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MOBILITY AND NOMADISM EXPO IN CHILE circumstances of migrants and refugees on their way to Europe, Ad van Denderen by means of photography and Marjoleine Boonstra by means of film. MNBA curator Angéla Pérez had been working on this exhibition for a long time. In February of this year, however, she disappeared after a tsunami hit the Chilean coast. The exhibition was completed by her colleagues and dedicated to her and her relatives.
For more information about the exhibition at MNBA in Santiago de Chile, go to: www.dibam.cl/bellas_artes. For more information about Go No Go, visit: www.paradox.nl/gonogo
GREENHOUSE
Xavier Ribas completed Greenhouse in 2007. The video installation has been shown several times in the past three years at the George Eastman House (Rochester, NY, USA), the Kröller-Müller Museum (Otterlo, NL) as part of Nature as Artifice, as well as in Jyvaskyla (Finland) and Liptovsky-Mikulas (Slovakia) in the IPRN-funded project WORK. From September 11 to October 24 it is on display at its origin; the Wieringermeer, presented in the community and landscape of which it portrays recent developments and changes. Greenhouse is an installation about the history of the Wieringermeer, a polder drained in the 1930s that, in 2007, was developing a new future as the location for gigantic greenhouse complexes. A large video screen shows a continuous travelling shot from one end to the other of this greenhouse complex under construction. A small screen accompanies this on which Reinier Muller (one of the three farmers who sold their land to create
building space) and his wife talk about their memories of the place. On September 13, Ribas attended the exhibition together with the protagonists of his video, Lenie and Reinier Muller. Accompanied by Paradox director Bas Vroege, Ribas and the Mullers visited the locations portrayed in the project that now, four years after Greenhouse was shot, have again changed beyond recognition. www.beloofdland.nl
TO iPAD OR NOT TO iPAD?
What does the iPad have to offer the media industry? What do iApps have to offer the consumer and what price are we willing to pay for them? While the previous newsletter announced the new web documentary for The Last Days of Shishmaref, combining all the project’s media into a single, simple, elegant interface, it felt like a small extra step to develop it into an iApp
© FRANK ORTMANS
© BAS VROEGE
© VALENTIJN BRANDT
The Museo Nacional de Bellas Artes (MNBA) in Santiago de Chile was built in 1910 to commemorate the nation’s 100th anniversary as an independent republic. In September of this year it celebrated its own centennial with a large show that followed the example of the inaugural exhibition. The 2010 version, entitled Mobility and Nomadism, combined work by 33 artists from 14 different countries, all addressing the issue of mobility in the 21st century. The works ranged from painting, sculpture, (audio-visual) installations and photography. The project Go No Go by Ad van Denderen and Marjoleine Boonstra was chosen as the Dutch contribution for this exhibition. Both artists sketch the lives and
for the recently launched iPad. The first results look promising: never before have we been able to experience such a seamless integration of still and moving images, texts and sound. At the same time, they can be experienced in a concentrated manner that is unparalleled. However our developers, Antenna-men from Rotterdam, also encountered limitations built into the system with regard to gesture interfacing of video material, for which we wish to find an elegant workaround before launching the iApp to the public. With the iApp for Shishmaref, and even more so for the upcoming project Via PanAm, Paradox and partners are experimenting with this new platform, looking for answers to the questions that are relevant for both the media and the cultural industry alike. Stay tuned for more updates! The Last Days of Shishmaref iApp to be announced soon. Via PanAm iApp available early 2011.
PARADOX creates projects in photography, video and media related ar ts. The interaction bet ween social, economic and technological change is central to most thematic and monographic projects developed. PARADOX’ activities include travelling exhibitions, film production, book and electronic publishing and organising workshops and symposiums. The Paradox newsletter is distributed digitally through email. You can sign up by going to www.paradox.nl And follow us online : www.facebook.com /paradoxprojects /
DID YOU MISS US IN ARLES? At the 41st edi-
WATW: TOUR COMPLETED The 2009-
Factsheets for each of these projects have been developed and are available for download from our website. Also available is a concise overview of projects under development, as well as those still available for touring. Should you wish to receive a Paradox info pack with all of the above or further information, please contact Lauralouise Hendrix: llh@paradox.nl
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ANGRY UPDATE The challenging multi-
platform project ANGRY - young & radical, a coproduction between the Nederlands Fotomuseum, Paradox and others, is in full development. Youth from different backgrounds in Rotterdam have teamed up with a diverse range of artists from poets to photographers to graffiti artists. Kosmopolis (www.kosmopolis.nl) is conducting this workshop and will present the results as part of the exhibition. Graphic designers Kummer & Herrman (www. kummer-herrman.nl) have joined our team to design the logo, graphics and website for the whole project. A mixture of cultural organisations in Rotterdam, such as the Urban Culture Podium, Lantaren-Venster cinema and the International Film Festival Rotterdam, have established thematic connections within their programmes for the duration of the exhibition. We are happy to announce that the Dutch Cultural Participation Fund, which encourages people to engage in the arts and culture themselves, has © THOMAS ROEBERS / KUMMER EN HERRMAN
Dates: January 22-June 13, 2011, Nederlands Fotomuseum, Rotterdam. ANGRY will be available for touring from July. For updates, visit: www.paradox.nl/angry. For more information, please contact Iris Sikking: is@paradox.nl © VALENTIJN BRANDT
© VALENTIJN BRANDT MARKUS SCHADEN FROM SCHADEN.COM CUTS OUR EDAM CHEESE
tion of the Rencontres d’Arles photography festival, Paradox was proud to present a record number of new projects. Among these were Via PanAm and ANGRY, both of which will premiere in the beginning of 2011. Furthermore, we also offered a glimpse of some very exciting collaborations: Robert Knoth and Antoinette de Jong’s long-awaited Poppy: Trails Of Afghan Heroin, Dirk-Jan Visser and Arthur Huizinga’s Offside: Football in Exile and finally Monica Nouwens’ poetic Look At Me And Tell Me If You Have Known Me Before.
2010 Chinese tour of WATW (We Are The World) is over. The exhibition, dealing with globalism and consumer culture, had a successful tour to the Three Shadows Photography Art Centre in Beijing, The Dutch Culture Centre in Shanghai and the Guangdong Museum of Art in Guangzhou. Roundtable debates with professionals were held at the different venues, and a special evening was created at GAFA, the Guangdong Academy of Fine Art. The WATW book is now available from Post Editions, priced at € 32.50. The project will live on as a web-based project that venues worldwide will be able to run straight from the internet, thus reducing the show’s carbon footprint (as far as shipping is concerned) down to zero. To be announced soon! Keep an eye on: www.watw.nu. The book can be ordered from www.post-editions.com.
S TA F F M AT T E R S Paradox is proud to work with a varied group of skilled people; their work for Paradox is among their many other activities in the cultural and social field. Rotterdam multidisciplinary platform for talent development DE NIEUWE OOGST and weekly magazine HP / De Tijd present the HP Award for documentary photography. Paradox director Bas Vroege is one of the jury members. www.hpaward.nl Lotte ten Voorde, responsible within Paradox for the development of educational projects, published her first book last year, filled with interviews with Flemish and Dutch photojournalists: THROUGH THE LENS OF PROFESSIONAL PHOTOGRAPHERS (in Dutch). www.cultuurcocktail.nl Laura Verduijn, Paradox’s project manager for the upcoming Via PanAm project, co-founded the new initiative to build bridges between the young and the elderly. GRANNIES DAY took place on October 3. www.granniesday.nl
Former WATW project manager Wouter den Bakker travelled to Nigeria to co-organise the first edition of the LAGOS PHOTO FESTIVAL, running from October 8-November 9, 2010. www.africanartists.org Check out Wouter’s piece on PhotoQ: The Documentary PHOTOGRAPHER AS RESEARCHER (in Dutch). www.photoq.nl/articles/discussie/academici/2010 Before founding Paradox, Bas Vroege headed the Rotterdam-based Perspektief magazine and gallery. With this background he was asked to open the photo exhibition FANTASTIC PHOTOGRAPHY - THE ROTTERDAM SCHOOL? in the Rotterdam History Museum. The exhibition will run until January 9, 2011. www.historischmuseumrotterdam.nl
N E W PA R A D O X C O N T R I B U T O R S Evgenia Sveshinsky and Suzan Geldhoff, both graduates of the Masters in Photographic Studies at Leiden University, joined Paradox during the summer, as researchers for the ANGRY project. Evgenia is researching artists for the exhibition, Suzan is dealing with media representation. Laura Verduijn joined Paradox in June 2010, as a project manager for Via PanAm. She graduated in 2005 with an MA in Media Studies from the University of Amsterdam. During and after her studies she worked as a project manager in World Press Photo’s education department, organising training programmes in countries such as Nigeria, Ethiopia and Iran. She was subsequently a communications consultant at Vandejong, Amsterdam. Lauralouise Hendrix joined Paradox in early March of 2010 as a PR and publicity representative. She graduated with honours from the Utrecht School of Arts (Bdes – Fashion, Promotion and Publicity) in 2008. After living and studying in Barcelona, she is currently attending the Masters in Photographic Studies at Leiden University.
N E W PA R A D O X P U B L I C AT I O N S © KUMMER EN HERRMAN
provided a grant to develop educational material, a website and an online game. Among the other funders are the VSBfund, the Foundation for Democracy and Media, the Mondriaan Foundation and the SNSReaal fund.
OTHER NEWS
WATW Post Editions, 284 pages, texts in English and Chinese by: Stephanie Tung / Tsai Meng / Bas Vroege, Louise O. Fresco, Menno van der Veen, C.S. Kiang and Richard Sandor. ISBN: 978-94608-30204, € 32.50 (NL), € 35.00 (Europe), € 37.50 (outside Europe). For orders or more information on distribution and availability, go to: www.post-editions.com
PA R A D O X A R C H I V E O N L I N E We have made most of our recent projects, as well as the books and films that are part of them, available online in the past few months. Films make use of Vimeo streaming services and books can be browsed virtually, as we published them on Issuu.com before embedding them in our own project pages. In most cases these media can be experienced full-screen. All media can be reached through the regular interface, or try shortcuts like: www.paradox.nl/shishmaref/book, www.paradox.nl/watw/ book or www.paradox.nl/thewars/video
Over the next few months older projects, as well as more background information, research material, recordings, photographs, books and film fragments, will also be made available. Subscribe to our RSS feed or join our Facebook page to receive info on updates!
E X H I B I T I O N D I A RY GREENHOUSE - XAVIER RIBAS 11/09/10-24/10/10 / Beloofd Land Huis, Wieringerwerf, The Netherlands. Open every Saturday and Sunday from 12:00 until 16:00 - www.beloofdland.nl - www.paradox.nl/ greenhouse
GONOGO - AD VAN DENDEREN 07/09/10-07/11/10 / Part of Mobility and Nomadism, Museo Nacional de Bellas Artes, Santiago, Chile - www.paradox.nl/gonogo ANGRY - VARIOUS ARTISTS 22/01/11-13/06/11 / Nederlands Fotomuseum, Rotterdam www.paradox.nl/angry
BOARD | Bas Vroege (director) bv@paradox.nl, Iris Sikking | PROJECT MANAGEMENT | Iris Sikking is@paradox.nl: ANGRY, Slow Journalism, The Last Days of Shishmaref – Dana Lixenberg, GoNoGo / So Blue So Blue – Ad van Denderen, Britanya – Marjoleine Boonstra | Frank Ortmanns fo@paradox.nl: Poppy – Robert Knoth and Antoinette de Jong, Look at Me - Monica Nauwens, Spectator - Theo Niekus, Tokyo Symphony / LONG LIVE ME! - Ed van der Elsken, The Wars - Oscar van Alphen, Greenhouse Xavier Ribas, We Are The World, Five Stories - Anastasia Khoroshilova | Laura Verduijn lve@paradox.nl: Via PanAm - Kadir van Lohuizen | Valentijn Brandt vb@paradox.nl: Offside – Dirk-Jan Visser and Arthur Huizinga, Occupation: Soldier - Ad van Denderen, European Fields – Hans van der Meer | Lotte ten Voorde lv@paradox.nl: education and publicity | Lauralouise Hendrix llh@paradox.nl PR and publicity | Paradox is supported by the Mondriaan Foundation
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INSTALL ATION SHOT AT NEDERL ANS FOTOMUSEUM © VALENTIJN BRANDT
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Tokyo Symphony ‘Vollendet’ Extensive reviews appeared in major newspapers such as NRC Handelsblad and De Volkskrant within the first week after the opening. The exhibition at the Nederlands Fotomuseum in Rotterdam will run until June 20, and is now available to travel in different configurations thereafter. Tokyo Symphony was realised with the generous support of: SNS Reaal, the Sem Presser foundation, Fonds BKVB and the Prince Bernhard Cultural Foundation. Please contact Frank Ortmanns for more information: fo@paradox.nl
ANGRY:
The Representation of Radicalisation What is radicalisation? Who is radical and who says so? Is radicalisation (always) a threat to our society, as the media contends? Is the violence of fundamental Islam among young Muslims embedded in the religion or an expression of a generational phenomenon that is part of all cultures in all times? ANGRY: The Representation of Radicalisation will deal with these questions in the form of an exhibition, a website, an educational programme, debates and lectures. Paradox has teamed up with a number of partners for this project: the Nederlands Fotomuseum Rotterdam (the exhibition venue), Kosmopolis Rotterdam (platform for intercultural dialogue), Lantaren Venster (cinema) and Prospektor (research journalists). Dutch film director Marjoleine Boonstra (who directed Britanya in the framework of Go No Go in 2003) has been approached to make a series of video portraits. This work will show various generations of radicals who talk about their motives for liberating animals, picking fights with supporters of other football teams, threatening to place bombs in public buildings or organising racist rallies. ANGRY is scheduled to run at the Nederlands Fotomuseum Rotterdam from January till May 2011. More information: Iris Sikking (is@paradox.nl)
WAT W CRE W © WOUTER DEN BAKKER
L A CHUTE © DENIS DARZ ACQ
After his death the slides were moved to the Nederlands Fotomuseum for conservation; the sound recordings were believed to be lost. That was until researcher Frank Ortmanns, then a student on the Master’s in Photographic Studies programme at the University of Leiden, discovered them while conducting research into Van der Elsken’s influence on Japanese postwar photography and vice versa. After about six months production time by Paradox and nearly a year preparatory research by Ortmanns, the audiovisual installation opened triumphantly at the Nederlands Fotomuseum in Rotterdam on April 10 in the presence of Anneke Hilhorst (Van der Elsken’s widow) and their son Johnny.
The 17-minute installation consists of over 400, mostly unpublished, images edited by Peter Claassen and Ortmanns and accompanied by a soundtrack composed by Mark Glynne. All of this can be experienced on three room-sized screens. Van der Elsken’s relationship with Japan is illustrated with various unique publications of known Van der Elsken work , magazine features and, more importantly, excerpts from his personal correspondence with various people and organisations in Japan.
© OSCAR VAN ALPHEN
Twenty years after his death, Tokyo Symphony, Ed van der Elsken’s tribute to Japan, finally saw the light of day. Van der Elsken started working on what was to become an audiovisual installation in the 1980s. Due to his sudden death in 1990, he was never able to complete the piece. All that remained were some 1,600 little-known colour slides, a notebook with rough ideas and audio footage.
WATW
天下一家 exhibition opening, book launch and round table in Shanghai The travelling exhibition The travelling exhibition We Are The World, a collaboration between Paradox, the Three Shadows Photography Art Centre in Beijing and the Guangdong Museum of Art, was launched in Shanghai on April 3. In WATW Chinese and Dutch photographers contribute to notions of globalisation and consumerism. The exhibition was part of the seven-month programming of Dutch art at the Dutch Cultural Centre (DCC) in Shanghai during the World Expo 2010. Paradox director Bas Vroege presented Machtelt Schelling (Communication and Cultural Affairs >
PARADOX creates projects in photography, video and media related ar ts. The interaction bet ween social, economic and technologic al change is central to most thematic and monographic projects developed. PARADOX’ activities include travelling exhibitions, film production, book and electronic publishing and organising workshops and symposiums.
