The Stedelijk, Amsterdam’s world-renowned museum for modern and contemporary art, is hosting two exhibitions while in the process of a major renovation to the building, which is scheduled to be complete in the later part of 2011.
The Temporary Stedelijk, a short-term program of exhibitions of international artists from August 28, 2010 through January 9, 2011. Stedelijk director Ann Goldstein did not want to waste the singular opportunity of utilizing the unfinished historic building in the period prior to the reopening.
Taking Place is a group exhibition of international artists who address the museum’s history, the spatial and temporal conditions of the unfinished building and how artists use, occupy and animate museum spaces. Commissioned site-specific works, pieces from the collection, historical reconstructions, video projections, audio work, architectural interventions, performances and graphic design will address the distinctive conditions of the building at this moment in time.
Monumentalism—History and National Identity in Contemporary Art Proposal for Municipal Art Acquisitions 2010 will occupy half of the ground floor galleries and feature the works of artists living and working in the Netherlands. The Municipal Art Acquisitions jury selected 20 artists whose work addresses the subject of national identity and history beyond nostalgia for a mythical past. The works selected offer various insights and perspectives on cultural artifacts, language, politics, labor and capitalism through the artists’ individual explorations in a variety of media. Participating artists include Americans Zachary Formwalt and Melissa Gordon; Swiss artist Marianne Flotron; Job Koelewijn from Germany and many native Dutch artists: Iris Kensmill, Lonnie van Brummelen, Kieke Van de Vroot, Rachel Koolen and others.
In addition to these two temporary exhibitions, American conceptual artist Lawrence Weiner has been commissioned by the Friends of the Stedelijk Museum to create a work that will be on display during the renovation of the museum and will remain after its completion. Weiner‘s text-based work consists of language plus the materials referred to, wherein language is also considered a sculptural material. The piece joins some 70 other works by Weiner in the Museum’s collection.
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