LIVENING THINGS UP
Turning today’s business centre into an ambitious, international district where there’s always something going on. Not just by 2030, but also between now and 2015. That’s the task the Zuidas has set itself. To strengthen that goal, this summer Zuidas Amsterdam formulated fifteen different points of action (the so-called ‘15 by 15’), including the addition of new functions such as student housing and a tango salon, an improved station and countless events and gatherings. The art and cultural program of the Virtual Museum Zuidas has from the very start focused on a cultural climate and activities to attract people to the area during all construction phases of the Zuidas. The new programme emphasizes liveliness even more. During the World Cup tournament, the football games were aired live on the CASZuidas art video screen, and now the VMZ presents exhibitions in the KunstKapel all year round.
An event every season, more (temporary) public functions in buildings and storefronts, initiatives for gathering places in public space and on empty lots, student housing, and free WiFi on squares and in parks. These are a few of the activities that Zuidas Amsterdam is planning to undertake to make the Zuidas livelier in the short term.
Art and culture – exhibitions, events and temporary projects – are also part of the package. In the KunstKapel at the edge of the Beatrix Park, the Virtual Museum Zuidas is now organizing exhibitions dedicated to art, architecture, urban design and landscape throughout the entire year. In May, the VMZ presented the successful exhibition ‘Ons Soort Mensen’ (Our Kind of People), a selection made by Lex ter Braak, director of the Netherlands Foundation for Visual Arts, Design and Architecture, from various corporate
collections. The new season opens with a series of absurdist photographs partly made in the Zuidas by the young talent Isabelle Wenzel (see at side). In January, Giny Vos, who also designed a spectacular ‘light artwork‘ on the recently heightened telecommunications tower next to the A10, will make a LED installation especially for the dome room in the KunstKapel.
In collaboration with the Virtual Museum Zuidas, two empty lots in the Zuidas have been transformed into a temporary recreational area. The building site, where the new headquarters of AkzoNobel will eventually rise, has been transformed, at the initiative of AkzoNobel and ING in collaboration with Zuidas Amsterdam and the Virtual Museum Zuidas, into a park with benches where people in the neighbourhood can meet and relax. From now until May 2011, students from the Gerrit Rietveld Academy will make a new painting every two months for the transformer house on this site. The first to do so, Maarten Rots, transformed the little building into an Arcadian reflection of the surrounding landscape. At this moment in time, one can puzzle out the word ‘loopbaanadvies’ (career advice) painted by Van Loes Degener and Douwe Mulder. Says Douwe Mulder, ‘We thought it would be fun to do something with this spot. Lots of students live in the neighbourhood, some of whom will work in the Zuidas one day.‘ Only a few letters of the word can be seen on each side. ‘We hope this will turn the transformer house into an appealing object, make people curious to go up to it, walk around it.’ Work by Maarten Rots (Nov/Dec), Saara Vallineva (Feb/Mar) and Sabrina Metselaar (Apr/May)
will follow.
Based on an art plan by Mattijs Bredewold, Marieke de Jong, Ulrik Holme Kristensen and Lucia Luptáková of the Sandberg Institute, the Department of Physical Planning (DRO) planted a labyrinth of corn with a – free – tennis field in the middle. It was realized by the Ingenieursbureau Amsterdam (IBA).
The special edition of the Free Spaces Zuidas AIR which just started is dedicated to graphic design. In collaboration with the Sandberg Institute’s department of Design and the Vrije Universiteit’s Design Cultures programme, architect and
designer Alan Smart and graphic designer Femke Herregraven are conducting
research with students of the SI and the VU on the visibility of the three industries operating in the Zuidas – economics, culture and education – in terms of liveliness. This will lead to a symposium on 1 February 2011.
For more information, see www.virtueel-museum.nl www. zuidas.nl (for the ‘15 by 15’ points of action)