The Paradox newslet ter is distributed digitally through email. You can sign up by going to w w w.paradox.nl
Manager at the Consulate General of the Netherlands in Shanghai) with the first copy of the accompanying book WATW 天下一家 after she had delivered the inaugural speech. Earlier Chinese and Dutch artists, represented in the exhibition, exchanged information on past and upcoming projects with each other, Tsai Meng, Stephanie Tung and Bas Vroege (WATW curators), members of the specialised press and gallerists Steven Harris (m97) and Huang Yunhe (Ofoto). The opening and dinner were concluded with a memorable visit to one of Shanghai’s many KTV (karaoke) bars where artists and curators joined in to sing the pop classic ‘We Are The World’.
Antenna-Men integrated all the project’s media into a single simple, elegant interface that runs parallel to the website. When viewed in full-screen mode the traditional notion of the computer is replaced by the possibilities for intuitive navigation. This manner of communication and the combination of different media herald a new form and meaning in web-based media design, reinterpreting narrative structure and linearity.
WATW will open again at the Guangdong Museum of Art in Guangzhou on June 22. The 284-page book WATW 天下一家 – beautifully designed by Kummer & Herrman and printed by Artron (Shenzhen) – will be available mid-May.
For the blog:http://orientationtrip2010.worldpress.com. For other info: www.mondriaanfoundation.nl/ internationalactivities and www.princeclausfund.org © Studio sidibé
As such, it is a perfect example of interfacing and the media experience that new platforms, such as the tablet PC (aka iPad), will trigger. Projects like these thrive on user feedback. So take a look and let us know what you think or leave a comment on our Facebook page!
artists, designers and critics. A daily blog, written by the delegation members, relates these encounters. Anyone interested in working with initiatives in Mali, Nigeria or Turkey is encouraged to browse the trip orientation pages on the internet. Thank you Mondriaan Foundation and Prince Claus Fund!
www.thelastdaysofshishmaref.net Contact Lauralouise Hendrix: llh@paradox.nl _______________________________________________ © ROBERT KNOTH
For more information or review copies of the book please contact Wouter den Bakker: wdb@paradox.nl
© MONICA NOUWENS
OTHER NEWS
N E W PA R A D O X P U B L I C AT I O N S
Look at Me… With her project ‘Look at me and tell me if you have known me before’ Los Angeles based, Dutch photographer Monica Nouwens dedicated herself to portrait the ambivalent appeal of one of the worlds largest cities – Los Angeles. Paradox, Amsterdam based designer Vanessa van Dam and photographer Monica Nouwens started working on Nouwens publication, to be published early 2011. This book is a story, partly laid out by Nouwens images of Bohemian LA, completed by Claire Phillips sci-fi novel ‘The Story of Dora’. Simultaneously the exhibition will focus on different layers of this urban portrait within video, audio and photography.
POPPY - The Deadly Trail of Afghan Heroin Photographer Robert Knoth and radio and
newspaper reporter Antoinette de Jong have together been mapping the destabilising effects of the war in Afghanistan on Europe and, to a certain extent, the Middle East for the past eight years. For De Jong, her relationship with Afghanistan goes back as far as 1993. Through the book and exhibition under development with Paradox, she will trace the trail of drug trafficking to Europe, as well as the money laundering taking place in Dubai. The project, christened POPPY, is a 21st-century story: an interwoven narrative highlighting the dark side of globalisation. The project addresses converging international questions about peace and security, poverty, corruption, prostitution, international organised crime and HIV.
Shishmaref web documentary In 2005
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For more information contact Frank Ortmanns at fo@paradox.nl _______________________________________________
POPPY is currently shifting from a conceptual phase to its actual production phase, with late 2011/early 2012 as the projected release date. The project will incorporate different narrative layers, ranging from historical information and photographic narratives to personal travelogues by Knoth and De Jong. In addition, the interviews De Jong has made for VPRO radio over the last 10 years will be incorporated. The dummy is available to interested venues and publishers. For more information please contact Frank Ortmanns: fo@paradox.nl _______________________________________________
Orientation trip to Istanbul, Lagos and Bamako Together with partner institutions in
the Dutch documentary film director Jan Louter started The Last Days of Shishmaref project. This was after he read a dramatic report in French newspaper Libération about the disappearance of Shishmaref, an island just below the Arctic Circle. In 2008 the project was presented as a documentary, a website, a book with photography by Dana Lixenberg, an exhibition and an educational course.
Belgium (BAM) and Norway (OCA), the Netherlandsbased Mondriaan Foundation and Prince Claus Fund organise research trips that connect professionals in the visual arts internationally. Special attention is given to connections with countries that do not belong to the dominant art markets. Since 2004 orientation trips have been made to China, the Middle East, Middle and Latin America, India and South Africa.
In the spring of 2010 the website was completely redesigned and revised by Rotterdam-based web architects Antenna-Men. The site now functions as an online archive that captures the past, present and future of Shishmaref in a groundbreaking design. The main feature on the site is the web documentary. This term is being used with increasing frequency to describe multimedia presentations published on the web. In their interpretation of the concept,
Paradox director Bas Vroege was part of the 2010 delegation of around 15 people, from countries as diverse as Armenia, Guatemala, Norway and the Netherlands, that travelled to Istanbul (Turkey), Lagos (Nigeria) and Bamako (Mali). During the 12day trip over 60 encounters took place between representatives of institutions, independent curators, artist organisations, as well as a large number of individuals, ranging from educators to gallerists,
WATW 天下一家 Texts by: Stephanie Tung / Tsai Meng / Bas Vroege, Louise O. Fresco, Menno van der Veen, C.S. Kiang, Richard Sandor, Published by: Three Shadows / Guangdong Museum of Art / Paradox / post editions, May 2010 , ca. 288 pages, full colour, 17x21 cm - € 32.50 the Netherlands / € 35 rest of the world (incl. VAT + postage) ALSO AVAILABLE: Ad van Denderen – Occupation: Soldier (2009) € 30 the Netherlands / € 35 Europe (incl. VAT + postage) / € 40 rest of the world (incl. VAT + postage). Also available by Ad van Denderen - Go No Go - Frontiers Of Europe (2003) € 45; and Ad van Denderen - So Blue, So Blue - Edges of The Mediterranean (Steidl, 2008) € 35 (order on www. steidlville.com/books) | Dana Lixenberg - The Last Days of Shishmaref (2008) € 35 | Xavier Ribas Greenhouse SD-DVD € 25 | Oscar van Alphen - The Wars (2006) DVD € 25 | Lewis Baltz – The Deaths In Newport (1995) CD-ROM € 25 ATTENTION COLLECTORS: A few signed copies of the book The Last Days of Shishmaref (2008) by Dana Lixenberg together with a print in a limited edition of 100 (23x30 cm) are still available. Price: € 195 incl. VAT + postage within the Netherlands). Order by sending an email to info@ episode-publishers.nl. Signed copies are also available of Occupation: Soldier by Ad van Denderen (2009) from Paradox: € 30 (incl. VAT + postage within the Netherlands). All publications (unless mentioned otherwise) can be ordered from Paradox at the prices indicated (incl. VAT + postage). The items will be sent upon receipt of payment to IBAN account no. NL62ABNA0501434445 - BIC/SWIFT ABNANL2A.
agenda of E X H I B I T I O N s Tokyo Symphony, Ed van der Elsken’s ‘Unvollendete’ until 20/06/10 / Nederlands Fotomuseum, Rotterdam (NL) WATW 天下一家 22/6/10-18/7/10 / Guangdong Museum of Art, Guangzhou (CN) Participating artists: Zhao Liang, Xiong Wenyun, Chen Xiao, Song Chao, Jin Jangbo, Zeng Han, Mo Yi, Jacqueline Hassink, Theo Niekus, WassinkLundgren, Henk Wildschut, Frank van der Salm, Gerald van der Kaap, Ad van Denderen.
BOARD - Bas Vroege (director) bv@paradox.nl, Iris Sikking is@paradox.nl - PROJECT MANAGEMENT | Iris Sikking is@paradox.nl ANGRY - various artists, Slow Journalism - various artists, The Last Days of Shishmaref – Dana Lixenberg, Go No Go / So Blue So Blue – Ad van Denderen, Britanya – Marjoleine Boonstra Frank Ortmanns fo@paradox.nl Look at me - Monica Nauwens, Spectator - Theo Niekus, Tokyo Symphony - Ed van der Elsken, The Wars - Oscar van Alphen, Greenhouse - Xavier Ribas, LONG LIVE ME! – Ed van der Elsken - Wouter den Bakker wdb@paradox.nl WATW - various artists, Five Stories - Anastasia Khoroshilova Valentijn Brandt vb@paradox.nl Occupation Soldier - Ad van Denderen, European Fields – Hans van der Meer | Lotte ten Voorde lv@paradox.nl education and publicity - Lauralouise Hendrix llh@paradox.nl pr and publicity | Paradox is supported by the Mondriaan Foundation
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Installation from WAT W in hall #1 © Three Shadows Photography Art Centre
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WATW - Premiere in Beijing (CN)
WATW is available as a travelling exhibition. For more information: Stephanie Tung (stephanie@threeshadows.cn) or Wouter den Bakker (wdb@paradox.nl) and on http: //www.WATW.nu
Installationshot ©Valentijn Brandt
Participating artists are: Chen Xiao, Jin Ji-angbo, Mo Yi, Song Chao, Xiong Wenyun, Zhao Liang, Zeng Han, Jacqueline Hassink, Theo Niekus, WassinkLundgren, Henk Wildschut, Frank van der Salm, Gerald van der Kaap and Ad van Denderen.
Installation Shot © Bas Vroege
The title WATW (short for We Are The World) was borrowed from the popular 1985 Michael Jackson/Lionel Ritchie song. It was written for a campaign supporting famine relief in Ethiopia, and later hijacked for a multitude of other purposes focusing on solidarity and mutual responsibility. The success of the song showed that even charity cannot function without a proper, entertainment-based marketing strategy. WATW combines the work of 14 artists/photographers from China and The Netherlands with newsfeeds and real-time statistics representing the processes driving the world: from oil and coal consumption to Google searches to capital flow.
The exhibition will run in Beijing through January 28 and then travel to the Dutch Cultural Centre in Shanghai for the World Expo in April. WATW was curated by Stephanie Tung (Three Shadows) and Bas Vroege (Paradox) in collaboration with Tsai Meng (Guangdong Museum of Art). Jeroen de Vries was responsible for the spatial design. The accompanying publication, to be launched in Shanghai, will be designed by Kummer & Herrman. The project was made possible by the generous support of the Netherlands China Art Foundation, the Fonds BKVB and the Dutch Embassy. In collaboration with the Rotterdam-based design bureau Antenna-men, the current website will be built out into an online application that can serve as the basis for a version of the exhibition requiring zero shipping. The exhibition will be available for international touring from September 2010.
speech ko Colijn ©Valentijn Brandt
“The earth was not given to you by your parents; it was lent to you by your children.” Quoting this famous Kenyan proverb, Willem van Ee, Minister Plenipotentiary at the Dutch Embassy in Beijing, opened the exhibition WATW at Three Shadows Photography Art Centre in Beijing on November 28.
Occupation: Soldier successfully launched at Fotomuseum Den Haag
Theo Niekus – Spectator
More than 13,000 people visited Fighters & Peacekeepers at the Fotomuseum Den Haag. The exhibition, which closed on January 17, is accompanied by the NRC Boeken/Paradox publication Occupation: Soldier. The project showed the result of the annual Rijksmuseum/NRC Handelsblad commission, which deals with aspects of contemporary history. The 2009 assignment went to Ad van Denderen who was asked to give the Dutch peace missions a face. He not only photographed the recruits on their often dangerous missions, he also turned his lens on family members.
For his project Spectator, Amsterdam-based street photographer Theo Niekus’ portrayed people’s behaviour on Amsterdam’s consumer strip between Central Station, Dam and Rembrandt Square. Spectator premiered as part of WATW. The Beijing version of the exhibition combined a large video projection with five LCD panels and a soundtrack. The installations features a selection of around 600 photographs taken from Theo Niekus recent oeuvre. The installation, curated by Frank Ortmanns, forces visitors to move through the projector’s beam thus adding their own shadow to the shopping crowds on Amsterdam’s streets. Spectator is now available for touring.
Special professor of Global Security Issues at the Erasmus University and commentator Ko Colijn was among the speakers at the lively opening on November 7, 2009. He praised Van Denderen’s photographs for succeeding in showing - and explaining - the tragically thin line which divides soldiers from being peacekeepers or occupiers.
Occupation: Soldier (with an introduction by Dutch novelist Arnon Grunberg) can be ordered from Paradox. A limited number of signed copies are still available. Please refer to the Publications section on page two of this newsletter. Occupation: Soldier is available as a travelling exhibition. For more information: Wouter den Bakker (wdb@paradox.nl)
For more information : Frank Ortmanns (fo @ paradox.nl)
PARADOX creates projects in photography, video and media related ar ts. The interaction bet ween social, economic and technologic al change is central to most thematic and monographic projects developed. PARADOX’ activities include travelling exhibitions, film production, book and electronic publishing and organising workshops and symposiums.
The Paradox newslet ter is distributed digitally through email. Sign up at ht tp : // w w w.paradox.nl
Stedelijk Museum Amsterdam acquires Greenhouse
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N E W PA R AD O X PUB L ICAT I O N S
© Paradox
© theo Niekus
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Ad van Denderen – Paradox offers exclusive signed copies of Occupation: Soldier (2009) € 30 The Netherlands / € 35 Europe (incl. VAT + postage) / € 40 rest of the world (incl. VAT + postage). Also available by Ad van Denderen: occupation
soldier
Ad van Denderen Arnon Grunberg
REPORT # 1
Go No Go - Frontiers Of Europe (2003) € 45 | Dana Lixenberg - The Last
THEO NIEKUS
Days of Shishmaref (2008) € 35 | Xavier Ribas - Greenhouse SD-DVD € 25 | Oscar van Alphen - The Wars (2006) DVD € 25 | Lewis Baltz – The
One of the last official purchases made by Gijs van Tuyl, director of the Stedelijk Museum Amsterdam between 2005-2009, was the video-based installation Greenhouse by Catalonian photographer Xavier Ribas. Ribas visited the Netherlands in 2006 in the context of the IPRN-Changing Faces project, dealing with changes in the area of work. Ribas’ fascination with a largescale greenhouse resulted in a video installation, with a monitor showing an interview with a local farmer and his wife and a large-format HD video projection of the massive greenhouse under construction. The minimalist combination of this interview and the projection of a 21-minute travelling shot of the greenhouse proved to be both historically informative and emotionally moving.
OTHER NEWS
Theo Niekus - report #1 In November 2009 photographer Theo Niekus presented the first issue of his bi-annual magazine REPORT. The magazine consists solely of 48 fullcolour, full-page pictures, taken from the evergrowing Spectator database. The print run is 500 copies per issue. REPORT #2 is expected mid-2010.
Over the past few years Greenhouse has been shown successfully as part of WORK #2 at several European locations, as well as the Noord-Holland Biennale 2008. It was also part of Nature as Artifice , an exhibition curated by Maartje van den Heuvel in 2008 for Museum Kröller-Müller (NL), which then travelled to a number of international venues, including the George Eastman House in Rochester (NY) in the summer of 2009.
Subscribers can order unlimited copies (while stock lasts) at the subscription price of € 11; regular € 19. Subscribe at contact @ theoniekus.nl.
19 8 6, Tokyo © Ed van der Elsken
More information : www.theoniekus.nl ________________________________________________
Greenhouse was produced by Paradox in collaboration
Deaths In Newport (1995) CD-ROM € 25 Publications can be ordered from Paradox at the prices indicated (incl. VAT + postage). The items will be sent upon receipt of payment to IBAN account no. NL62ABNA0501434445 - BIC/SWIFT ABNANL2A. ALSO AVAILABLE: Ad van Denderen - So Blue, So Blue - Edges of The Mediterranean (Steidl, 2008) € 35. Order at www.steidlville.com/books | Dana Lixenberg - The Last Days of Shishmaref (2008). A few signed copies of the book together with a print in a limited edition of 100 (23x30 cm) are still available. Price: € 195 incl. VAT + postage within The Netherlands). Order by sending an email to mail@post-editions.com.
a g en d a of E X HIBI T I O N s TOKYO SYMPHONY, ED VAN DER ELSKEN 03 / 04 /10– 20 / 06 /10 / Nederlands Fotomuseum, Rotterdam (NL) WATW 03 / 04 /10- 26 / 04 /10 / Shanghai World Expo 2010 (CN)
with Xavier Ribas. Paradox released a SD-DVD version of the work in 2009 (€ 25, including shipping). Of the limited edition of four numbered copies of the HD exhibition version of the piece, two (on Blu-ray disc) are still available from Galeria ProjecteSD in Barcelona (www.projectesd.com).
