ESA staff and members travelled to Amsterdam and Rotterdam in July 2009 where we met and visited a whole array of artist collectives, curatorial projects and studio groups and exhibitions.

A special thanks goes to artist Jeanne van Heeswijk for designing our varied itinerary; it enabled us to gain a great insight into contemporary arts practice in the Netherlands, in all of its variety.

Below is more information and links to the projects and spaces that we visited and you can see images of the trip here....

Monday 13 July 2009

KijkRuimte, Amsterdam-Noord
An art project by Portugese artist and Blue House participant Daniella Paes Leao. This project is housed in Amsterdam Noord where there is a stigma attached to the area. There is a perception by people who live in central Amsterdam that Amsterdam Noord is an undesirable area so Daniella's project aims to bring more people and prosperity to the area. After having an introduction by Daniella we took a tour around the building and on show in the gallery space there was an illustration exhibition by Laura Oldfield.
kijkruimte.nl

De Appel, Amsterdam-Noord
Housed in the old Shell cantine, we saw De Appel�s exhibition curated by its curatorial training programme. This programme was initiated in 1994 by former director Saskia Bos. From the onset the course wished to bridge the gap between art historical education and �practice� in the field of contemporary art by offering young curators a condensed package of experiences and skills which can be used as tools and instruments during the further development of their professional career. We were given a tour by one of the curators involved, Mia Jankowicz.
www.deappel.nl/cp

The Bluehouse
An art project initiated by Jeanne van Heeswijk in collaboration with Dennis Kaspori and Herve Paraponaris. The Bluehouse is a pioneering artist-led project in IJburg, Amsterdam, a new urban district being developed on a cluster of man-made islands to the east of the city. Situated within one of the residential blocks, The Bluehouse has been taken off the market for four years on the initiative of artist Jeanne van Heeswijk. During this time it will act as a centre for cultural production, researching into and documenting the genesis and evolution of IJburg �s community.

Artists, architects and creative thinkers of various nationalities are invited to live and work in the house on six month residencies, undertaking live research and producing artworks and projects which examine the evolving urban space and contribute to the building of community history and identity in an entirely new district. In addressing these issues, the project has exposed serious flaws in the highly prescriptive and detailed planning methodology used in the development of IJburg.

2009 will be the last year of these projects at The Bluehouse after which the house will go on sale on the open market.
www.blauwehuis.org
www.publicartonline.org.uk/casestudies/regeneration/bluehouse

Tuesday July 14

Euromast, Rotterdam
In the morning the group took a trip to the Euromast tower to get some great views over Rotterdam. Some of us even ventured up the spinning lift for an even higher and dizzier experience!
www.euromast.nl

De Kunsthal
This museum is designed by Rem Koolhaas and is situated in the museum park. More than 3300 square metres of exhibition space are available in the striking building. It is currently showing a solo exhibition with the work of sculptor and tent artist, Dre Wapenaar, who we went on to visit later that day. Ingenious constructions which Wapenaar made of canvas, steel and wood trigger the imagination of both young and old people. His flexible architecture manifests itself in various forms and has a multitude of different functions. The exhibition consists of ten, both big and smaller, tent sculptures, amongst which tree tents, small birdhouse tents, market stalls, a shower tent (which can actually be used at the Kunsthal) and a newspaper stand.
www.kunsthal.nl

Tent / Witte De With
Some of us had time to have a look around Tent which offers a programme of visual arts focused on the significance of location and context. Location is central to TENT. And in particular, the motivations of the artists in this regard. TENT. has a socio-cultural view of contemporary metropolitan issues.

TENT was showing the TENT. Academy Awards, an annual competition between the best graduation videos, films, shorts and animations of all Dutch art academies in addition to the graduation show of the Master Of Fine Art Programme of the Piet Zwart Institute at the Willem de Kooning Academy / Rotterdam University. Also in the same building was Witte de With which comprised two parts, A History of the Brand and Revealed / Concealed by Billy Apple. In additon to this there was a public artwork by the artist on the outside of the building and also one opposite Rotterdam's Centraal Station.
www.tentrotterdam.nl
www.wdw.nl

Duende - Studio Dre Wapenaar
After viewing his work at the Kunst Halle in the morning we visited artist Dre Wapenaar who lives and works at Duende, a Rotterdam artist space which he and artists Jeanne ven Heeswijk were part of two collectives that squatted the old school building, some 15 years ago. The building continues to stand (just about) and houses approximately 40 artist studios. Unfortunately the building has terrible problems with subsidence so the building is getting demolished in the coming years and the artists will have to move on. Dre and his 3 cats were very hospitable, showing us around his studio and some of his new sculpture design ideas.
www.duendestudios.nl
www.drewapenaar.com

