Housewarming: Activations for a new location

De Appel has recently moved from broedplaats Lely in Nieuw-West to broedplaats Tempel in Diamantbuurt, because the former is due for renovation as part of the redevelopment and gentrification of the Nieuw-West neighborhood. De Appel is fortunate to have found a home for the coming several years, in a city where struggle to find (affordable housing) is a collective struggle. What does a home for a cultural institution mean? And how can we warm it up together for the coming years? We would like to start the year together, thinking about land and housing in poetic and practical ways.

The main issues de Appel will be addressing in the coming years are housing, grassroot (art) economy, and governance. The exhibitions and live activations will be based on the need to learn from local and international experiences of collectivising land and housing, and in learning how communities, artists and institutions have dealt with them.

Land is the frontier when it comes to struggles related to the environmental crisis, land grabbing, affordable housing and many others. In the present context of late capitalism it is transposed to a commodity. We see political and social movements across the globe fighting for free and fair access to land and its resources. Artists have been spearheading and participating in these struggles, adopting and experimenting with shared ownership and different forms of the commons.

The Housewarming programme includes performances, screenings and conversations. During the span of the live activations artworks and traces from the performances will remain in the exhibition space, and guests are welcome to visit during opening hours.

Including artists and speakers:
Abel Kroon, Alina Lupu, Andrea Verdecchia, Aylin Kuryel & Fırat Yücel, Dimitris Chimonas, Francisca Khamis Giacoman, Hanieh Fatouraee, Ivo schmetz, Jumana Emil Abboud, Marije Baalman, Marina Christodoulidou, Mercedes Azpilicueta, Natascha Sadr Haghighian, Natasha Hulst, Ludovica Carbotta, Pam Virada, Raoni Muzho Saleh, Siwar Kraytem with Alev Ersan and Betül Aksu, Wouter Stroet, Yannesh Meijman

Traces and artworks that remain in the exhibition space:

Pam Virada
Descendants (spine x) series, clay beads, 2021-ongoing
The series is ongoing and reacts to different architectural spaces it inhibits as an integral component of the artist’s ongoing exploration into Feng Shui; an ancestral knowledge that initially served as a mechanism for women and peasants to navigate within Confucianism. Resembling a suncatcher, the work mirrors and responds to the available light sources within the space, including sunlight and the projector’s light intertwining them to form constellations. This process incorporates remnants and ruins of history, resulting in a tapestry of multiplied temporalities and fractured zones.

Wouter Stroet
Stenen voor de Diamantbuurt (Stones for the Diamantbuurt),
Tiles (270 x 60 cm) and Video (9:00 min.), 2024
Last summer the City of Amsterdam placed these tiles on the corner of the Bethaniënstraat located in Amsterdam’s Red Light District. The structure, meant as a pilot which could potentially be deployed in various areas of the city, is specifically designed to prevent street dealers from standing on the corner. The tiles are an element of the hostile architecture that is becoming more apparent in Amsterdam. The walk through the city (referring to the work of Francis Alys) reveals the dynamics and history of the city itself, in this case how public space, which should be common, is controlled, conditioned and hostile.

Other traces left in the space after the performances include balloons with an eye drawn on them by Jumana Emil Abboud, which corresponds to one of the folk tales in her performance about souls trapped in jars. Another is a parachute from Francisca Khamis Giacoman's performance, as well as an altar by the artist Mercedes Azpilicueta, who asked members of de Appel's team to contribute special objects that remind them of their different homes. Another trace is a fragment of Aylin Kuryel and Fırat Yücel's documentary, Translating Ulysses, fifth episode of the film, in which an exiled translator searches for a house in Amsterdam.