For more information : Frank Ortmanns (fo @ paradox.nl)
S TA F F M AT T E R S
Tokyo Symphony supported by major art funds. The SNS REAAL and Sem Presser Archive Foundation have approved Paradox’ application for the production of Tokyo Symphony. The project was to become Ed van der Elsken audiovisual magnum opus. Due to his early death in 1990, however, the footage accumulated over the years was never turned into the multiplescreen installation Van der Elsken had in mind. Tokyo Symphony was meant as a homage to Japan – a country that had embraced him personally as well as photographer and author. Image researcher Frank Ortmanns, who in turn received support from The Netherlands Foundation for Visual Arts, Design and Architecture (Fonds BKVB) is currently researching the audio-visual materials of Tokyo Symphony. The project will premiere at the Nederlands Fotomuseum in Rotterdam (NL) on April 3.
For more information: Frank Ortmanns (fo@paradox.nl)
On Februaray 5th Paradox released its third-generation website. The site was redesigned by Antenna-men. As a new Paradox supporting member, Susanne Schanz began uploading content in January including various books and videos of Paradox projects, that are now entirely accessible. Schanz will also contribute to the revamped version of The Last Days of Shishmaref, to be launched around the same time.
Participating artists: Chen Xiao, Jin Jiangbo, Mo Yi, Song Chao, Xiong Wenyun, Zhao Liang, Zeng Han, Jacqueline Hassink, Theo Niekus, WassinkLundgren, Henk Wildschut, Frank van der Salm, Gerald van der Kaap, Ad van Denderen. _________________________________________________ Follow Paradox on Facebook!
Director: Bas Vroege (bv@paradox.nl) - Project Managers: Iris Sikking (is@paradox.nl): ANGRY - various artists, Slow Journalism - various artists, The Last Days of Shishmaref – Dana Lixenberg, Go No Go / So Blue So Blue – Ad van Denderen, Britanya – Marjoleine Boonstra / Frank Ortmanns (fo@paradox.nl): Look at me - Monica Nauwens, Spectator - Theo Niekus, Tokyo Symphony - Ed van der Elsken, The Wars - Oscar van Alphen, Greenhouse - Xavier Ribas, LONG LIVE ME! – Ed van der Elsken / Wouter den Bakker (wdb@paradox.nl): WATW various artists, Five Stories - Anastasia Khoroshilova / Valentijn Brandt (vb@paradox.nl): Occupation Soldier - Ad van Denderen, European Fields – Hans van der Meer / Education and publicity: Lotte ten Voorde (lv@paradox.nl) / Digital Media: Susanne Schanz (sus@paradox.nl)
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INSTALL ATION SHOT OUT OF CONTEXT (BESL AN) BY ANASTASIA KHOROSHILOVA - © VALENTIJN BRANDT
N E W S L E T T E R # 12 0 9 N O V E M B E R / D E C E M B E R 2 0 0 9
Noorderlicht - Multivocal Histories
Article: www.volkskrant.nl > kunst > Fotofestival / Hoe een mens een mens blijft (Dutch only) More information: Wouter den Bakker (wdb@paradox.nl)
WE ARE THE WORLD (WATW) AT THREE SHADOWS PHOTOGRAPHY ART CENTRE
We Are The World is the title of a song written in 1985 by Lionel Ritchie and Michael Jackson to support famine relief in Africa. Over time it has been hijacked for a multitude of purposes, focusing on common responsibility and solidarity. WATW was initiated by the Netherlands China Arts Foundation (NCAF) and is a collaboration between the Three Shadows Photography Art Centre (Beijing, CN) and Paradox (Edam, NL). WATW is a photography project focusing on aspects of the globalised, consumption-driven world we are all part of. The exhibition, curated by Stephanie Tung (Three Shadows) and Bas Vroege (Paradox), will combine the work of Chinese and Dutch photographers and artists in a travelling show that can be defined as a montage of artistic, journalistic and scientific observations. The works will be shown against a backdrop of public-domain imagery, text excerpts and charts. The quantitative data will become part of the visual experience in the graphic design by Utrecht-based bureau Kummer & Herrman. Installation designer Jeroen de Vries will develop a spatial design for the exhibition. Among the artists/photographers in the exhibition are: Yang Fudong, Henk Wildschut, Frank van der Salm, Zhao Liang, Xiong Wenyun, Jacqueline Hassink, Gerald van der Kaap, Mo Yi and Theo Niekus. The project will première at the Three Shadows Photography Art Centre (November 28–January 31) and will then travel to Shanghai for the World Expo 2010. WATW has been made possible with the (financial) support of the NCAF, the Dutch Embassy in Beijing and the Netherlands Foundation for Visual Arts, Design and Architecture (Fonds BKVB). More information: Wouter den Bakker (wdb@paradox.nl)
© AD VAN DENDEREN
© HENK WILDSCHUT
Merel Bem, a critic for broadsheet newspaper De Volkskrant, lauded Multi vocal Histories for its fresh approach to documentary photography, which is predominantly associated with shocking black and white pictures. The
young photographers/researchers Vroege engaged, including Anastasia Khoroshilova, Wouter den Bakker and Taco Hidde Bakker, along with pioneers Julian Germain and Susan Meiselas, show us a more nimble approach to their socially inclined subjects, though no less urgent or serious. By combining their own images, found footage, text excerpts or interviews, they paint a much more versatile image of a society, a community in transition or a cultural phenomenon. Images that, according to Bem, linger in the beholder’s mind. At the same time, she continues, this approach raises questions about – and gives cautious answers to - the role and impact of photography as a story-telling medium.
© YANG FUDONG
Paradox director Bas Vroege was invited to curate one of the six main exhibitions for the 16th edition of photo festival Noorderlicht, which took place in Groningen (NL) from September 6 to October 4 of this year. The exhibition, titled Multivocal Histories, focused on image-based projects taken by several artists (professional and amateur) over an extended period of time. In these projects, the traditional roles of image-makers, curators, historians and editors start to blur. Different types of struggle in different regions of the world, ranging from labour to ethnic conflicts and from personal survival to invasion, were addressed.
NEW BOOK BY AD VAN DENDEREN OCCUPATION: SOLDIER For their annual photo commission, Document Nederland, the Rijksmuseum and NRC Handelsblad newspaper asked photographer Ad van Denderen to give the Dutch peace missions a face. Van Denderen followed recruits during their training in the Netherlands and on their often dangerous missions in Chad and Afghanistan. But he also turned his lens on the home front: family members waving their partners, sons and daughters goodbye at the airport, recording a Christmas video message in a studio, mourning at a memorial service. The exhibition Vechters en vredestichters (Fight ers and peacekeepers), showing the results of the commission, will open at the Fotomuseum Den Haag on November 6 and will run until >
PARADOX creates projects in photography, video and media related ar ts. The interaction bet ween social, economic and technologic al change is central to most thematic and monographic projects developed. PARADOX’ activities include travelling exhibitions, film production, book and electronic publishing and organising workshops and symposiums.
The Paradox newslet ter is distributed digitally through email. You can sign up by going to w w w.paradox.nl /contact /do_contact.php
January 17. The accompanying book Occupation: Soldier (co-published by NRC Boeken and Paradox), features an introduction by Dutch novelist Arnon Grunberg. The book will be available in Dutch bookshops from November 2 for € 24.50. A limited number of signed copies is available exclusively through Paradox for € 35 (Europe, including postage) or € 40 (rest of the world). Please see the publications section on page two of this newsletter for further details.
sections of text that provide some context. So you can treat the book not “just” as a photography book, but you can also learn something about what is actually going on, what is causing the little village to disappear into the sea. I can’t think of a better way to approach the subject matter. (…) It is the kind of book that belongs onto the book shelves of any serious collector and anyone who appreciates contemporary photography for what it does and for how it does that. A stunning achievement.”
Fotomuseum Den Haag, Stadhouderslaan 43, Den Haag (NL) Tue - Sun 12-18h Website: www.fotomuseumdenhaag.nl. More information: Wouter den Bakker (wdb@paradox.nl)
Jan Louter’s film will be screened at Dutch Heritage Day (November 16th) in the Dutch Embassy in Washington. This event is attended by an official Alaska delegation on its way to the United Nations Climate Change Conference in Copenhagen. For more information: Iris Sikking (is@paradox.nl) _________________________________________________ © ROBERT KNOTH
© VALENTIJN BRANDT
OTHER NEWS
sual magnum opus: Tokyo Symphony. The installation was meant to be his homage to Japan – a land that had embraced him personally as well as a photographer and author. The installation was never finished due to his early death at age 60. It was thought that the collection of 1,600 images, which is currently stored at the Nederlands Fotomuseum in Rotterdam, was all that remained of this ambitious project. In 2007, researcher Frank Ortmanns discovered five audiotapes belonging to the project. Fascinated by this missing piece of the puzzle, Ortmanns approached Paradox to discuss the possibility of reconstructing Tokyo Symphony. Taking into account Van der Elsken’s fascination with AV technology, it was concluded that a contemporary approach to this installation would be most appropriate. In other words: to make an installation as if Van der Elsken were still alive. Tokyo Symphony will première at the Nederlands Fotomuseum in Rotterdam (NL) in 2010. It is a ParadoxNederlands Fotomuseum co-production, supported by the Prince Bernhard Cultural Foundation and others. More information: Frank Ortmanns (fo@paradox.nl)
S TA F F M AT T E R S
THE DEADLY TRAIL OF AFGHAN HEROIN
Since 1993 photographer Robert Knoth and writer/ broadcaster Antoinette de Jong have been regular visitors to Afghanistan, documenting the changes taking place in the country from the point of view of its population. Their story starts at the end of the Cold War, during which Afghan Mujahedeen were encouraged to grow opium to finance their ‘holy war’ against communism. Today, Afghan heroin grown by farmers out of poverty as well as under Taliban pressure can be found in South and Central Asia, the Middle East, Europe and the USA. Wherever the heroin caravan passes, organised crime surges. The amount of money to be made is so immense (although farmers hardly see any of it) that the illegal trade of the drug is leading to the destabilisation of nation states.
In an atmospheric, about-to-be-renovated townhouse in the heart of Utrecht (NL), curatorial collective FOTODOK presented At Home, a four-week exhibition presenting five projects or visions about what makes a home. One of them was Bertien van Manen’s East Wind West Wind, a 2001 Paradox production. For this project Van Manen created a series of intimate portraits, predominantly of the new generation of Chinese, revealing a side of China we never knew was so similar to our own. After its première at the Nederlands Foto Instituut (2001 - Rotterdam, NL), East Wind West Wind was shown internationally at The Photographers’ Gallery (London, UK), the Centre Photographique de l’Ile-de-France (FR) and The Museum of Contemporary Photography (Chicago, USA).
LIXENBERG BACK TO SHISHMAREF
In October photographer Dana Lixenberg returned to Shishmaref with 50 copies of The Last Days of Shishmaref. The book was co-published in November 2008 by Paradox and Episode Publishers.
BRENDA WE YANNA WITH BOOK , OCTOBER 20 0 9 - © DANA LIXENBERG
More information: Wouter den Bakker (wdb@paradox.nl) _________________________________________________
Poppy - The Deadly Trail Of Afghan Heroin (working title) is a story linking the lost lives of European and American addicts with those of the Afghan farmers or, more generally, their country as a whole. It is also a story of the 21st century, where globalisation has created new platforms for organised crime, prostitution and terrorism. From Iran to Albania and the Ukraine, from Norway to the Netherlands and the US. The book and exhibition are expected in the first quarter of 2011. Robert Knoth (Rotterdam, 1963) is an internationally renowned documentary photographer. His work has been published in The Guardian (UK); NRC Han delsblad (NL), New York Times (USA) and by Greenpeace. Antoinette de Jong (Tilburg, 1964) works as a journalist and develops media strategies. Over the past few years she has collaborated with Robert Knoth on several projects, concentrating on regions in and around Afghanistan. In 2006, Mets & Schilt published their highly praised book Certificate no. 000358, dealing with nuclear devastation in Kazakhstan, Belarus, the Urals and Siberia. More information: Bas Vroege (bv@paradox.nl) _________________________________________________ © ED VAN DER ELSKEN
BERTIEN VAN MANEN - AT HOME
In some of the houses she found her own pictures pinned to the wall: polaroids she had left during her last visit. Since then, a new seawall was built. It is meant to protect the island against erosion from the waves caused by the increasingly violent autumn storms. During her visit Lixenberg also met with the school’s new deputy director discussing the possibility of pupils continuing their role as video reporters for the Shishmaref website (www.thelastdaysofshishmaref.net) Lixenberg’s book received several excellent reviews in the international press. Conscientious, Jörg Coldberg’s blog on contemporary photography states: “Unlike most other photography books, which come with some sort of introduction, a bunch of photographs, and then a short statement plus acknowledgements by the photographers (a somewhat tiring format, isn’t it?), The Last Days of Shishmaref alternates photography sections with
Wouter den Bakker joined Paradox in June after graduating from the Master’s in Photographic Studies at the University Leiden. In his visual thesis he explored the cultural meaning of the Palestinian keffiya (aka the Arafat scarf) and photography as a form of research. Prior to joining the Master’s programme, he worked at Huis Marseille (museum for photography, Amsterdam) and during the Master’s he worked as a research intern at the Fotomuseum Winterthur (CH). So far at Paradox he has been involved in the production of Ad van Denderen’s new book Occupation: Soldier and is currently working as junior project manager for We Are The World.
N E W PA R A D O X P U B L I C AT I O N S Ad van Denderen – Paradox offers exclusive signed copies of Occupation: Soldier (2009) € 30 The Netherlands / €35 Europe (incl. VAT + postage) / €40 rest of the world (incl. VAT + postage). Also available by Ad van Denderen: Go No Go - Frontiers Of Europe (2003) €45 | Dana Lixenberg - The Last Days of Shishmaref (2008) €35 | Xavier Ribas - Greenhouse SD-DVD € 25 | Oscar van Alphen - The Wars (2006) DVD € 25 | Lewis Baltz – The Deaths In Newport (1995) CD-ROM €25 | Publications can be ordered from Paradox at the prices indicated (incl. VAT + postage). The items will be sent upon receipt of payment to IBAN account no. NL62ABNA0501434445 - BIC/SWIFT ABNANL2A. ALSO AVAILABLE: Ad van Denderen - So Blue, So Blue - Edges of The Mediterranean (Steidl, 2008) € 35. Order at www.steidlville.com/books | Dana Lixenberg - The Last Days of Shishmaref (2008). A few signed copies of the book together with a print in a limited edition of 100 (23x30 cm) are still available. Price: € 195 incl. VAT + postage within The Netherlands). Order by sending an email to info@episode-publishers.nl.
AGENDA OF EXHIBITIONS EUROPEAN FIELDS, HANS VAN DER MEER 22/10/0928/11/09 / Host Gallery, London, UK DOCUMENT NEDERLAND; FIGHTERS AND PEACEKEEPERS AD VAN DENDEREN 07/11/09-17/01/10 / Fotomuseum Den Haag
TOKYO SYMPHONY - Ed van der Elsken’s ‘Unvollendete’ In the last years of his life Ed van der Elsken worked on what should have been his audiovi-
WATW 30/11/09-28/01/10 / Three Shadows Photography Art Centre, Beijing, China Participating artists include: Jacqueline Hassink, Theo Niekus, WassinkLundgren, Henk WIldschut, Frank van der Salm, Gerald van der Kaap, Zhao Liang, Xiong Wenyun, Yang Fudong, Mo Yi.
