News — Sep 26, 2010

Karel Appel - Martin Kippenberger
Stanley Brouwn - Barbara Kruger
Daniel Buren - Germaine Kruip
Jan Dibbets - Louise Lawler
Rineke Dijkstra - William Leavitt
Ger van Elk - Navid Nuur
Morgan Fisher - Roman Ondák
Mario Garcia Torres - Willem de Rooij
Hans Haacke - Diana Thater
On Kawara - Lawrence Weiner

While work continues on the renovation and expansion of the Stedelijk
Museum, the museum is hosting a unique and compelling program called The
Temporary Stedelijk at the Stedelijk Museum. Conceived by Stedelijk Museum
Director Ann Goldstein, this special interim program, inspired by the building
as it approaches completion, brings art, artists and the public back into the
museum. The Temporary Stedelijk features two major exhibitions: Taking
Place, in which specifically selected works of contemporary art are presented
in spaces throughout the building, and Monumentalism—History and National
Identity in Contemporary Art Proposal for Municipal Art Acquisitions 2010, as
well as a dynamic schedule of educational initiatives, screenings, performances
and special events.

Taking Place invites visitors to renew their acquaintance with the Stedelijk
Museum and its history. In the soon-to-be-finished building, works of art bring
the spaces of the museum back to life. Inspired by the unique condition of the
museum’s interior, artists occupy the galleries with specially selected works,
including those previously exhibited at the Stedelijk Museum as well as new
site-specific works produced specifically for this occasion.


In Taking Place the historical, functional and architectural conditions of the
museum are both subject and material for this special presentation of works
by local, national and international contemporary artists. The exhibition offers
visitors a chance to explore the renovation by Benthem Crouwel Architects
and reintroduces the Stedelijk Museum by addressing its history, the spatial
and temporal conditions of the unfinished building and the ways in which
artists use, occupy and animate museum spaces. Renovated gallery spaces
on the ground and upper floors of the building ultimately designated for the
presentation works from of the museum’s collection will, for this occasion,
be used in an innovative and experimental way that takes advantage of their
current state. Taking Place addresses the distinctive conditions of the building
at this moment in time, offering the unusual opportunity to directly experience
the luminous, gracefully proportioned gallery spaces, some of which will
remain empty at strategic intervals between the room-size installations.
Taking Place also features a special presentation of posters commissioned
by the Stedelijk Museum since its opening in 1895. For over a century, the
Stedelijk Museum has used posters to inform the public about its exhibitions
and has become one of the most important patrons of graphic design in
the Netherlands. The reprinted designs exhibited relate the history of an
institution that grew from an assortment of period rooms-cum-exhibition
spaces into a pioneering museum for modern and contemporary art and
design.

In addition, the exhibition includes two permanent works by Karel Appel that
have—just like the building—been extensively restored: the Appel Bar (1951)
and the 1956 mural in the former restaurant space, which has now been
reconfigured into gallery space. That space is being used once again as a café
for visitors for the duration of The Temporary Stedelijk only. The Appel mural
is now joined by a work by American artist Lawrence Weiner: SCATTERED
MATTER BROUGHT TO A KNOWN DENSITY WITH THE WEIGHT OF THE
WORLD / CUSPED (2007), a recent acquisition to the museum’s collection
made possible by a gift from the Friends of the Stedelijk Museum.
Amsterdam-based design-team Mevis & Van Deursen was commissioned
to produce the special identity for The Temporary Stedelijk at the Stedelijk
Museum.

The Temporary Stedelijk is partially funded by the City of Amsterdam and
several private donors.