AMSTERDAM.- The Stedelijk Museum’s annual Municipal Art Acquisitions always focuses on a particular discipline in the visual arts. This year that discipline is photography and the additional thematic focus is devised by guest curator Hans Aarsman. For Off the Record he has invited artists to submit work prompted by the urge to record, without any direct intention to create a work of art, and in which chance and discovery play a major role. The selected works (all videos or photographs) will be exhibited in the central pavilion at the art fair Art Amsterdam. Stedelijk director Gijs van Tuyl will announce in the course of Art Amsterdam, on Friday 15 May, which of the works will be acquired for the museum’s collection.
A jury, chaired by Hans Aarsman, has selected from over 470 submissions works by the following artists: Theo Baart, Elly Baltus, Maze de Boer, Melanie Bonajo, Appie Bood, Steve van den Bosch, Hans Bouman, Jan-Dirk van der Burg, M.L. Busser, Ad van Denderen, Ria van Dijk, Rineke Dijkstra, Constant Dullaart, Kaj van Ek, Martijn Engelbregt, Erik Fens, Maria Heijdendael, Maarten Heijkamp, Peter Hermanides, Frank Kouws, Frank Mandersloot, Paulien Oltheten, Anne van de Pals, Jannie Regnerus, Don Sars, Frank Schallmaier, Diana Scherer, Marike Schuurman, Monique Scuric, Tanja Smit, Claudia Sola, Roy Villevoye and Stefan van Weele.
Hans Aarsman was inspired to select the theme by chance discoveries in art and science. For example, X-rays were discovered when it occurred to Wilhelm Röntgen to examine the mysterious shadows sometimes appearing on photographic plates despite lightproof packaging. The discovery of penicillin happened in a similar way. A well-known literary example is that of Arthur Conan Doyle, creator of the legendary fictional detective Sherlock Holmes. Conan Doyle was primarily a novelist and wrote his short detective stories only as a sideline. Tiring of the character, he wrote a story finishing off Sherlock Holmes but readers worldwide protested so strongly that he was forced to resurrect the character. As a result, the author now enjoys enduring fame for an activity he himself regarded as peripheral.
It is not only in literature that accidental discoveries can prove to be more important than the original aim. For example, Breitner thought he was taking his now famous photographs merely to help him get away from the conventional art of his time. Likewise, many painters, film-makers, sculptors and photographers adopt a particular theme in their autonomous work and build up an archive of information, evidence or documentation surrounding it. Usually, this material never goes beyond the studio drawer, scrapbook or file. But it may suddenly prove to be significant and valuable in its own right.
Off the Record is about photographs and videos created more in this way than as autonomous works of art. The definition also includes material not produced by the artist him or herself: found photographs or films, or a collection which only later proves to be valuable from a different point of view.
To give some examples: the exhibition includes photos by Hans Bouman, who made doing the dishes bearable once he gave himself the prospect of photographing the clean dishes in his sink. It has resulted in ninety-nine photographs so far. Erik Fens took an interest in the tree in front of his house, in particular its reflection on the different cars parked next to it. He photographed the indirect presence of the tree systematically from above. Peter Hermanides saw the cookies that an elderly couple daily offered him, being their domestic help, and captured the image in a composition that seems to echo the cosmos. Jan-Dirk van der Burg collects images that his friend, living in Iran, sends him daily. They are of the Dutch newspaper NRC – including the stickers carefully placed by the Iranian censors to cover ‘obscene’ photos.
The members of the jury for the Municipal Art Acquisitions 2009 are Hans Wolf (graphic designer), Erik Kessels (creative director of advertising agency KesselsKramer), Albert van Westing (visual artist) and Hripsimé Visser (curator of photography at the Stedelijk Museum). Its chairman is Hans Aarsman (photographer, writer and critic).