Director: Bas Vroege (bv@paradox.nl) - Project Managers: Iris Sikking (is@paradox.nl): The Last Days of Shishmaref – Dana Lixenberg, Go No Go / So Blue So Blue – Ad van Denderen, Britanya – Marjoleine Boonstra, European Fields / Dutch Fields – Hans van der Meer, Ay Dios – Diana Blok / Frank Ortmanns (fo@paradox.nl): LONG LIVE ME! / Tokyo Symphony Ed van der Elsken, The Wars - Oscar van Alphen, Greenhouse - Xavier Ribas / Wouter den Bakker (wdb@paradox.nl): WATW, Occupation Soldier - Ad van Denderen / Education and publicity: Lotte ten Voorde (lv@paradox.nl) / Research: Taco Hidde Bakker (tb@paradox.nl), Tjitske Boogmans (tjb@paradox.nl) / Office: Valentijn Brandt (vb@paradox.nl)
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theatre and photography in a north-holland polder
On June 3 the internationally acclaimed puppet theatre group Speel theater Holland launched their new theatre piece Red Earth. Red Earth is performed in a specially constructed, open-air South African corral, in a polder some ten kilometres north of Edam, the hometown of both Speeltheater and Paradox. The play tells the story of the South African Xhosa people who, in 1856, followed the prophetical cry (embodied in the young girl Nongqawuse) to kill their cattle and burn their crops, in order to shake British colonial repression.
Information and play dates: Jilse Rigter publiciteit@speeltheater.nl, www.speeltheater.nl
Paradox contributing to Noorderlicht 2009 The Dutch word strijd (struggle, fight) will frame the 16th edition of the annual photography festival in the north of The Netherlands. For the first time in the festival’s history, the organisers have invited a number of international curators to each develop an exhibition referencing the theme. They are Stuart Franklin (photographer and president of Magnum Photos), Lauren Heinz (Editor Foto 8, London), Marc Prüst (ex-VU, now freelance curator), Simon Njami (critic, curator, editor Revue Noire) and Bas Vroege (director of Paradox). The exhibition curated by Bas Vroege (Multivocal Histories) will focus on multi-vocal projects based on images taken by several authors (professional and amateur) over a longer period of time and put together by teams of
professionals. In these projects, the traditional roles of imagemakers, curators, historians and editors start to blur. Different types of struggle in different regions of the world, ranging from labour to ethnic conflicts and from personal survival to invasion, will be addressed.
© Valentijn Brandt
© susan meisel as
© wouter den bakker
Speeltheater Holland approached Paradox to develop a photography project that would create a link between the myth and contemporary issues. Up-and-coming photographer Johan Nieuwenhuize (1980,
RED EARTH
Vlissingen, NL) was invited to participate. The portraits he made of young people deal with elements from the play such as manipulation, prejudices and the desire to identify oneself with a group. Aiming to bridge the gap between the legend and today’s society, his images exaggerate the heavy coding present in clothing or accessories. His work is displayed alongside news images from recent political upheavals as well as excerpts from the play. This combination of images and texts raises questions about the role of strong beliefs (or superstition) and (false) prophets. The exhibition is presented on billboards. Red Earth will play till July 26, 2009.
Ad van Denderen’s So Blue So Blue in Fotomuseum Winterthur (CH)
A number of the projects involved were developed by (former) students, staff and creative partners of the Master’s in Photographic Studies (MaPS) at the University Leiden, a course that combines academic research and curatorial practice. Noorderlicht will run in Groningen (NL) from September 6 to October 4, 2009.
Ad van Denderen’s project So Blue So Blue Edges of the Mediterranean is the result of five years work along the shores of the Mediterranean, exploring the economic, social and religious changes taking place in an area where north and south, east and west, Christianity and Islam have met for centuries. The exhibition, accompanied by a 280-page SteidlMack publication, premiered at the Nederlands Fotomuseum in the summer of 2008. It was shown in an abridged version at Fotomuseum Winterthur in the spring of this year. The exhibition attracted more than 12,500 people during its 12-week run.
MaPS: www.photographicstudies.leidenuniv.nl Noorderlicht Festival: www.noorderlicht.com
Touring information: Iris Sikking (is@paradox.nl) Website: www.sobluesoblue.nl
PARADOX cre ates projects in photography, video and media related ar ts. The interaction bet ween social, economic and technologic al change is central to most thematic and monographic projects developed. PARADOX’ activities include travelling exhibitions, film production, book and electronic publishing and organising workshops and symposiums.
The Paradox newslet ter is distributed digitally through email. You can sign up by going to w w w.paradox.nl /contact /do_contact.php
©ad van denderen
OTHER NEWS Greenhost.nl to support Shishmaref project website Greenhost.nl claims to be The Netherlands’ largest Internet hosting company using environmentally friendly technologies and energy. Greenhost, which has hosted Paradox projects for the past ten years, has become the official sponsor of the media-rich www.thelastdaysofshishmaref.net. The Last Days of Shishmaref is a multi-platform project that paints a fascinating portrait of an Inupiaq (Eskimo) community threatened by global warming. The project consists of the award-winning film by Jan Louter, a book and exhibition with photographs by Dana Lixenberg and an installation based on the same film. The extensive website contains contemporary and historical material and functions as a multi-media archive.
Ad van Denderen’s new website online
© oscar van Alphen
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Stedelijk Museum Amsterdam acquires The Wars in HD Stedelijk Museum Amsterdam recently complemented its original U Matic registration of Oscar van Alphen’s (1923) audiovisual The Wars with the new digital version created by Paradox. For this new version the original slides and 16mm film were scanned in at high definition. The original Dutch version was complemented by an English-language edition, ma king the highly controversial work available to an international audience, almost 25 years after its 1984 launch at Rotterdam’s Museum Boijmans van Beuningen. The Wars juxtaposes an adapted version of George Bataille’s text Madame Edwarda with Van Alphen’s photographs of industrial decay and social unrest. The Wars was released on DVD and HD Blu-ray disc on December 13 on the occasion of the launch of the monograph of his work by Focus Publishing. The consumer DVD can be ordered from Paradox, see Publications.
_____________________________ Lewis Baltz’ The Deaths In Newport in plug. in Basel (CH) Under the title Histoires à l’ère numérique, the Basel-based space for electronic media [plug.in] showed a selection of works from the French Espace Multimédia Gantner collection. Among the works in the exhibition, which ran from April 3 to May 31, was Lewis Baltz’ The Deaths In Newport. In this work Baltz reconstructs a double parricide of a millionaire couple in 1947. His father was the main coroner and because of his role in the process, the event assumed mythical proportions in Baltz’s memory. The interactive CDROM, published by Paradox in 1995 and acquired by the Espace Multimédia Gantner in 2004, combines images by Lewis Baltz with newspaper articles, photos and audio narration. The consumer version of the CD-ROM is still available, see Publications.
©johan nieuwenhuize
For more info: www.johannieuwenhuize.nl, www.threeshadows.cn
Touring information: Iris Sikking (is@paradox.nl) Website: www.thelastdaysofshishmaref.net Greenhost can be contacted through www.greenhost.nl
Touring information: Frank Ortmanns (fo@paradox.nl)
initiated by The Netherlands Foundation for Visual Arts, Design and Architecture (Fonds BKVB) and the Three Shadows Photography Centre in Beijing. For a three-month period Johan has been working on his image-based research on the role of tangible material and cultural goods. The results of his residency will be presented in an exhibition curated by Stephanie Tung at the Three Shadows Photography Centre from June 20 to July 20, 2009.
For years Ad van Denderen’s work could only be retrieved online through project websites such as Go No Go (launched in 2003), So Blue So Blue (2008) or at the site of l’Agence VU in Paris. Anyone on the lookout for a more comprehensive selection of earlier work was disappointed: it simply wasn’t there. Until recently that is, because Van Denderen has launched www.advandenderen.nl with the help of Rotterdam-based web architects Antenna-Men. Van Denderen (1943, Zeist, NL) has worked as a photojournalist for publications including Vrij Nederland, NRC Handelsblad, GEO, Stern and The Independent magazine. He has won several important prizes for his work, which is frequently exhibited internationally. Paradox projects with Van Denderen include So Blue So Blue and Go No Go. An exhibition showing the results of his work on the Dutch army, commissioned by the Rijksmuseum in Amsterdam, will open in the Fotomuseum Den Haag this autumn. sta ff m atters After more than ten years of service, long-time Paradox board members Joop de Jong, Henrik Barends and Just Enschede have stepped down. Iris Sikking has joined the Executive Board, chaired by Bas Vroege. Iris has been working for Paradox as project manager since 2006. In addition to her work for Paradox she curated the exhibition BABY (an ICON production), which was shown at the Nederlands Fotomuseum Rotterdam and the National Media Museum in Bradford, UK. She is currently conducting research on slow journalism and radicalising youth for two new Paradox projects to be launched in 2010 and 2011. Willem Woudenberg (director of Edenspiekermann Design & Communication, AmsterdamBerlin) became chair of the Supervisory Board and is now accompanied by Rob van der Laarse (associate professor of Heritage Studies in the department of Art History, Religion & Cultural Sciences at the University of Amsterdam), Edwin Jacobs (director of the Centraal Museum Utrecht, formerly director at the Museum Jan Cunen, Oss, and the Lakenhal, Leiden) and honorary member, photographer Oscar van Alphen.
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_____________________________ Paradox education officer Lotte ten Voorde (1982, Lexmond, NL) is currently working on a book for Flemish-Dutch publisher Easy Computing. The book contains interviews with and portfolios by photojournalists from Belgium and The Netherlands and gives an insight into their work. It will be launched on October 30, 2009 at the Antwerp Book Fair. PA R ADOX PUB L ICAT IO N S Dana Lixenberg - The Last Days of Shishmaref (2008) €35 / A few signed copies of the book together with a print in a limited edition of 100 (23x30 cm) are still available. Price: €195 incl VAT + shipping within The Netherlands). Order by sending an email to info@episodepublishers.nl / Xavier Ribas - Greenhouse SD-DVD €25 / Oscar van Alphen - The Wars (2006) DVD €25 / Lewis Baltz – The Deaths In Newport (1995) CD-ROM €25 / Publications can be ordered from Paradox at the prices indicated (incl. VAT and shipping). The items will be sent upon receipt of payment to IBAN account no. NL62ABNA0501434445 - BIC/SWIFT ABNANL2A. / Also available: Ad van Denderen - So Blue So Blue - Edges of The Mediterranean (Steidl, 2008) €35. Order at www.steidlville.com/books AG E N DA O F E XHIBI T IO N S Red Earth, Johan Nieuwenhuize 03/06 – 26/07/2009 / part of the puppet theatre play Red Earth near Edam, The Netherlands Greenhouse, Xavier Ribas 13/06 - 16/08/09 / part of Nature As Artifice, George Eastman House, New York, USA
New at Paradox is Tjitske Boogmans (1976, Leiden, NL). A graduate of the Master’s in Photographic Studies, University of Leiden, she is currently involved in doing research for two upcoming Paradox productions. Tjitske has previously worked as a photo editor and picture researcher for, amongst others, filmmaker Peter Greenaway.
_____________________________ Johan Nieuwenhuize (1980, Vlissingen, NL), formerly assistant project manager at Paradox, was selected for the artist in residency programme
16 th Noorderlicht Photography Festival 06/09 – 04/10 / various locations in Groningen, The Netherlands
Director: Bas Vroege (bv@paradox.nl) - Project Managers: Iris Sikking (is@paradox.nl): The Last Days of Shishmaref – Dana Lixenberg, Go No Go / So Blue So Blue – Ad van Denderen, Britanya – Marjoleine Boonstra, European Fields / Dutch Fields – Hans van der Meer, Ay Dios – Diana Blok / Frank Ortmanns (fo@paradox.nl): LONG LIVE ME! / Tokyo Symphony - Ed van der Elsken, The Wars - Oscar van Alphen, Greenhouse - Xavier Ribas / Education and publicity: Lotte ten Voorde (lv@paradox.nl) Research: Taco Hidde Bakker (tb@paradox.nl), Tjitske Boogmans (tjb@paradox.nl) / Office: Valentijn Brandt (vb@paradox.nl)
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NEWSLET TER february 2009
The Last Days of Shishmaref successfully l aunched
THE WARS
Oscar van Alphen (b. 1923) is a photographer and writer. He published his first photobook in 1958 (Kinderen in de grote stad/Children in The Big City). His 1978 publication Het Rijke Onvermogen (Prosperous impotence) and his 1982 book on Palestine take a strong political position. After 1980 he starts to experiment with photographs and text, both on a formal as well as an intellectual level. The 1984-1985 audiovisual production De Oorlogen (The Wars, in 2006 complemented by an English soundtrack) can be considered his chef d’oeuvre.
INCLUDES SEARCHING FOR THE WARS : 28 MinuTE DOCuMEnTARy On OsCAR VAn AlPHEn By sTAnzAFilM audiovisual with dutch and English soundtrack - 32 minutEs, 16:9 vidEo, colour
Oscar van Alphen / Madame Edwarda by Georges Bataille Friso Haverkamp / Margot Knijn, Simon Pummell / Henk Reyn, Annelies van der Bie Yorick van Wageningen, Thekla Reuten Reinier van Brummelen, Markus S. Hünd Wart Wamsteker Floris van Manen / / Peter Claassen / Rixt Bosma Bas Vroege © 20 0 6 - PAR ADOX -
(DE OORLOGEN) Oscar van Alphen
The Wars is a restored version of the projection that was part of the 1984-1985 installation De Oorlogen. Combining still and moving images, set to a voice-over, it was originally projected (using 6 slide projectors and a 16mm film projector) in a space also displaying photographic prints. The 2006 restoration has digitally re-mastered the visuals, and created an English language version of the original Dutch soundtrack to create a single-screen version of the piece.
THE WARS
(DE OORLOGEN) a n a u d i ov i s u a l by O s c a r v a n A l p h e n in The Wars, photographer Oscar van Alphen combines an adapted version of Georges Bataille’s text Madame Edwarda with images drawn from his archive. Madame Edwarda (published in 1941 under the pseudonym Pierre Angélique) is a story without beginning or end, in which a male first-person narrator and a prostitute encounter each other in Paris by night. Madame Edwarda is about lust, power, anxiety, desire and humiliation. Van Alphen uses Bataille’s text as a metaphor for the perversity of social structures, for the uncontrollability of political and economic power, and the effects these have on human dignity. He juxtaposes pictures from the decaying and almost deserted industrial regions in northern France and of the 1968 student rebellion in Paris, with the pornographic text that came into being during the first years of WW ii.
© johan nieuwenhuize
The Last Days of Shishmaref is a multi-platform project that was initiated by Rotterdam based filmmaker Jan Louter. Louter invited photographer Dana Lixenberg to accompany him to the Alaskan village of Shishmaref for several weeks in the spring and autumn of 2007. Together they painted a fascinating portrait of an Inupiaq (Eskimo) community trying to maintain their traditional roots, but now forced to take a radical leap
into an unknown future. The project consists of an exhibition, book, film, website and educational program. The film premièred at the Netherlands Film festival in Utrecht on September 28, 2008. Visit the ‘news’ section on the project website for the item NOVA (a prominent Dutch television show on current affairs) made about the avant première of the film in Shishmaref itself. Also available in this section is the raving review Eddie Marsman wrote for the quality newspaper NRC Handelsblad with the significant title ‘Silent Requiem For An Island’. He especially mentions the design by Jeroen de Vries, which enhances – and does justice to – the urgency of the situation, the serenity of the landscape and Lixenberg’s photographs.
