to start with, the officials in charge of city marketing didn’t like the theme chosen by Todaysart festival 2009, “The Hague City of Conflict”. Continue reading