Michel Cardena (1934–2015)

Michel Cardena – video (with no title), archive

Invitation for several evenings with presentations by different artist, with special mention of the lecture by Harald Szeemann and picture of performance by Marja Samsom. Pink stamp of Michael Cardena on the invitation.
This invitation announces more artists and/or events

Invitation – march. april 1976
Harald Szeemann, Nancy Hoover, Michel Cardena, Gina Pane, Joseph Beuys, Marja Samsom, Ben d’ Armagnac, Tony Morgan, archive

Invitation for presentations seven artists and lecture by Harald Szeemann.

Cardena Warming Up etc. etc. etc. Company, archive

Stills of the video performance which was performed earlier during the Hollandse Week in June 1976.

November woensdag screening, archive

various artists wednesday screenings

Michel Cardena – Dutch Art Fair – Smiling And Barefoot Cardena Walks On Burning Coal, archive

Drawing and hand written description of the performance installation, with name of the artist printed.

Michel Cardena – Dutch Art Fair – Smiling And Barefoot Cardena Walks On Burning Coal, archive

Name of the performance

Michel Cardena – Dutch Art Fair – Smiling And Barefoot Cardena Walks On Burning Coal, archive

Picture of the performance

Michel Cardena – Dutch Art Fair – Smiling And Barefoot Cardena Walks On Burning Coal, archive

Name of the performance

Michel Cardena – Dutch Art Fair – Searching For Unity, archive

Name of the performance

Michel Cardena – Dutch Art Fair – Searching For Unity, archive

Name of the performance

Michel Cardena – Video Avond, archive

Data about the screening
This invitation announces more artists and/or events

Michel Cardena, archive

Data and picture of the performance
This invitation announces more artists and/or events

Michel Cardena – Somos Libres!?
Film Poster, archive

printed in A5, A4 and A3
and as a page in de Appel Bulletin

Cardena - rechauffe la main de la Princesse Beatrix - 21 november 1971, Live performance. Stadsschouwburg Amsterdam, Nederland., collection (unintended)

A photograph of one of Cardena's "Warming Up" performances together with then-Crown Princess Beatrix (1971). He warmly shakes her hand. There are several open questions around this work: it is unclear whether this photograph documents an actual performance, or whether it captures an event in which Cardena simply shook Beatrix's hand and later re-presented it as a conceptual performance work. No record of this specific event has been found within the archive or online. Please handle with care. The photograph sits loose within its frame, which has been taped at the back.

Note: For context — two years earlier, on 20 January 1969, a gathering took place at Kasteel Drakensteyn, initiated by Crown Princess Beatrix and Prince Claus, at which Cardena warmed up one of the castle's walls as a performance, and also performed "Symphonie voor 7 obers" (Symphony for Seven Waiters). The purpose of the gathering was to discuss modern art and its relationship to wider society. Cardena and the royal family stayed connected for several years afterward; in 2004 he was appointed an Officer in the Order of Orange-Nassau by Queen Beatrix.

The Boijmans exhibition catalog for Cardena's exhibition (CAR-M-6) mentions the 1969 event at Kasteel Drakensteyn, but makes no mention of the 1971 photograph or of any conceptualized performance work involving Cardena and Beatrix.