The exhibition is available for touring as of now. Contact: Iris Sikking - is@paradox.nl / Continued on next page >
THE WARS (DE OORLOGEN)
AN AuDiOviSuAL by
Oscar van Alphen
© oscar van Alphen
On November 8, 2008, Greenpeace Netherlands chairwoman Liesbeth van Tongeren opened the exhibition The Last Days of Shishmaref, including Dana Lixenberg’s photographs, an installation based on the film by Jan Louter, media coverage of the island being washed away, real-time newsfeeds regarding climate change, interviews with residents of the island, and computers introducing www.thelastdaysofshishmaref.net
THE WARS / DE OORLOGEN WAS MADE POSSIBLE WITH FINANCIAL SUPPORT FROM
T H E V S B F O U N D A T I O N , T H E E G B E R T K U N S T F U N D ( A D M I N I S T E R E D B Y T H E P R I N C E B E R N H A R D C U LT U R A L FUND) AND THE THUISKOPIEFONDS
iNcLuDES SEARcHiNG fOR THE WARS: 28 miNuTE DOcumENTARy by STANzAfiLm PO Box 113 - 1135 ZK Edam - The Netherlands T + 31 (0) 2 9 9 31 5 0 8 3 - F + 31 (0) 2 9 9 31 5 0 8 2 - E s er ver @ par adox .nl - w w w.par adox .nl
coverWARS2008.indd 1
Paradox receives major grant from Mondriaan Foundation The Mondriaan Foundation, the organisation that administers arts grants for the Dutch ministry of Culture, has granted Paradox a three-year subsidy. In response to an application made last summer, the foundation acknowledges Paradox’s efforts “to develop projects from the perspective of the arts based on social issues and to present these to audiences in The Netherlands and abroad during a number of years”. The grant of € 100,000 annually is to contribute to the 2009-2011 programming, which includes a research project to be conducted
21-10-2008 11:23:41
with the Nederlands Fotomuseum in Rotterdam regarding slow journalism and a project dealing with the representation of radicalising youth in the media and the arts. The Wars on DVD, exhibition until March 22 The Wars, the English version of a reconstruction of Oscar Van Alphen’s audiovisual work De Oorlogen, was released on DVD on December 13 on the occasion of the launch of the monograph on his work (Focus Publishing, ISBN 978-90-78811-07-7) written by Frits Gierstberg, head of exhibitions at the Nederlands Fotomuseum.The DVD contains
both the original 1984 Dutch version of the work as well as the 2006 English version, plus a 28 minute documentary by Stanza Film (Jan-Pieter Tuinstra and Thomas Blom) on this grand old man (b. 1923) of Dutch photography. The Wars is a provocative piece that juxtaposes an adapted version of George Bataille’s text Madame Edwarda (first published in 1941 under the pseudonym Pierre Angélique) with Van Alphen’s photographs of industrial decay and social unrest. The HD version of the piece (available to collections on Bluray disc) is up at the Nederlands Fotomuseum in Rotterdam until March 22.
PARADOX cre ates projects in photography, video and media related ar ts. The interaction bet ween social, economic and technologic al change is central to most thematic and monographic projects developed. PARADOX’ activities include travelling exhibitions, film production, book and electronic publishing and organising workshops and symposiums.
The bi-monthly Paradox newsletter is distributed digitally through email. You can sign up by going to www.paradox.nl /contact /do_contact.php
The jury of the Los Angeles AFI Fest film festival awarded Louters’ film a ‘Special Mention’. During the Anchorage International Film Festival it won the jury prize in the category Best Documentary Feature. The DVD will be made available by Cinemien /Homescreen in March, 2009, after the broadcasting by mediapartner/co-producer LLiNK on March 5. Two educational workshops that were created for secondary school students (‘voortgezet onderwijs’) are still available at the Nederlands Fotomuseum and online on the project website. Book, information and image material on the site form a solid base for these programmes on climate change, identity, image manipulation and media. For children Paradox made an introductory film in co-operation with Klokhuis. More information: Lotte ten Voorde - lv@paradox.nl ____________________________________
Rijksmuseum commissions Ad van Denderen This year’s Rijksmuseum commission (Document Nederland) dealing with the Dutch army forces was granted to Ad van Denderen. Van Denderen, who started working on the subject in the fall of 2008, is focusing on the training of recruits and the foreign peace missions that the army is entangled in (Chad, Afghanistan). The result will be published in NRC Handelsblad in November, 2009. The exhibition with will be held at Fotomuseum The Hague. OTHER NEWS Greenhouse released on DVD In 2006, Catalan photographer Xavier Ribas visited the Netherlands in the framework of the IPRNChanging Faces project, dealing with the changes around work. Ribas became fascinated by a large-scale greenhouse project in the Wieringermeer, a 1930s polder some 60 kilometers north of Amsterdam. It resulted into a video installation
from several writers, including philosophers, thus creating a critical and humorous comment on consumerism. _____________________________________ Monica Nouwens - Look At Me And Tell Me If You’ve Known Me Before Dutch photographer Monica Nouwens lives and works in Los Angeles (USA). Her previous work mainly focussed on architecture and cityscapes. For her latest body of work she turned to the city’s inhabitants: artists, musicians, poets. “Look at me…” merges these two components into an atmospheric portrait of a city. Book in collaboration with NAi Publishers, exhibition to be launched late 2009, early 2010. sta f f m atters Frank Ortmanns (1977, Aachen, Germany) joined Paradox during February, 2009. As project manager and curator Frank will start working on Tokyo Symphony, an audiovisual installation based on the photographs and sound that photographer Ed van der Elsken (1930-1990) compiled in Japan during the last years of his life. Van der Elsken intended to turn the material into an installation, something he was not able to complete. Frank Ortmanns studied sociology at the RWTH Aachen University and holds an MA in photography from the Masters’ in Photographic Studies, University of Leiden. Valentijn Brandt (1981, Amsterdam) studied photography at the Royal Academy of Visual Arts in The Hague and sociology at Radboud University Nijmegen. Valentijn will assist the project managers, contributing to various tasks. N E W PA R A D OX P UB L ICAT IO N S
Go No Go in Meisenthal (France) From September 12 through October 5, 2008, the audiovisual installation Go No Go, based on photographs by Ad van Denderen, including Marjoleine Boonstra’s film Britanya, was on view in the Halle Verrière in Meisenthal (F). French dancer/choreographer Ali Salmi created a unique event by using and integrating Go No Go with Transit, an urban choreography making use of Van Denderen’s photographs, performed by his group OsmosisCie. During the first October weekend the performance was held in the public space in front of the Halle Verrière.
Dana Lixenberg - The Last Days of Shishmaref (2008) €35 / Xavier Ribas - Greenhouse SD-DVD €25 / Oscar van Alphen - The Wars (2006) DVD €25. Publications can be ordered from Paradox at the prices indicated (incl. VAT and shipping). The items will be sent after receiving your payment to IBAN account no. NL62ABNA0501434445 - BIC/SWIFT ABNANL2A. Also available: Ad van Denderen - So Blue, So Blue; Edges Of The Mediterranean (Steidl, 2008) €35. Order at www.steidlville.com
WORK IN PROGRESS
A G E N D A OF E XHIBI T IO N S
Carel van Hees - Cor Eversteijn Carel ‘>Play’ van Hees is currently working on a project about legendary boxing champ-cum-hairdressercum-enfant terrible Cor Eversteijn. Paradox and van Hees are working on a book and exhibition compiled from archive materials, photo albums and new material shot by Van Hees. ____________________________________
So Blue So Blue, Ad van Denderen - 28/02 17/05/09 / Fotomuseum Winterthur, Switzerland. © ad van denderen 20 0 5
Price: €195 incl VAT + shipping within the Netherlands. Order by sending an e-mail to info@episode-publishers.nl
For those interested in acquiring an insight into the video components of the installation, Paradox has released a SD-DVD version of the work (€25, including postage). A limited edition of four numbered copies of the HD version of the piece are available on Bluray disc from both Paradox or Galeria ProjecteSD in Barcelona www.projectsd.com. _____________________________________
Theo Niekus - Spectator Paradox and Amsterdam based photographer Theo Niekus have teamed up to work on both a publication an a travelling exhibition. In Spectator, for which Niekus portrays Amsterdam’s consuming inhabitants, he accompanies his pictures by excerpts © theo niekUs 20 0 8
© dana lixenberg 20 07
> continued During the preview on November 6 both book and exhibition were presented to an audience including international curators who were attending the annual Oracle conference, organised by the Nederlands Fotomuseum. The book, designed by the prize winning company Mevis & van Deursen, co-published by episode publishers and Paradox, was awarded as one of the Best Dutch Book Designs 2008. A few signed copies of the book together with a print in a limited edition of 100 (23x30 cm) are still available.
with a monitor showing an interview with a farm couple, and a large format HD video projection of the massive greenhouses under construction. The minimalist combination of the interview with the farmer and his wife (about to retire after having sold their property to the developer of Agriport A7) and projection of the 21 minute travelling shot proved to be both historically informative as well as emotionally moving. In less than two years Greenhouse has been shown as part of WORK #2 in Leiden (NL), Liptovsky Mikulas (Slovakia) and Jyvaskyla (Finland), as well as at the Noord-Holland Biennale 2008 (Museum Waterland, Purmerend). Greenhouse was also included in Nature as Artifice, an exhibition curated in 2008 by Maartje van den Heuvel for Museum Kröller-Müller (NL), on show at the George Eastman House, New York, this summer.
Greenhouse, Xavier Ribas - 13/06 - 16/08/09 part of Nature As Artifice, George Eastman House, New York, USA. 21/01 - 08/03/09 / part of WORK#2, Taiku Digital Culture, Jyväskylä, Finland The Wars, Oscar van Alphen - until 22/03/09 / Nederlands Fotomuseum, Rotterdam, Netherlands Five Stories, Anastasia Khoroshilova - 21/01 08/03/09 / part of WORK#2, Taiku Digital Culture, Jyväskylä, Finland
Director: Bas Vroege (bv@paradox.nl) - Project Managers: Johan Nieuwenhuize (jn@paradox.nl): European Fields – Hans van der Meer, Ay Dios – Diana Blok; Iris Sikking (is@paradox.nl): The Last Days of Shishmaref – Dana Lixenberg, Go No Go / So Blue So Blue – Ad van Denderen, Britanya – Marjoleine Boonstra, LONG LIVE ME! – Ed van der Elsken; Frank Ortmanns (fo@paradox.nl): - Tokyo Symphony - Ed van der Elsken, The Wars - Oscar van Alphen, Greenhouse - Xavier Ribas Education and publicity: Lotte ten Voorde (lv@paradox.nl) - Research: Taco Hidde Bakker (tb@paradox.nl) - Office: Valentijn Brandt (vb@paradox.nl)
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NEWSLET TER JUNE 2008
Première So Blue So Blue at Nederlands Fotomuseum
Go No Go goes underground at Les Voûtes, Paris The Paradox travelling exhibition Go No Go by Ad van Denderen was installed in Les Voûtes in Paris during the festival itinErrance, held in the first week of June. The festival –freely translated as ‘wandering about’ – is curated by the photography and film initiative Les Yeux Dans Le Monde. It focuses on exiles and migration and programs documentary film, photography, multimedia exhibitions and sound installations within this theme. Discussions and live interviews with artists take place on a daily basis. The location, Les Voûtes, are vaults at the foot of an authentic 19th century dark castle, beneath one of Paris’ wide avenues, a remarkable place to show Van Denderen’s project. The contrast between the environment and the place itself is striking, as Les Voûtes is situated just behind the impressive buildings of the Bibliothèque Nationale and amidst sky-high modern apartment buildings. Contact: Iris Sikking is@paradox.nl
European Fields on tour again (and how!) UEFA Euro 2008, to be held this summer in Switzerland and Austria, inspired many curators to do something (else?) with soccer. We, as Paradox, are glad that many turned to us and booked Hans van der Meer’s vision on lower league football aka European Fields during the period. It will be on show in Fotomuseum Winthertur, Camera Austria in Graz and the Künstlerhaus in Vienna, among other venues. Also worth mentioning is Arbeit und Spiel, the mid-career retrospective of Van der Meer’s work at Camera Austria in Graz. Please refer to the agenda for exact dates. Contact: Johan Nieuwenhuize (jn@paradox.nl)
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www.TheLastDaysOfShishmaref.net - website launch The Last Days Of Shishmaref, filmmaker Jan Louter’s new documentary, will premiere in the fall of 2008. The accompanying website, however, a co-production of broadcaster LLiNK, Miroir Film and Paradox, was brought on-line on the 21st of June.
© dana lixenberg 20 07
© hans van der meer 20 0 5
© AD VAN DENDEREN 20 0 3
Ad van Denderen’s project So Blue So Blue - Edges of the Mediterranean is the result of five years of work along the shores of the Mediterranean, exploring the economic, social and religious changes taking place in an area where north and south, east and west, Christianity and Islam have met for centuries. In his opening speech Abdelkader Benali said: “You can tell by looking at these photographs that [Van Denderen] was walking alongside his subjects. He’s not staying behind, shouting warnings like look out!, or going ahead, beckoning them to come on. No, he’s going at footpace, in their tempo and that creates an intimacy that grabs the spectator.” Exhibition and book are the astonishing final result of a long and intense process. So Blue, So Blue - Edges of the Mediterranean premiered in Rotterdam at the premises of co-producer Nederlands Fotomuseum on June 21. The project is being presented in large format, framed prints. Live broadcast satellite TV television from several Mediterranean countries complete the exhibition. The support granted by NCDO (The Dutch Committee for International Cooperation and Sustainability), the Netherlands Foundation for Visual Arts, Design and Architecture (Fonds BKVB), the Anna Cornelis Foundation, and corporate support from Eyes on Media and EPSON helped Paradox and Van Denderen realize this production. Contact: Iris Sikking is@paradox.nl > continued on next page
Both film and website show us life in the community of Shishmaref, located on the island of Sarichef on the Alaskan West Coast. The island is slowly disappearing into the ocean as a result of climate change. The website consists of several elements, including video diaries made by inhabitants. It also provides insight into the work of Jan Louter and his crew, and shows portraits and landscape photography by Dana Lixenberg. Historic photographs are juxtaposed with this contemporary visual material and film excerpts, illustrating the past of the island and its surroundings. News on Shishmaref and the current climate debate will regularly be updated by LLiNK (Dutch broadcaster and partner in this project). Maurits Groen Communications is the project’s main fundraising and PR advisor. Groen was responsible for the Dutch book version and film tour of Al Gore’s An Inconvenient Truth. The exhibition will be available for travelling from January 2009. The book will be launched in November 2008. Contact: Iris Sikking is@paradox.nl
PARADOX cre ates projects in photography, video and media related ar ts. The interaction bet ween social, economic and technologic al change is central to most thematic and monographic projects developed. PARADOX’ activities include travelling exhibitions, film production, book and electronic publishing and organising workshops and symposiums.
The bi-monthly Paradox newsletter is distributed digitally through email. You can sign up by going to www.paradox.nl /contact /do_contact.php
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Go No Go at school Almost five years after the 2003 Go No Go book and exhibition launch, an educational program based on Ad van Denderen’s extensive and important project on migration in Europe will be made available in September of this year. The program is Paradox’s response to the continued interest that schools are showing for the material. So far the program is in Dutch only. Interested foreign parties are however encouraged to get in touch with Lotte ten Voorde. www.go-no-go.nl/educatie Contact: Lotte ten Voorde (lv@paradox.nl)
25 / Flemish Fields (2000), DVD 29 min. colour / video / PAL € 24,99 / Five Stories (2007), Anastasia Khoroshilova picturing 5 historical shipyards in and around Amsterdam, € 6.95 (NL), € 9.95 (Europe and other). Publications can be ordered from Paradox at the prices indicated above (including shipping and VAT). The items will be sent after receiving your payment to IBAN account no: NL62ABNA0501434445 (ABNAMRO, Julianaweg, Volendam, The Netherlands: BIC/ swift code: ABNANL2A). For more information about publications: Iris Sikking (is@paradox.nl)
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AGENDA OF EXHIBITIONS © hans van der meer 20 0 5
organization is run by students of the Shishmaref School who aim to support and speed up the relocation efforts of the village people. Contact: Taco Hidde Bakker (tb@paradox.nl)
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VSB fonds’ new premises open with Diana Blok’s Ay Dios In May the VSB Foundation opened its premises in Utrecht. VSB is one of the largest private foundations in the Netherlands, supporting initiatives with social and cultural relevance. For the occasion Paradox was asked to install Diana Blok’s exhibition Ay Dios, a project that had been made possible with the foundation’s support back in 2001. Ay Dios was a project on the island of Curaçao, the main island of the Dutch Caribbean. Blok combines intimate portraits with confrontational documentary images of the harrowing socioeconomic situation of the area.
