Tinguely two days back in Amsterdam!

In celebration of the 25th anniversary of Museum Tinguely in Basel, the museum travels a converted barge from Paris to Amsterdam, and back to Basel. The Stedelijk Museum and Amsterdam played an important role in the artistic career of Swiss artist Jean Tinguely (1925-1991) and will be an important stop of this European cruise. On 8 and 9 August, the barge will dock in Amsterdam at the NDSM wharf, Kaap de Groene Hoop. The two-day programme on the barge and at the Stedelijk Museum consists of performances, films, the documentary exhibition Et tout ceci est vrai! about the artist’s work, art workshops for kids and adults and the presentation of Tinguely’s kinetic sculpture Schwimmwasserplastik (1980) on deck.

Jean Tinguely played a crucial role in the development of kinetic art from the 1950s onwards. To Tinguely, his work was an act of resistance against a conventional, static art (world): he wanted to put play and experimentation on center stage. He was not satisfied with the notion of visitors watching static paintings from a distance in a sterile white space. Through his do-it-yourself drawing machines, Tinguely critiqued the role of the artist and the elitist position of the arts in society. He rejected the idea of “the unique hand of the artist” by having visitors assemble works themselves.

ABOUT THE PROGRAMME – 8 & 9 AUGUST

STEDELIJK MUSEUM
Three contemporary artists Marie-Caroline Hominal, Nevin Aladağ and Keren Cytter present newly developed performances at the Stedelijk, in which they relate to Tinguely’s influential corpus of works. Additionally, two films about Tinguely's work from the collection will be shown in the entrance hall of the Stedelijk.

Find here more information about the performances

BARGE – NDSM WHARF
On the barge at the NDSM wharf (Kaap de Groene Hoop), the sculpture Schwimmwasserplastik (1980) and documentation of Tinguely's artistic practice in the exhibition Et tout ceci est vrai! can be viewed and workshops experienced.

The barge is open on Sunday 8 and Monday 9 August from 10 am to 8 pm. Access to the barge is free of charge.

AMSTERDAM AND TINGUELY
Amsterdam and Tinguely share a dynamic history. The exhibitions Bewogen Beweging (Moving Movement) (1961) and Dylaby (1962) at the Stedelijk Museum, both co-curated by Tinguely, testify to their close contact. He did not only bring his kinetic Méta-machines to the Netherlands, but also his international avant-garde network, leaving a lasting impression with the public, which visited these experimental exhibitions in great numbers. Close ties with Willem Sandberg (then director of the Stedelijk Museum) and curator Ad Petersen led to several acquisitions for the collection, including his famous drawing machine Méta-Matic No. 10 from 1959, Gismo from 1960 and the enormous Méta II from 1971.

In 2016-2017 the Stedelijk Museum organized an extensive Jean Tinguely retrospective entitled Machine Spectacle. In conjunction with the large Tinguely exhibitions in Düsseldorf and Amsterdam, the thirteen three-dimensional Tinguely works in the Stedelijk Museum’s collection were examined and restored in an extensive interdisciplinary project over the course of 2015 and 2016. The videos that were created in this process will be shown at the Stedelijk Museum, where several works by Tinguely are also on show.