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...
View ArticleThe 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...
View ArticleThe final chapter of the modernist dream
Why the art sector cannot justify its continued existence The idea that societies could be reformed (modernized) through general access to culture, also high culture, was part of the modernist project...
View ArticleSo-called ‘terrorists’ finally receive a democratic platform – as an art project
I chaired a summit and helped curate a project designed by the Dutch artist Jonas Staal in Berlin on 4 and 5 May, as part of the Berlin Biennial. The New World Summit is the latest step in the artist’s...
View ArticleWhat I would do if I became director of De Appel in Amsterdam
De Appel is the intellectual powerhouse of Amsterdam’s art world – or maybe it isn’t anymore, but it still has that reputation. It’s a non-commercial art space that offers a high-level (and...
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