> continued: Première So Blue So Blue at Nederlands Fotomuseum SteidlMack, London will publish the accompanying 300-page book with pictures, background stories, demographic information and insights collected by Van Denderen and Prospektor, an Amsterdam based group of young historians/journalists. Frits Gierstberg, head of exhibitions at the Nederlands Fotomuseum, wrote an introductory text to the book that was designed by Utrecht based graphic designers Kummer & Herrman. The book will be presented at the opening of the exhibition and will be available from June 21. For sales information for the € 35 book, see www. steidlville.com. So Blue, So Blue - Edges of the Mediterranean will travel to the Fotomuseum Winterthur (November 2008) and other venues. The accompanying website www.sobluesoblue.nl is on-line.
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© Taco Hidde Bakker 20 0 8
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Why Mister, Why? and Baghdad Calling Paradox and Geert van Kesteren have discontinued their collaboration. Why Mister, Why?, the exhibition that was based on the book by the same title, will be toured by the Van Kesteren VOF, together with his other exhibitions such as Schraal, his successful project on poverty in The Netherlands. The outdoor proof print version of the exhibition premièred at the Rencontres d’Arles in 2005 and was later shown at TUe, Eindhoven. The multimedia variant started at the Nederlands Fotomuseum in September 2005 and traveled in 2007 to the Photofestival Krakow and the Kunstmuseum Mannheim. For more information on Why Mister, Why? and Baghdad Calling , which was shown at the Nederlands Fotomuseum in May of this year, contact Geert van Kesteren Photojournalism V.O.F. E. info@geertvankesteren.com / T. +31(0)20 - 41 22 084
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Paradox/Miroir video workshop in Alaska Shishmaref is the last community on an island off Alaska’s West Coast that is slowly disappearing into the ocean. During one of the final weeks of school in Shishmaref in late April, 2008, four students of the Shishmaref School enrolled in a video workshop, organized by Taco Hidde Bakker (Paradox) and Takashi Sakurai (Alaska Center for Documentary Film, Fairbanks USA). The videos they made during the workshop, mainly interviews with Shishmaref elders, can be viewed at the website www.lastdaysofshishmaref.net was launched atJune 21. Over the upcoming years they will contribute to the website’s chapter Local logs on a regular basis. This part of the website provides an inside view on the eroding village, which has been snowed under by foreign media crews in the past five years. By making videos, the young reporters are raising income for the S.O.S. foundation (Save Our Shishmaref). This
Staff Matters Project manager Olga Overbeek left Paradox in April of this year for a job as picture editor at Médecins Sans Frontières. Congratulations Olga, with this exciting new job! New on our staff is Lotte ten Voorde. As former staff member for education at the Nederlands Fotomuseum and freelance text-writer, she will take on different tasks at Paradox.
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PARADOX PUBICATIONS STILL AVAILABLE Several of the titles published or co-published by Paradox have become difficult to find in bookstores. The following publications can still be ordered directly: >Play (2001), Carel van Hees’s large format prizewinning book on youth culture, including audio CD, € 45 / Go No Go, Frontiers of Europe (2003), the English language edition of Ad van Denderen’s impressive book on migration in Europe,€ 45 / P’REND (2000), one of the new Dutch ‘Vinex’ residential neighbourhoods seen through the eyes of five photographers, € 13.50 / The Deaths in Newport, CD-ROM production by Lewis Baltz, €
European Fields, Hans van der Meer > 4 April - 6 July 2008 Künstlerhaus in Vienna, Austria > 30 May - 31 August 2008 Camera Austria, Graz, Austria > 4 June - 27 August 2008 Museum of World Culture, Gothenburg, Sweden > 6 June - 24 August 2008 Fotomuseum Winterthur, Switzerland Go No Go, Ad van Denderen > 3 June – 8 June 2008 Les Voûtes, Paris during the Festival itinErrance > 12 September - 4 October 2008 Halle Verrière, Meisenthal, France in cooperation with Osmosiscie dance company The Last Days of Shishmaref – Dana Lixenberg, Jan Louter 10 November – 23 December LPII, Las Palmas Rotterdam So Blue So Blue; Edges Of The Mediterranean, Ad van Denderen > 21 June – 31 August 2008 Nederlands Fotomuseum, Rotterdam > 29 November 2008 – 15 February 2009 Fotomuseum Winterthur, Switzerland
Director: Bas Vroege (bv@paradox.nl) - Project Managers: Johan Nieuwenhuize (jn@paradox.nl): European Fields – Hans van der Meer, Ay Dios – Diana Blok; Iris Sikking (is@paradox.nl): The Last Days of Shishmaref – Dana Lixenberg, Go No Go – Ad van Denderen, So Blue So Blue – Ad van Denderen, LONG LIVE ME! – Ed van der Elsken; Taco Hidde Bakker (tb@paradox.nl): research The Last Days of Shishmaref; Lotte ten Voorde (lv@paradox.nl)
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NEWSLETTER NOVEMBER 2007
Première digital version >Play at Kunstverein Ludwigshafen The Fotofestival Mannheim_Ludwigshafen_Heidelberg saw the première of the five-screen digital version of the exhibition >Play by Carel van Hees. It was was shown from September 22 through October 21 at the Kunstverein Ludwigshafen and received a warm welcome from audience, press and the host institution. Paradox produced the new version for the festival from the twenty-screen slide projected installation originally developed in the framework of Rotterdam Cultural Capital of Europe in 2001. >Play is about what it is like to be young, anywhere and in all eras. For three years the Rotterdam photographer Carel van Hees turned his camera on the youth of Rotterdam. He focused on their character, their aura and energy. With >Play Van Hees fulfilled his long-cherished wish to combine photography with other media. The exhibition combines the website www.play-record.nl,
Mondriaan Foundation to support Oswiecim Now The Mondriaan Foundation
Ad van Denderen to receive major Dutch art prize On January 25, 2008, Ad
has granted support to Oswiecim Now, one of the Paradox projects under development. Hans Citroen, Carel van Hees, Barbara Starzynska and Bas Vroege are working together on this project, dealing with the post-war history of the Polish town better known in history as Auschwitz, leading to an exhibition (to be designed by Jeroen de Vries), book (design Mevis & Van Deursen) and a website.
van Denderen (b. 1943) will receive one of the bi-annual oeuvre prizes from the Fonds BKVB (The Netherlands Foundation for Visual Arts, Design and Architecture). The Fonds BKVB, one of the most important cultural funds in The Netherlands, has also honoured artists René Daniels (painting), Bruno Ninaber van Eyben (design) and Wim Quist (architecture) with awards. The € 40,000 prize is meant to highlight artists, designers and architects with an extraordinary professional record.
“Oswiecim Now is a project on the discrepancy between the personal and institutional history of the Polish town Oswiecim […] from 1940 until now, based on personal stories and archival research. The special interest of this project is that historical developments are mapped from an artistic, scientific and personal viewpoint. There is a balance between research and artistic strategies that we find exemplary” (quote from Mondriaan Foundation letter, dated October 24, 2007) Contact: Olga Overbeek (oo@paradox.nl)
The press release by The Netherlands Foundation for Visual Arts, Design and Architecture states: “Photographer Ad van Denderen, well known for his long term projects like Go No Go and the recent Edges of the Mediterranean, is making statements about social structures in areas with a high political tension. In his pictures he combines misery and aesthetics in a very pure way, but never at the expense of the documentary value of his subject.”
© PARADOX 20 07
© BAS VROEGE 20 0 6
© AD VAN DENDEREN 20 0 3
Van Hees’ film >Play, as well as the soundtrack earlier used in the large version of the exhibition. Contact: Olga Overbeek (oo@paradox.nl)
Five Stories by Anastasia Khoroshilova launched at Edam shipyard Anastasia Khoroshilova, a young Russian photographer, visited The Netherlands in the framework of the IPRN Changing Faces programme, which focuses on various aspects of work in the European Union. Khoroshilova documented places similar to the ones visited by the Russian Czar Peter the Great in 1697, when he set out to learn the secrets of modern shipbuilding. In Amsterdam (Stella Maris and ‘t Kromhout), Edam (Groot BV), Monnickendam (Slot BV) and Zaandam (Wed. K. Brouwer BV) Khoroshilova portrayed the shipbuilders and their workshops. Her journey resulted in the intimate publication Five Stories and a one day exhibition at the historical shipyard Groot in Edam on October 20. The book, measuring 12 x 14 cm, 64 pages (Paradox’s smallest book ever!) can be ordered from Paradox > next page
PARADOX cre ates projects in photography, video and media related ar ts. The interaction bet ween social, economic and technologic al change is central to most thematic and monographic projects developed. PARADOX’ activities include travelling exhibitions, film production, book and electronic publishing and organising workshops and symposiums.
The bi-monthly Paradox newsletter is distributed digitally through email. You can sign up by going to www.paradox.nl /contact /do_contact.php
© DANA LIXENBERG 20 07
© PARADOX 20 07
European Fields at EU, Brussels
© AD VAN DENDEREN, 20 0 3
Hans van der Meer’s successful project European Fields will be shown at the premises of the European Union in Brussels in December. European Union, Place Madou,1049 Brussels, Belgium, December 3 through 21, 2007. Contact: Olga Overbeek (oo@paradox.nl) ------------------------------------------------------------
The Last Days of Shishmaref: Dana Lixenberg’s second shoot In June, Jan Louter and his film crew as well as photographer Dana Lixenberg spent another working period on the island of Sarishef. Both are working on the project The Last Days of Shishmaref, a coproduction of Miroir Film, the Rotterdam-based broadcast company LliNK and Paradox. The 600 some people living on the island will have to be relocated in 8 to10 years as a consequence of the effects of global warming. Louter plans to have the 90 minute documentary ready in the spring. The exhibition and book, adding Lixenberg’s photography, will be launched shortly thereafter. Paradox researcher Taco Hidde Bakker has started in-depth research for the website. Later this year he will visit Shishmaref to start up the project of collecting video diaries made by young inhabitants. He will also visit film and photography archives located in Canada, the USA and Denmark to do more research on the history of the island and the life of the Inupiat. Webdesigners AntennaMen are currently building the site that is planned to go on-line at the end of February 2008. For more information: Iris Sikking (is@paradox.nl) © DANA LIXENBERG 20 07
© HANS VAN DER MEER 20 0 4
(see Paradox publications). Until the 2nd of December, Five Stories can be seen as part of the Changing Faces / WORK # 3 group exhibition hosted by the Art Museum of Rovaniemi, Finland. For more information: Aleksandra Kononiuk (ak@paradox.nl) ------------------------------------------------------------
information around these issues, the information on the website -which dates from 2003- will be updated by the Institute for Migration and Ethnic Studies (related to the University of Amsterdam). The material will be available as of September 2008. For more information: Iris Sikking (is@paradox.nl) ------------------------------------------------------------
‘Big three’ to back up Go No Go school project on migration In a joined effort, The Egbert Kunst Fund (part of the Prins Bernhard Cultural Fund), the VSB Fund and the Mondriaan Foundation, three major funds supporting the arts, have lent financial support to the development of a special school programme, based on Paradox’s 2003 project Go No Go with photographer Ad van Denderen. The programme is aimed at pupils between 14-18 years old and will be developed by Paradox in association with partner Alice O, a non-profit organisation specialising in developing educational material for children with the intention of providing a broader perspective on international themes. The programme will focus on the changing policies of European countries in recent years, the changing flows of migration to Europe and role in the media in shaping public opinion with regard to migration, and is directed at history as well as art classes. In this framework various pictures from Go No Go will be studied intensively and compared to news reportages made on the same theme. To encourage the pupils to generate recent
project will be shown first at the Nederlands Fotomuseum and will be accompanied by a SteidlMack publication in the summer of 2008. Johan Neuwenhuize (b. 1980) holds a BFA in photography from the KABK (Royal Academy of Arts) in The Hague (2006) and will combine his work for Paradox with his own artistic practice. Johan will be showing his personal work at De Melkweg Galerie, Amsterdam in April, 2008.
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PARADOX PUBICATIONS STILL AVAILABLE Several of the titles published or co-published by Paradox have become difficult to find in bookstores. The following publications can still be ordered directly: >Play (2001), Carel van Hees’s large format prize-winning book on youth culture, including audio CD, € 45 / Go No Go, Frontiers of Europe (2003), the English language edition of Ad van Denderen’s impressive book on migration in Europe, € 45 / P’REND (2000), one of the new Dutch ‘Vinex’ residential neighbourhoods seen through the eyes of five photographers, € 13.50 / The Deaths in Newport, CD-ROM production by Lewis Baltz, € 25 / Flemish Fields (2000), DVD 29 min.colour / video / PAL € 24,99 / Five Stories (2007), Anastasia Khoroshilova picturing 5 historical shipyards in and around Amsterdam, € 6.95 (NL), € 9.95 (Europe and other).
Publications can be ordered from Paradox at the prices indicated above (including shipping and VAT). The items will be sent after receiving your payment to IBAN account no: NL62ABNA0501434445 (ABNAMRO, Julianaweg, Volendam, The Netherlands: BIC/ swift code: ABNANL2A). For more information about publications: Iris Sikking (is@paradox.nl)
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AGENDA OF EXHIBITIONS DECEMBER 3- 21, 2007 EUROPEAN FIELDS - HANS VAN DER MEER European Union, Place Madou, 1049 Brussels, Belgium SEPTEMBER 8, 2006 – MARCH, 2008 GO NO GO – AD VAN DENDEREN In group exhibition Traficking, Museum of World Culture, Gothenburg, Sweden -----------------------------------------------------------STAFF MATTERS Johan Nieuwenhuize joined the Paradox team in August of this year, taking over the project management of Edges of the Mediterranean of Ad van Denderen. The
OCTOBER 12 – DECEMBER 2, 2007 CHANGING FACES - WORK #3 Art Museum of Rovaniemi, Finland
Director: Bas Vroege (bv@paradox.nl) - Project Managers: Olga Overbeek (oo@paradox.nl): Why Mister, Why? – Geert van Kesteren, European Fields – Hans van der Meer, Oswiecim Now – Hans Citroen, Carel van Hees, Bas Vroege, >Play – Carel van Hees, Iris Sikking (is@paradox.nl): Go No Go – Ad van Denderen, The Wars – Oscar van Alphen, Britanya – Marjoleine Boonstra, LONG LIVE ME! – Ed van der Elsken, Margot Knijn (mk@paradox.nl): WORK; Johan Nieuwenhuize (jn@paradox.nl): Edges of the Mediterranean – Ad van Denderen. Assistants & interns: Aleksandra Kononiuk (ak@paradox.nl), Taco Hidde Bakker (tb@paradox.nl)
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NEWSLETTER mar / apr 2007 © Vincent Debanne, from the series : dreamworks (20 06)
WORK: iPRN / CHANGING FACES EXHIBITION #2 AT SCHELTEMA, LEIDEN Stedelijk Museum De Lakenhal presents the international photography project Changing Faces in Scheltema. Six European photographers were commissioned in 2006 by IPRN (International Photography Research Network) on the theme of ‘work’. Within this framework, particular attention is paid to changes within the sphere of work: on the one hand the geographical shifting of work and workforces within the new European boundaries, and on the other hand the changing nature of work becoming increasingly invisible. In 2006, IPRN commissioned Vincent Debanne (France), Ulrich Gebert (Germany), Tomoko Yoneda (UK), Luigi Gariglio (Italy), Tuomo Manninen (Finland) and Xavier Ribas (Spain). Their approaches to the subject differed greatly. Debanne e.g. brought together modern heavy industry and the leisure industry in Slovakia. Gariglio focused on family run businesses in Finland, whereas Xavier Ribas, working in the Netherlands, got fascinated by the anonymity and interchangeability that (members of) the ‘corporate world’ seem to regard, so highly.
