Ringsporen I, a preview

Ringsporen 1 – A Preview: From Garden Collectives to New Frontier
7 artists – 7 art presentations in public space – 10 days – the beginning of 1 story.

Awaiting the completion of its permanent residency and project space near the Summer of 2019, Bureau Postjesweg PResents organised preview exhibition Ringsporen I and several public events about art in public space.

BPPR´s locus is the city district of Amsterdam Nieuw-West, a troubled neighbourhood which has in recent years come into view with the Municipality of Amsterdam and project developers to absorb some of Amsterdam´s urban expansion. It is here, that BPPR´s inspiring program will focus and refract the existing dynamism and the transformation of this district, through the lens of artists and their work.

For ten days between January 24th and Februari 3rd, 2019, Ringsporen I consisted of a walk through the immediate neighbourhood surrounding BPPR´s eventual permanent residency: a project space in a new apartment building on Postjesweg, central to Nieuw West. The tour went along seven projects in public space, created by artists Müge Yilmaz, Servet Koçyiğit, Abdelkader Benali, Rosa Johanna, Heidi Vogels, Holger Nickisch and Bert Kramer.

During the proces of engaging local inhabitants, several entrepreneurs (Abi Patat, housing cooperation De Key, driving school Nieuw Amsterdam, Ulrike Quade company) allowed their shop windows to be used for the exhibition of the art works. This unorthodox way of presenting art made for an ideal opportunity to expose a much wider audience to these contemporary artistic expressions of themes relevant to the inhabitants and passers-by in this neighbourhood.

The artists´ works touched on subject such as cultural diversity, social design, architecture, urban gardening, immigration&identity, and questions about freedom. During the exhibition period, four additional public events expanded upon these themes with lectures, presentations and guided tours through the neighbourhood, to both introduce Bureau Postjesweg PResents and (re)present what its upcoming program will revolve around.

Participating artists and works on show:

Müge Yilmaz – Apotropaic Devices
Servet Koçyiğit – Truth
Rosa Johanna – Double Sided
Heidi Vogels – Garden Collectives
Abdelkader Benali – Buurman
Holger Nickisch – Welcome Stranger
Bert Kramer – Oxymoron – Spiegeltuin – Wieland

Additional contributions to the event program came from writer and media personality Abdelkader Benali, Lora Sariaslan of the University of Amsterdam, Tayfun Balçik (historian and project coordinator at The Hague Peace Projects), project developer Heutink Ontwikkeling & Bouw, New West architect Olaf Gipser, the Municipality of Amsterdam, and entrepreneurs and inhabitants from the district.

Apart from being one of the participating artist in this preliminary exhibition, Holger Nickisch was also one of the initiators of foundation BPPR, and has since been involved in its management and art curation, in close collaboration with art makers Iris Dik and Heidi Vogels.

Download Ringsporen I (PDF)

Graphic design BPPR publication: Amir Avraham
Images: Thomas Lenden

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