Duende - Jeanne van Heeswijk
Jeanne very kindly organised our programme and accommodation for the duration of our stay in Holland. She is a visual artist who showed us around her studio and we met her team of staff and helpers. Since 1993 Jeanne has been working on socially committed art projects that take place in public spaces. She sees herself as a mediator, an inermediary between a situation, a space, a neighbourhood and the people connected to these. To finish off the day Jeanne and her colleagues hosted a BBQ on their roof terrace which included an impromptu debate about the art scenes in Rotterdam and Leeds.
www.jeanneworks.net

Wednesday 15

Fam. RUIM
An artist led project space and platform for direct art. The young artists go for direct contact with their subject and / or the public. After a talk and presentation about Fam Ruim's work and public are programme, we explored their public garden which they had reclaimed from the brambles. The gallery is located on a street with many shops and the gardens to these shops had been left to become overgrown and a wasteland. Fam Ruim asked permission of the shop owners to open up all the gardens so it became one big garden for the public to use.
www.fam-ruim.nl

Atelier Van Lieshout
AVL is a multidisciplinary company, led by artist Joep van Lieshout, that operates internationally in the field of contemporary art, design and architecture. Dunya Steijns welcomed us and gave us a tour of Joep's workshop. Brad Pitt has recently purchased a caravan-style bunker for his 6 children from Joep which was under rennovation while we were there, it was sold for �95,000. We also walked in and around a torso of a bikini clad woman which when used to its full extent, will be a public bar.
www.ateliervanlieshout.com

Foundation B.A.D.
An artist initiative in a former bathhouse with a very active guest programme. It was founded in 1987 and is situated in the south of Rotterdam. We were welcomed by artist Kamiel Verschuren who give us a presentation about his own work and what B.A.D. does.
www.foundationbad.nl

Thursday 16

On the last day of the trip the group returned to Amsterdam to view the projects of their choice which included SMART Project Space, Mediamatic, a web 2.0 agency and the foam Photography Museum.

From 4 – 7 August 2008, ESA staff and members participated in a tour of studio groups, artist-led spaces, gallery’s and project spaces in Belfast. We met a host of very friendly curators, practitioners, administrators and others involved in a vibrant and well-connected sector. Everyone we met spent time telling us about their organisation, introducing us to some of their artists and giving us tours and further advice about where else to visit.

We found Belfast itself smaller than Leeds with half the population but it was clear from the type of activity and the artists making the city their base it is very much a capital. The troubles that have dominated its history were also still very evident and raw and some of the projects described to us were in fact attempting to deal with Belfast’s unique historical and geographical position.

Over the course of the first three days we met and visited:

Flax Studios
Naughton Gallery, Queen's University
Belfast Print workshop
Golden Thread Gallery
Queen Street Studios
Catalyst Arts
SARC – Sonic Arts Research Centre, Queen's University
Paragon Studios / PS2
Ormeau Baths Gallery

By the end of our trip, the following became clear about Belfast’s contemporary art’s scene:
• The visual arts sector seemed very well linked. They all supported each other and had lots of very positive things to say about each other.
• Catalyst Arts has indeed been a ‘catalyst’ for the professional development of the sector in Belfast. It seemed anyone involved in running studios, curating spaces, opening venues, developing projects had all done a stint as a Director of Catalyst. Conversely, even though this organisation continues to make its mark with quality programming and developing arts professionals, it seems to be the one that suffers from a lack of core funding.
• The Directors of Catalyst and others in Belfast that are working voluntary felt this situation was very important. They made it clear they didn’t want funding to skew their freedom when developing projects. They were of the angle that funding goes into making projects happen and paying for others to be involved but not to the initiators. This wasn’t true for all the organisations we met but enough for us to notice this underlying feeling.
• Many of the studio spaces we visited had been in existence for over 25 years and were now only just starting to think about some of the issues that in England we have been focused on for some time, such as owning buildings, sustainability, growth and vision for studio based groups. In all likelihood these Belfast based organisations will catch up with their English counterparts, but it shows that Arts Council, England has responded positively to studio based groups with appropriate funding strategies, the launch of a national representative body for artist studios (nfasp) and expertise support.

Check out more about the organisations we visited by reading other feedback about the trip and by visiting their web sites.

On the last day we all did an open top tour of Belfast as true tourists. It was extraordinary as we sat in the rain and wind and the whole political situation was laid out in front of us. It was both uncomfortable and fascinating.

See more images of our Belfast members trip here....