In addition to this he made a video-installation with images of Agriport A7, a gigantic high-tech greenhouse complex under construction, which hopes to breathe new life into the Wieringermeer polder 70 years after its creation. Changing Faces is organised by Paradox, the Masters in Photographic Studies (MaPS)/Faculty of Creative and Performing Arts, Leiden University, and Stedelijk Museum De Lakenhal. After Leiden, the exhibition will travel to Valencia (Spain) and Liptovsky Mikulas (Slovakia). On March 22, the day of the opening, a series of lectures will be organised in Leiden following the theme of the exhibition (for more information see page 2). The exhibition will be accompanied by a book, published by Veenman Publishers. For more information please contact : Margot Knijn, mk@ paradox.nl De Lakenhal in Scheltema, Marktsteeg 1, Hoek Oude Singel, Leiden. Open : Tuesday–Sunday, 12.00–17.00, March 23 - May 13. © melle van essen (20 06)
© ad van denderen (20 06)
Why Mister, Why? in Eindhoven The Studium Generale programme of the Technical University in Eindhoven will show the print version of Why Mister, Why? by Geert van Kesteren from April 3 until May 4. The 50 text-image combinations are shown together with a soundscape, a live newsfeed and the website www.whymisterwhy.com to give in depth information on Iraq and Van Kesteren’s photographs. Why Mister, Why? tells the story of what happened in Iraq after the USA declared to have won the war, a story that forms part of the roots of the critical situation in Iraq today. For more information : w w w.studiumgenerale-eindhoven.nl TUE, Den Dolech 2, Auditorium 2.02 Eindhoven The Netherlands
Edges of the Mediterranean to be published by SteidlMack The Netherlands Foundation for Visual Arts, Design and Architecture (known in the Netherlands as Fonds BKVB) has granted Ad van Denderen for completing his project Edges of the Mediterranean. For the project, leading to a new traveling Paradox show and a book published by SteidlMack, Van Denderen pictures the effects of economic and cultural change around the shorelines of the Mediterranean, covering 18 countries altogether. He started working on the project shortly after completing Go No Go in 2003. M Magazine, the monthly colour supplement of the Dutch newspaper NRC Handelsblad, will run a spread from the project every month, starting in March.
The Last Days of Shishmaref Paradox and the Rotterdam based broadcast company Llink have teamed up to develop a project around an upcoming documentary by the Dutch filmmaker Jan Louter (Miroir Film). Shishmaref, an island on the west coast of Alaska, is believed to become the first victim of the rise of the sea level due to global warming, forcing the population of ca. 600 to relocate on the Alaska mainland. The financial means to make the move possible, estimated at some 200 million euros, are not available yet. Louter and camera man Melle van Essen visited the island in 2006 and will return with a crew in March and June of this year. >>> Continued on nex t page
PARADOX creates projects in photography, video and media related ar ts. Contemporar y histor y, the interaction bet ween social, economic and technological change are central to most of the projects developed. PARADOX’ activities include travelling exhibitions, film production, book and electronic publishing, as well as organising workshops and symposiums.
The bi-monthly Paradox newslet ter is distributed digitally through email. You can sign up by going to ht tp : / / w w w.paradox.nl /contact
Web designers AntennaMen will develop a site that will bring together elements of the work by the film crew, a video blog by two Shishmaref school kids as well as other information. Photographer Dana Lixenberg will travel to the island to portray the people and their way of life, in the light of the changes they are facing. The Last days of Shishmaref (the ca. 90 min. film, the book and the exhibition) will become available at the end of 2007. ________________________________________
photographers Vincent Debanne, Luigi Gariglio, Ulrich Gebert, Tuomo Manninen, Xavier Ribas, Tomoko Yoneda who worked on the project in 2006. The title of Moschovi’s lecture is: ‘The Face of Labour’. The lecture presents an archaeology of the iconic and ideologically charged images of physical work that contemporary representations of labour may have drawn upon or departed from. Helen Westgeest will speak about the invisibility of work. In his lecture ‘Exposed Transparencies’ Kimmo Lehtonen will focus on the work of two 2006 commissions. Vincent Debanne, Luigi Gariglio, Ulrich Gebert, Tuomo Manninen, Xavier Ribas, Tomoko Yoneda, the six photographers of the Changing Faces exhibition, will introduce their work. They will talk in particular about the role of research and theory in their work and their views on the collaboration between academics and photographers. March 22, Lipsius Building, Universit y Leiden, Cleveringaplaats 1, Leiden. Tickets € 15,- (students € 7,50), programme in English. For information & reser vation : info @ paradox.nl ________________________________________
continued from page 1 >>>
Go No Go part of Mosaïque The one-screen film version Go No Go by Ad van Denderen will be part of the final exhibition on the Mosaïque programme in the Centre National de l’Audiovisuel in Luxemburg. Mosaïque was running between 1996 and 2003 and was financed by the Luxemburg Ministry of Culture. The programme awarded photographers, artists and researchers dealing with current European themes. Van Denderen received a grant for his extended project on European migration in 2000. The Mosaïque exhibition will encompass the work of 28 awarded photographers. Program Mosaïque, Centre National de l’Audiovisuel, Luxemburg, May 23 - August 19, 2007. _____________________________________
Update: Oswiecim Now
Changing Faces 2007: Kämena, Khoroshilova selected © ANASTASIA KHOROSHILOVa (20 06)
CHANGING FACES / WORK SYMPOSIUM ON MARCH 22 Preceding the opening of the exhibition Changing Faces / WORK the Faculty of Creative and Performing Arts / Masters in Photographic Studies and Paradox organise a one day symposium. Among the speakers are: Alexandra Moschovi (University of Sunderland, England), Helen Westgeest (Leiden University, The Netherlands), Kimmo Lehtonen(University Jyväskyla, Finland) and the
Between the spring and the fall of 2007 three more trips will be made by the crews working on Oswiecim Now, the project based on the research of architect Barbara Starzynska and visual artist Hans Citroen on the postwar history of the Polish town of Oswiecim (Auschwitz). Filmmaker André van der Hout and crew will visit the town in September, the photographic research by Citroen, Carel van Hees and Bas Vroege will be continued in April. The planned exhibition will be available for touring as of the spring of 2008, a book will be published to coincide with the première of the exhibition. For more info : Olga Overbeek (oo @ paradox.nl). _____________________________________
STAFF MATTERS
Bicycle racing meets football Hans van der Meer’s photos of amateur football in Belgium and the Netherlands are part of an exhibition at Cultuurcentrum Hasselt, Belgium. Van der Meer’s photographs are combined with Alain Breyers photographs of audiences watching bicycle races. The exhibition will still be up until February 25. For more information : w w w.ccha.be © Hans van der meer
As part of exchange programme Changing Faces, Dutch photographer Ralph Kämena has been selected for a commission in Russia. In his photography and video works, Kämena focuses on the effects people have on their surroundings and the traces they leave in it. Kämena will cover the boom of IT related work in Russia, out-sourced from western European countries. Russian photographer Anastasia Khoroshilova has been selected for commission in the Netherlands. In her sensitive, traditional portraits Khoroshilova shows people in their environment. Following the footsteps of Czar Peter, she will be looking at shipbuilding in the Netherlands, an industry that was downsized dramatically during the 80s. Most of the remaining wharfs focus on high-tech, small volume work next to a handful dealing with historical ships. Changing Faces is an initiative of the International Photography Research Network (IPRN) and is backed by the EU. Paradox and the Masters in Photographic Studies of the University Leiden are partners to the programme. For more information on IPRN : w w w.theiprn.org _____________________________________
It has now been supplanted by a high definition video version that is available for collections in various formats, ranging from 1080p full HD video on hard disk to HD-DVD or Blu-ray Disc. A SDDVD version will become available later this spring for collections. The Wars can be purchased from Paradox at € 7500 or rented for viewing, starting at € 250 /day.
As of January 1st Rixt Bosma decided to stop her work at the Paradox headquarters in Edam. Since September 2006 she has combined her efforts for Paradox with her work as web-editor of the Dutch online photography agenda Photostart. Now, she will further extend her work as a freelance art historian, and will work as assistant of photojournalist and documentary photographer Geert van Kesteren (nominee Magnum Photos). Rixt Bosma started working at Paradox with Bas Vroege in the spring of 2004. She was as Travelling Exhibitions Manager and later as Project Manager involved in the development, production and the international travelling of the exhibition and website Why Mister, Why? Iraq 2003-2004 by Geert van Kesteren (2005) and the reconstruction and restauration of the audiovisual installation De Oorlogen/The Wars by Oscar van Alphen (2006). She was also responsible for the tours of the exhibition Go No Go by Ad van Denderen and the exhibition Dutch Fields and Flemish Fields by Hans van der Meer. Contact Rix t Bosma : rix t.amarins @ gmail.com Margot Knijn joined Paradox in October for the production of the book and exhibition WORK. Leon Hendrickx and Aleksandra Kononiuk started their activities as interns at Paradox in February 2007. Project manager Olga Overbeek will be travelling China for six weeks until mid April. _____________________________________
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Agenda of Exhibitions
The Wars available for collections, DVD to follow
– March, 2008 Go No Go – Ad van Denderen
Paradox has completed the restoration and remaking of Oscar van Alphen’s audiovisual production The Wars (De Oorlogen). The process involved the digitization of the sound, the original slides and the 16 mm film that were all part of the piece, as well as the creation of an English soundtrack. The Wars combines George Bataille’s 1941 text Madame Edwarda with van Alphen’s images on the 1968 revolution and industrial decay. The original installation, shown first at Rotterdam’s Museum Boijmans van Beuningen in 1984, made use of 6 slide projectors and a 16 mm film projector and was increasingly problematic to show.
in group exhibition Trafficking, Museum of World Culture, Göteborg, Sweden
March 23 – May 13, 2007 CHANGING FACES: ‘work’ exhibition #2 Scheltema, Leiden, The Netherlands
April 2 – May 6, 2007 WHY MISTER, WHY? Print version – GEERT VAN KESTEREN University, Eindhoven, The Netherlands
Director: Bas Vroege (bv@paradox.nl) - Project Managers: Olga Overbeek (oo@paradox.nl): Why Mister, Why? - Geert van Kesteren, European Fields – Hans van der Meer, Oswiecim Now - Hans Citroen, Carel van Hees, Bas Vroege, >Play – Carel van Hees, Paradox Website; Iris Sikking (is@paradox.nl): Go No Go - Ad van Denderen, Edges of the Mediterranean - Ad van Denderen, The Wars - Oscar van Alphen, Britanya – Marjoleine Boonstra, LONG LIVE ME! – Ed van der Elsken, Paradox digital publications/ films, Education; Margot Knijn (mk@paradox.nl): WORK; Assistants / Interns: Aleksandra Kononiuk (ak@paradox.nl), Léon Hendrickx (lh@paradox.nl)
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© Oscar van Alphen, Kermis, uit : De Oorlo gen (19 8 5) en De slak op he t grasveld (19 91)
NEWSLETTER Nov / DEC 2006
Remake of Oscar van Alphen’s The Wars De Oorlogen (The Wars) (1985) by photographer Oscar van Alphen (b. 1923) will be screened on November 24 at the Shadow Film Festival in Amsterdam. De Oorlogen (The Wars) is a complex production, combining Georges Bataille’s pornographic text Madame Edwarda with images of industrial decay and social disintegration. The audiovisual piece, encompassing 6 slide projectors and 16 mm film, was shown twice as part of an installation in Museum Boijmans van Beuningen (Rotterdam) and Museum Fodor (Amsterdam) in the mid 1980s. The screen part was filmed and shown as a one screen video at a number of occasions since. Going back to the original material, Paradox has restaurated the piece and turned it into a high definition digital production. Alongside, the subtitled English version
has been replaced by an English spoken edition. The reconstruction was made possible thanks to the financial support of the VSB Fonds, Thuiskopie fonds and the Prins Bernhard Cultuurfonds. Paradox will make the work in its original Dutch and the new English version available on DVD in 2007, together with a short documentary by filmmakers Jan Pieter Tuinstra and Thomas Blom. Tuinstra (b. 1971) and Blom (b. 1970) both graduated from the St. Joost Academie of Visual Arts in Breda and have worked since as independent filmmakers, combining their skills as (script-)writer, director and cameraman for their company Stanzafilm. De Oorlogen will be a significant part of Van Alphen’s exhibition at the Nederlands Fotomuseum in Rotterdam from September 8 to October 21, 2007.
Foto&Photo shows Ed van der Elsken and Hans van der Meer
The sixth edition of the photofestival in Cesano Maderno (greater area of Milan) opened September 23 and is still running until November 19. The main part of the festival is curated by Enrica Viganò of Admira. Long Live Me !, the traveling show co-produced by Paradox and the Nederlands Fotomuseum, is shown at the elegant setting of the Palazzo Arese Borromeo. Ed van der Elsken is is best known for his passionate street photography and books. The exhibition examines the relationship between his photographs and his films which are lesser known. The yard and porticoes of Palazzo Arese Jacini show the open-air version of Hans van der Meer’s European Fields, developed by the Museo Fotografia Contemporanea in Cinisello Balsamo (Milan) where the exhibition was shown before.
Why Mister, Why? in The Photobook – A history, volume 2
Gerry Badger and Martin Parr’s successful reference book on the history of photographic publications prominently lists Why Mister, Why?. Geert van Kesteren’s 2004 publication appears both in the book’s back cover blurb as inside where it is referred to as ‘a photobook in the best concerned-photographer tradition. It takes the same kind of skeptical and independent tone as that adopted by Jones Griffiths back in 1971. Always focusing upon the impact of the conflict of non-combatants, and setting the whole event in a considerate political context. (…) overall, Why Mister, Why? is a damning indictment of what at that moment showed every sign of being another Vietnam.’ Why Mister, Why?, the traveling Paradox exhibition will in 2007 be shown at Powerhouse, Brisbane (Australia) and Technical University in Eindhoven (The Netherlands).
Filmshoot AGRIPORT with X avier Ribas
Why Mister, Why?, Geert van Kesteren, Amsterdam, 20 0 4
Long Live Me ! Ed van der Elsken @ Foto & Photo
The Shadow Film Festival will be held from 20 November until 29 November 2006. For up-to-date information and tickets, please visit www.shadowfestival.nl. Screening of De Oorlogen (The Wars) will be on November 24, 16.00h at De Melkweg, Amsterdam.
Changing Faces / WORK #2 at Scheltema, Leiden
From March 23 to May 18 2007 the results of the 2006 photography assignments of Changing Faces will be shown at a new exhibition venue in Leiden, the Netherlands. Scheltema, a former textile factory, is a new cultural platform for contemporary art run by Museum De Lakenhal. Part of Scheltema is used by theater De Veenfabriek. The University Leiden, the Royal Conservatorium and the Royal Academy, both based in The Hague, occasionally make use of it’s facilities for presentation of projects. Scheltema aims at being a meetingplace between theory and practice of various art disciplines. Changing Faces is an EU (Culture 2000) sponsored, commission based project run by the International Photography Research Network (IPRN). >>> CONTINUED ON PAGE 2
PARADOX creates projects in photography, video and media related ar ts. The interaction bet ween social, economic and technologic al change is central to most thematic and monographic projects developed. PARADOX’ activities include travelling exhibitions, film production, book and electronic publishing and organising workshops and symposiums.
The bi-monthly Paradox newsletter is distributed digitally through email. You can sign up by going to http : //www.paradox.nl /contact
>>> IPRN was founded in 2004 by the University of Sunderland (Great Britain), Museum Folkwang (Germany), Dom Fotografie in Liptovský Mikulás (Slovakia), the University of Leiden (Netherlands) and the University of Jyväskylä (Finland). Paradox, supported by the Mondriaan foundation, is involved as a partner to the University of Leiden. The central theme of all the photo projects is WORK. Spanish photographer Xavier Ribas is in the Netherlands working on his assignment for Changing Faces 2006/2007. In his work Ribas focuses on how landscape and architecture influence social structures. One of his subjects is Agriport, a huge industrial greenhouse project under development in the Wieringermeer, 50 kms north of Amsterdam. Ribas’ work will be shown at Scheltema as of March 23, 2007 together with the results of commissions carried out by Ulrich Gebert (D) in Spain, Tomoko Yoneda (GB) in Italy, Luigi Gariglio (I) in Finland, Vincent Debanne (F) in Slovakia and Tuomo Manninen (SF) in France.
Ed van der Elsken – Long Live Me!
Staff matters Paradox director Bas Vroege has joined the Supervisory Board of the Amsterdam based organisation World Press Photo in September of this year. The George Eastman House in Rochester, New York, invited him to join the institution’s International Board of Advisors in October. Paradox project manager Olga Overbeek graduated from MAPS, the Master of Photographic Studies of the University Leiden on October 6. In her thesis she investigates the narrative structures developed for the different productions (website, book, exhibition) that are part of Geert van Kesteren’s project Why Mister, Why?
