SCULPTURE TRAIL
THE BOLD LOOK OF CORPORATE COLLECTIONS
Never before have art collections owned by Dutch companies been shown in this manner. The sculpture trail is semi-permanently located along the Claude Debussylaan, is therefore a unique event, according to curator and art historian Ernst van der Hoeven. The idea was proposed two years ago by Annabelle Birnie, head of ING Art Management. So many important Dutch companies who establish their headquarters in the Zuidas have splendid art collections, she had realized. Couldn’t they collectively build a bridge between the Zuidas and the centre of Amsterdam with an outdoor presentation of sculptural work? In order to make the whole more than the sum of its parts, the Dutch Association for Corporate Art Collections and the Virtual Museum Zuidas asked Van der Hoeven to conceive an overarching theme that reflects the urban experience of the Zuidas. ‘Energeia’, his guiding line for selecting the works, is about the energy released from processes of transformation. The dilemma came after that. The corporate collections include magnificent sculptures, but most of them are too vulnerable for public space. This is why another important step has been taken: the participating companies – for the time being Bouwfonds, Aegon, KPN, ING, ABN AMRO, Rabo, Fortis and possibly Akzo Nobel and SNS Reaal – are now giving special commissions to artists or buying new works. A combination of existing and new work has been placed along the diagonal of Mahler4, the first phase of the connecting line, including the mobile gardens of artist Frank Bruggeman – bright blue containers filled with romantic clumps of nature, created on commission from the Bouwfonds.
