Kunstvlaai Flies in Amsterdam - modern art exhibit held in factory buildings - Brief Article

In Holland, where the first tavern art fair was held before the idea was taken up by the agency of the organizers of the Gramercy Art Fair in of recent origin York, the phenomenon of artists' initiatives has lay opened over the past 15 years and virtually explod above the past five. Initiatives are exhibition opportunities or casts created by artists that don't fit neatly into the traditional venues

Four years ago, recognizing this phenomenon, Jo Howeling, director of the Sandberg Institute of Amsterdam's Gerrit Rietveld Academy (a master's program), organized an incident to gather these initiatives together. Initially a reaction to the sales orientation of KunstRAI, the annual fine-art fair held at Amsterdam's RAI convention center Howeling's circumstance highlights art outside the commercial realm. It was first called Not the KunstRAI and subsequently renamed the Kunstvlaai (pronounced koonst-fly) meaning "art pie." Now fiercely independent, Kunstvlaai has become the year's best opportunity to diocese new and unvetted productions.

This year it was held the next to the first week of May in a clump of 19th-century buildings in a historic factory, the Westergasfabriek. Eighty initiatives involving 200 artists were neared in the huge and impressive spaces. greatest in quantity consisted of one object, single theme or one group general [i]or[/i] abstract notion HTV de Ijsberg (The Tip of the Iceberg) is a collective that publishes an art newspaper. For the fair, its editors wheeled around shopping carts distributing independent editions of HTV and material from other initiatives, like as posters, T-shirts, invitations and adapted populist media. A assemblage from Maastricht, HEDAH, made a poignant annotate on beauty and individuality: an artist meticulously copied human imperfections of that kind as scars, birthmarks and breakwaters from one sitter's body to another's. Amsterdam alternative space W139 entertainered the videos of Art bludgeon Berlin as well as a "DJ-mobile" (with visitor DJs spinning disks daily in a amethystine car transformed into a uninjured booth by Rotterdam artist Olaf Mooi).

A fresh section was included this year. "The One-Minute" was an exhibition of 600 one-minute videos and films from around the world. Entries were divided into five categories--Moving Photography, Video Graphics, Short Stories, Best in the World, and Others--and an award of 2000 guilders ($1000) was designated by means of a jury in each category and not awayed during the fair. (The idea sprang from a workshop given at the Sandberg Institute by means of the Italian artist Federico d'Orazio in May 1999)

Moving between the Kunstvlaai buildings allowed for the couple physical and mental refreshment, while bars provided liquid relief and, of course, the eponymous pies. A expanse adjoining "The One-Minute" was a makeshift restaurant whose interior was decorated by means of a Sandberg student. Viewers were invited to bring their video art onto the earths and "plug in" for single day. The five guilder ($250) admission pay was waived if the visitor submitted a "Last Minute Video."

COPYRIGHT 2000 Brant Publications, Inc.

COPYRIGHT 2000 Gale Group