Research Trip
The Netherlands
by Anna Oliver
Research trips were offered to contacts as a way for them to put the work of their own group and alias into a national or international context. Anna Oliver from Artspace at Spike Island visited several studio groups in The Netherlands as part of her research work for alias, including W139 in Amsterdam and De Fabriek in Eindhoven.
W139 has a gigantic exhibition space in central Amsterdam. It has a small shop front in a red-light district, which opens up into one medium sized exhibition space with another huge exhibition space behind that. The small space is used for fortnight-long shows, the larger space has month long shows. There is usually about 2-3 weeks between shows.
W139 started in the 1980’s as an artists squat, with events happening on a fairly informal basis. Like Artspace/Spike Island W139 is currently going through rapid change and is becoming much more ‘establishment’ - the staff are now paid and have business cards! The artistic director - who changes every 3 or 4 years - sets the artistic policy and controls which artists exhibit their work. W139 has just got a new director and is undergoing lots of changes at the moment.
W139 pays for exhibiting artist’s travel and shipping costs and also provides accommodation for artists who need to work on site while they are preparing for an exhibition. As the gap between shows is quite short it is more likely to be time for installation of the work rather than creation of new works. W139 has a good reputation, and has picked up and showed several artists ‘before they got famous’.
De Fabriek is a large space run by a group of about 8 artists on a voluntary basis. The only paid member of staff is the technician who maintains the building and helps artists get their work made. There is a very large exhibition and work space and basic accommodation. De Fabriek is funded mainly by the Mondrian Foundation and is heavily involved with pushing the boundaries of contemporary cutting-edge visual art development. De Fabriek is an organisation of artists for artists and accepts exhibition and installation proposals for individual artists and groups. There is a strong collective responsibility. The presentation and exhibition are done in constant consultation with the members of the core group of artists but there is no curator or individual core group member giving guidance to an artist during the working period.
De Fabriek’s policy is to put the majority of its financial resources into artists working on site. De Fabriek’s interest lies in the contribution that it can make to the development of an artist’s creative abilities. They provide funds for travel, a materials budget, some money towards food, plus a small fee for working there. At De Fabriek, the presentation and production of art are combined. Artists invited to work at De Fabriek have the whole building with all its facilities at their disposal. De Fabriek becomes their living and working space. The artist is directly involved in all aspects of carrying out the project, such as gathering the necessary material and equipment, administration, design and promotion.
Anna Oliver
2000