News — Apr 19, 2011

The Stedelijk Museum, together with Holland Festival, proudly presents Your Name in Lights, by renowned American artist John Baldessari from June 1 to 26. To be part of this extraordinary work, people everywhere are invited to submit their names via www.yournameinlights.nl whereupon they will appear on a large illuminated sign on the Museumplein in Amsterdam. With this dynamic participatory artwork, everyone will have an opportunity to experience his or her 15 seconds of fame. It is also possible to register the names of friends and family, as a group.

Your Name in Lights playfully and provocatively reflects the fixation with celebrity in contemporary culture and recalls Andy Warhol’s oft-quoted statement from 1968, “In the future, everyone will be world-famous for 15 minutes.” "Warhol is so yesterday”, says John Baldessari, “be a celebrity for 15 seconds! Be a celebrity, a living legend and an idol. Experience the thrill of seeing your name in lights!"

Inspired by traditional markers of celebrity, such as the neon lights on Broadway and the marquees of Hollywood cinemas, John Baldessari’s work offers spectators from Amsterdam and all over the world the opportunity for what he has called “entry-level celebrity.”
Each registered name will be illuminated for 15 seconds on the 30 meter-long L.E.D. sign that will be on view twenty-four hours a day during the exhibition period on Amsterdam’s Museumplein. People can register their names through www.yournameinlights.nl and will be informed in May when they can see their names appear on the sign and through a live stream on the website.
Baldessari’s Your Name in Lights premiered as the 23rd Kaldor Public Art Project in collaboration with the 2011 Sydney Festival. Amsterdam is the second and only other planned location for the presentation of the work.

John Baldessari is one of the most significant artists of our time. Throughout a remarkable career that spans over five decades and includes painting, photography, sculpture, film, video, books and texts, he has consistently explored the associative power of language. He continues to challenge the rules and codes of mass-media culture and insightfully illuminates how meaning is produced through visual and written language. A key figure associated with Conceptual art during the 1960s, Baldessari remains one of the most influential and dynamic artists working today.
To participate in Your Name in Lights, please register online at www.yournameinlights.nl.
John Baldessari’s Your Name in Lights on the Museumplein is supported by the Amsterdam Fund for the Arts.