News — Dec 22, 2010

While the exhibition Monumentalism—History and National Identity in Contemporary Art continues until January 9, 2011, the museum announces the works it has acquired from those proposed for municipal art acquisitions. Director Ann Goldstein made the selection in collaboration with exhibition curator Jelle Bouwhuis and other members of the Stedelijk’s curatorial team. 

Works by the following artists will be acquired:

Yael Bartana, Lonnie van Brummelen / Siebren de Haan, Hala Elkoussy, Zachary Formwalt, David Jablonowski, Iris Kensmil, Gert Jan Kocken and Lucia Nimcova. 

Ann Goldstein: "I am delighted we have this special opportunity to spotlight the terrific work produced in the Netherlands and to be able to bring works from this important exhibition into the collection of the Stedelijk Museum. The overall strength of all of the artists’s contributions to Monumentalism made the selection process particularly challenging, and I am grateful for the participation of my colleagues in the selection process.”


The Stedelijk Museum has acquired works by:

Yael Bartana (b. 1970, Kfar Yehezkel, Israel) 

A Declaration, 2006, video, 7 min.

This short film shows the planting of a tree on Andromeda’s Rock, off the coast of Jaffa (Israel), as a highly ambiguous move involving heroic imagery inspired by earlier propaganda films. It evokes and comments on the ongoing Israeli/Palestinian conflict. 

Lonnie van Brummelen (b. 1969, Soest, the Netherlands) / Siebren de Haan (1966, Dordrecht, the Netherlands)

Monument to Another Man’s Fatherland, 2008, film installation + indexposter

This installation portrays complex shared histories involving Greece, Turkey and Germany. The famous Pergamon Altar—once part of classic Greek heritage later taken from the Ottoman empire (now Turkey) by the Germans—is the centerpiece in this triptych, which also alludes to avant-garde film. 

Hala Elkoussy (b. 1974, Cairo, Egypt)

Myths and Legends Room – First Story: The Mount of Forgetfulness, 2010, film

This elaborate and compelling narrative film, accompanied by specially composed music, looks at the challenge of preserving the art of traditional Arabic storytelling in the context of rapid expansion and modernization in Cairo, as well as ongoing political repression and state propaganda in Egypt. The work is part of a series called Myths and Legends Room, which also includes Elkoussy’s contribution to the Abraaj Capital Art Prize 2010. 

Zachary Formwalt (b. 1979, Albany GA, USA)

Through a Fine Screen, 2010, film, book, book-printing file, 3 photographs (unframed)

Since the work shown in Monumentalism is already in the public collection of the Nederlands Fotomuseum in Rotterdam, the Stedelijk Museum has acquired a new film by Formwalt, titled Through a Fine Screen, which interweaves notes by Karl Marx kept in the International Institute for Social History in Amsterdam, with the entry of photography into newsprint in 1880 and the history of real estate development and speculation in the area now known as Central Park in New York. 

David Jablonowski (b. 1982, Bochum, Germany)

Multiple, 2010, plaster, offset printing plates, foil, Epson Perfection Scanner, ceramics

Tchogha Zanbil, 2010, plastic, mirror steel, foil, offset printing plate

Untitled (hardcopy), 2010, plaster, offset printing plate

The Stedelijk Museum has acquired three sculptures from the same series by Jablonowski, two of which were shown in Monumentalism. They refer to both old and new forms of media, ranging from age-old monuments to books, film and even a scanner. This assembly of works offers the opportunity for the viewer to wander among them and find the narratives arising from Jablonowski’s formal configurations. 

Iris Kensmil (b. 1970, Amsterdam, the Netherlands)

Who Speaks (December 1982), 2008/2010, ink and pastel on paper (15x), pigments/casein on wall

Mellow Dance, 2007, ink, charcoal, pastel, spray paint on paper

Cool down the space, 2008, ink and pastel on paper

The Kensmil works the Stedelijk Museum has acquired are not included in the exhibition. Who Speaks consists of portraits based on well-known photographs of fifteen intellectuals who were murdered by the regime in Suriname in December 1982. These expressive ink-drawn figures stand among text lines derived from the poem Te fri sa loi (In the free hour) by Edgar Cairo, written right after that event. Added to this outspoken work are two large drawings inspired by Ragga dancing, a cultural expression perfectly in keeping with Kensmil’s general thematic concerns, which include black empowerment and emancipation. 

Foto: Ernst van Deursen

Gert Jan Kocken (b. 1971, Ravestein, the Netherlands)

Depictions of Amsterdam, 2010, two C-prints in frame

New York Times, Tuesday, September 11, 2001 (Microfilm, National Library NY, 2004), C-print in frame

Depictions is a monumental photo-work focusing on fifty maps of Amsterdam from and about World War II made by various parties, including the municipality, the occupier, the Allies and the resistance. This layered work reveals a complex and troubled local history of that period. New York Times shows the front page of the September 11, 2001, edition of the morning paper, after which the city was irrevocably altered as of 8:46 am. 

Lucia Nimcova (b. 1977, Humenné, Slovakia)

Exercise, 2007, HD video, 5.52 min.

This audience favorite from Monumentalism portrays a number of elderly people in the artist’s birthplace of Humenné in Slovakia. Nimcova asked them to reenact, by heart, their obligatory morning exercises the period from during communist regime, which they perform with apparent ease and joy. As Nimcova has stated, “They live life according to their memories.”

Most of the works can be seen in the exhibition Monumentalism—History and National Identity in Contemporary Art, which runs until January 9, 2011, at the Stedelijk Museum, Amsterdam. The accompanying catalogue, representing all nineteen artists and including topical essays, is available at the museum. Price: € 19,50 (Dutch/English).  

The exhibition and acquisitions are partially funded by the City of Amsterdam.