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© Carel van Hees, Oswiecim, O ctober 20 0 5
Geert van Kesteren – Why Mister, Why? Iraq 2003-2004 published by Artimo,
Amsterdam, 2004. Exhibition, available in projected and print version: 3 billboard size projections (minimum 3x8 m) or 25 free standing poster boards (120x160 cm), computers, books, wall texts, soundscape. Space required: 200-600 m2. Exhibition fee: € 3,500 - € 10,000. Website: www. whymisterwhy.com. For further information please contact Rixt Bosma (rb@paradox.nl).
Football, men and human behaviour
From November 6 Hans van der Meer’s photos of amateur football in Europe are shown at the Technical University in Eindhoven, the Netherlands. The exhibition space is part of the Studium Generale programme. Hans van der Meer and Jan Mulder will give a lecture about football, men and human behaviour on November 13 at 16.30h. For more information: www.tue.nl/sg - Den Dolech 2 - Auditorium 2.02 – Eindhoven NL
Hans van der Meer - European Fields - The Landscape of Lower League Football consists of ca. 100 photographs,
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Photography and films. Exhibition: ca. 120 prints, 17 film fragments, introductory film. Space required: 60-100 running meters, 300-500 m2. Exhibition fee: € 7,000. Optional: film and slideprojections. For further information please contact Iris Sikking (is@paradox.nl).
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consists of a publication, a multimedia travelling exhibition, a film and the website. Exhibition 1-4 large screen projections, 1-4 monitors with Britanya by Marjoleine Boonstra, computers with www.go-nogo.nl, books, text slides. Space required 300-500 m2. Exhibition fee: € 5,000 - € 10,000. Website www.go-no-go.nl. For further information please contact Rixt Bosma (rb@paradox.nl).
filmfestival, location: De Melkweg, reservations: 020-5318 181 / info @ melkweg.nl
> Play, Carel van Hees @ L as Palmas 20 01
London based publisher steidlMACK have recently launched Spelplats Europa, the Swedish version of Hans van der Meer’s succesfull book European Fields – The Landscape of Lower League Football. Spelplats Europa follows the publication of the paperback edition in four languages and a large, clothbound edition in April 2006. The French, German and Dutch edition have gone into reprint. Paperback (Dutch, English, German, French, Swedish) 21 x 29.7 cm, 176 pp, € 25 Clothbound version (English only) 26.6 x 38 cm, 176 pp, € 85 More information: www.steidlville.com or www.verbeelding-fotoboeken.nl
Ad van Denderen – Go No Go
November 24, 16.00 De Oorlogen (The Wars) - Oscar van Alphen, screening remake, The Shadow
consists of a publication, a multimedia travelling exhibition and a website. Exhibition 6-21 screen projections (2 x 3 m). Space required: 200 – 1200 m2. Exhibition fee: € 7,000 - € 12,500. Website: www.playrecord.nl For further information please contact Olga Overbeek (oo@paradox.nl).
Spelplats Europa
Travelling Exhibitions
Foto &Photo Festival, Cesano, near Milan, Italy
Carel van Hees - >Play
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UPCOMING EXHIBITIONS © Hans van der Meer, Bradford Engeland, 20 0 5
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September 23 – November 19, 2006 LONG LIVE ME! – Ed van der Elsken,
sizes varying from 35 x 50 cm - 95 x 140 cm, 4 videos (ca. 30 mins. each) on DVD. Space required: 150 - 250 running meters. Exhibition fee: € 8,250. For further information please contact Olga Overbeek (oo@paradox.nl).
CONTINUED FROM PAGE 1
Hans Citroen, Carel van Hees, Bas Vroege – Oswiecim Now will be developed
throughout 2006 and 2007, becoming available in early 2008 as a book and a multimedia exhibition. Dutch filmer André van der Hout will produce a documentary film. For further information please contact Olga Overbeek (oo@paradox.nl).
Ad van Denderen – Edges of the Mediterranean will consist of a full-colour
publication, a documentary narrative in full-page spreads, a travelling exhibition and a website. Edges of the Mediterranean will become available late 2007/early 2008. Co-producing partners for the project will be announced in the course of 2006. For further information please contact Rixt Bosma (rb@paradox.nl).
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Agenda of Exhibitions November 9 – 10 December, 2006 European Fields – Hans van der Meer, Technische Universiteit Eindhoven, Studium Generale
September 8, 2006 – March, 2008 Go No Go – Ad van Denderen, in group
exhibition Trafficking, Museum of World Culture, Göteborg, Sweden
_______________________________ Paradox publications
Several other titles published or co-published by Paradox have become difficult to find in bookstores. The following publications can still be ordered directly: >Play (2001), Carel van Hees’s large format prize-winning book on youth culture, including audio CD, € 45; Go No Go, Frontiers of Europe (2003), the English language edition of Ad van Denderen’s impressive book on migration in Europe, € 45; P‘REND (2000), one of the new Dutch ‘Vinex’ residential neighbourhoods seen through the eyes of five Dutch photographers, € 13,50; The Deaths in Newport, CD-ROM production by Lewis Baltz, € 25. Publications can be ordered from Paradox at the prices indicated above (including shipping and VAT). The items will be sent after receiving your payment to IBAN account no.: NL62ABNA0501434445 (ABN-AMRO, Julianaweg, Volendam, The Netherlands: BIC/swift code: ABNANL2A). For more information about publications: Iris Sikking, is@paradox.nl
Director: Bas Vroege (bv@paradox.nl) - Project Managers: Rixt Bosma (rb@paradox.nl): Go No Go - Ad van Denderen, Why Mister, Why? - Geert van Kesteren, Edges of the Mediterranean - Ad van Denderen, Ik wantrouw het beeld - Oscar van Alphen, De Oorlogen - Oscar van Alphen, Paradox Newsletter; Olga Overbeek (oo@paradox.nl): European Fields – Hans van der Meer, Oswiecim Now - Hans Citroen, Carel van Hees, Bas Vroege, >Play – Carel van Hees, Paradox Website; Iris Sikking (is@paradox.nl): Britanya – Marjoleine Boonstra, LONG LIVE ME! – Ed van der Elsken, Paradox digital publications/films, Education
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Hans van der Meer tours Europe With the World Championship football well on its way, Fotografie Forum international in Frankfurt had the German premiere of European Fields on June 3. The show will be up until July 16. One week later, a special version of the show opened in greater Milan, Italy, in the town Cinisello Balsamo. The exhibition can be seen on Piazza Gramsci, in front of the Museo di Fotografia Contemporanea. The square was renovated recently under architecture of Dominique Perrault, the French architect who also was responsible for the new Bibliothèque
Nationale in Paris. The museum developed solar panel equipped structures to accommodate outdoor shows. On June 8, Dutch soccer fans, present at the premiere of Hans van der Meer’s recent film Calciatori della domenica were painfully reminded of Ajax’ first European Cup final, played against AC Milan in 1969. The match was lost with a 4-1 score, largely due to a unique hat-trick by Milan striker Pierino Prati. Prati, now in his early sixties, spoke at the premiere of Calciatori della domenica. The film is co-produced by Paradox and the Museo di Fotografia Contemporanea.
On September 8, the Museum of World Culture in Göteborg in Sweden will open Trafficking, a large exhibition which focuses on the subject of the current global trade in humans. It is an accelerating business mainly exploiting women and children. The exhibition shows strong personal stories, art works, documentary film, photography and private objects, testifying to inequalities, power relations, exploitation and profiting from people’s dreams of a better future. The Museum of World Culture incorporates a selection of photographs from the Paradox-project Go No Go by Ad van Denderen in Trafficking; other works are from Chinese-born artist Hung Liu, Palestinian artist Mona Hatoum and Spanish photographer Lorena Ros, among others. Trafficking will run until March 2008. See also w w w.worldculture.se for additional info
Ed van der Elsken (1925-1990), generally regarded as the most important Dutch photographer from the 20th century, is best known for his passionate street photography and books. Long Live Me! brings together his books, films and photographs in a very lively manner. Since 1996, Long Live Me! has been travelling to Institut Néerlandais, Paris, Amsterdam Historisch Museum, Amsterdam, Centro Portugues de fotografia, Porto and Galleria Civica, Modena. This year, the exhibition was shown at the Fotomuseum Antwerp, Belgium. Coming September the show will travel to the Foto&Photo festival in Italy. Every year this international meeting point turns the town of Cesano Maderno, near Milan, into the center of the Italian photography scene. The Foto &Photo festival is running from September 23 until November 26.
Single channel version of Why Mister, Why?
© G eert van K esteren , S amarra , I ra q , 2 0 0 4
Foto&Photo festival to show Long Live Me! in the fall
© Ed van der Elsken, Self-portrait with Ata K ando, Paris, 1951
Images from Go No Go in exhibition on human trafficking in Sweden
© A d van D enderen , P u nta Paloma , S pain , 2 0 01
Pierino Prati with Hans van der Meer on the square of Cinisello Balsamo (photo Edith Vroon). Additional information : w w w.mu s eo f o t o g r a f iacon t empor ane a.or g, w w w.f f i- f r ank f u r t .d e
Paradox is developing a single channel version of Why Mister, Why?, Geert van Kesteren’s award winning 2003-2004 document of the aftermath of the Iraq war, published by Artimo. The project was already available as a weatherproof print based exhibition as well as an impressive audiovisual installation. With the production of the single channel version (available on DVD or as high resolution data files) Why Mister Why? will be available as of September 2006 for smaller and educational audiences as well as venues with limited budget and/or space. An abridged version of the one channel production will soon become available on Magnum In Motion, a web space where Magnum photography is combined with audio commentary, text and graphics (www.magnuminmotion. com). Geert van Kesteren became a nominee of Magnum Photos in the spring of 2005.
PARADOX creates projects in photography, video and media related ar ts. The interaction bet ween social, economic and technologic al change is central to most thematic and monographic projects developed. PARADOX’ activities include travelling exhibitions, film production, book and electronic publishing and organising workshops and symposiums.
The bi-monthly Paradox newsletter is distributed digitally through email. You can sign up by going to To subscribe, please send an email with SUBSCRIBE as subject text to: oo @ paradox.nl
TRAVELLING EXHIBITIONS
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Ad van Denderen – Go No Go consists of a publication, a multimedia travelling exhibition, a film and the website. Exhibition 1-4 large screen projections, 1-4 monitors with Britanya by Marjoleine Boonstra, computers with www.go-no-go.nl, books, text slides. Space required 300-500 m2. Exhibition fee: € 5,000 - € 10,000. Website www.go-no-go.nl.
Paradox publications Museum stores
For further information please contact Rixt Bosma (rb@paradox.nl)
and specialised book shops can now order the DVD Flemish Fields, Hans van der Meer’s film on amateur football, from Idea Books, Amsterdam. Idea Books is an international distributor of fine books and catalogues on contemporary architecture, design, art, photography and film. Resellers can contact Idea Books directly at www.ideabooks.nl. End users can order Flemish Fields (2000) from Paradox at € 25. See below how to order. Several other titles published or co-published by Paradox have become difficult to find in bookstores. The following publications can still be ordered directly: - >Play (2001), Carel van Hees’s large format prize-winning book on youth culture, including audio CD, € 45; - Go No Go, Frontiers of Europe (2003), the English language edition of Ad van Denderen’s impressive book on migration in Europe, € 45; - P’REND (2000), one of the new Dutch ‘Vinex’ residential neighbourhoods seen through the eyes of five Dutch photographers, € 13,50; - The Deaths in Newport, CD-ROM production by Lewis Baltz, € 25. Publications can be ordered from Paradox at the prices indicated above (including shipping and VAT). The items will be sent after receiving your payment to IBAN account no.: NL62ABNA0501434445 (ABN-AMRO, Julianaweg, Volendam, The Netherlands: BIC/swift code: ABNANL2A). For more information about publications: Iris Sikking, is@paradox.nl
________________________________ Mondriaan Foundation grants support for WORK The Mondriaan
Foundation has granted Paradox the support for the continuation of the photo project WORK. WORK is a project initiated by Changing Faces, an EU Culture 2000 sponsored project run by the International Photography Research Network (IPRN). This spring, the Folkwang Museum in Essen, Germany, hosted the first exhibition with results of the six commissions that were given during the first first year. The exhibition will be shown next at the Museo di Fotografie Contemporanea in Cinisello Balsamo
For further information please contact Olga Overbeek (oo@paradox.nl) © AD VAN DENDEREN, SPAIN 20 0 4
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Hans Citroen, Carel van Hees, Bas Vroege – Oswiecim Now will be developed throughout 2006 and 2007, becoming available in late 2007/early 2008 as a book and a multimedia exhibition. Dutch filmer André van der Hout will produce a documentary film.
Hans van der Meer - European Fields - The Landscape of Lower League Football consists of ca. 100 photographs, sizes varying from 35 x 50 cm - 95 x 140 cm, 4 videos (ca. 30 mins. each) on DVD. Space required: 150 - 250 running meters. Exhibition fee: € 8,250. For further information please contact Olga Overbeek (oo@paradox.nl)
Hans van der Meer – Dutch Fields consists of 46 photographs, sizes varying from 22 x 32 cm – 103 x 143 cm, 1 video (ca. 30 min.) on DVD. Space required 40-60 running meters. Exhibition fee: € 4,500. For further information please contact Olga Overbeek (oo@paradox.nl)
Ed van der Elsken – Long Live Me! Photography and films. Exhibition: ca. 120 prints, 17 film fragments, introductory film. Space required: 60-100 running meters, 300-500 m2. Exhibition fee: € 7,000. Optional: film and slide-projections. For further information please contact Iris Sikking (is@paradox.nl)
Geert van Kesteren – Why Mister, Why? Iraq 2003-2004 published by Artimo, Amsterdam, 2004. Exhibition, available in projected and print version: 3 billboard size projections (minimum 3x8 m) or 25 free standing poster boards (120x160 cm), computers, books, wall texts, soundscape. Space required: 200-600 m2. Exhibition fee: € 3,500 - € 10,000. Website: www.whymisterwhy.com For further information please contact Rixt Bosma (rb@paradox.nl)
Ad van Denderen – Edges of the Mediterranean will consist of a full-colour publication, a documentary narrative in full-page spreads, a travelling exhibition and a website. Edges of the Mediterranean will become available late 2007/ early 2008. Co-producing partners for the project will be announced in the course of 2006. For further information please contact Rixt Bosma (rb@paradox.nl)
________________________________ All Paradox travelling exhibitions are scalable and always customized to space of the venue. Exhibition fees apply to 6 weeks; equipment, VAT and shipping not included.
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AGENDA OF EXHIBITIONS June 3 – July 16, 2006 > European Fields – Hans van der Meer, Fotografie Forum international, Frankfurt, Germany. June 10 – September 3, 2006 > European Fields – Hans van der Meer, Museo di Fotografia Contemporanea, Cinisello Balsamo (near Milan), Italy. June 24 - September 3, 2006 > Dutch Fields – Hans van der Meer, in group exhibition Click Double Click, Palais des Beaux Arts, Brussels, Belgium. September 8, 2006 – March, 2008 > Go No Go – Ad van Denderen, in group exhibition Trafficking, Museum of World Culture, Göteborg, Sweden. September 23 – November 19, 2006 > LONG LIVE ME! – Ed van der Elsken - Foto&Photo Festival, Cesano, near Milan, Italy.
Carel van Hees - > Play consists of a publication, a multimedia travelling exhibition and a website. Exhibition 6-21 screen projections (2 x 3 m). Space required: 200 – 1200 m2. Exhibition fee: € 7,000 - € 12,500. Website: www.play-record.nl For further information please contact Olga Overbeek (oo@paradox.nl)
BERTIEN VAN MANEN - EAST WIND WEST WIND consists of an exhibition and a publication. Exhibition: 8 tables holding 64 prints (ca. 30 x 40 cm), 7 screens (1.8 x 2.5 m). Space required: 200 - 800 m2. Exhibition fee: € 10,000. For further information please contact Iris Sikking (is@paradox.nl)
Director: Bas Vroege (bv@paradox.nl) - Project Managers: Rixt Bosma (rb@paradox.nl): Go No Go - Ad van Denderen, Why Mister, Why? - Geert van Kesteren, Edges of the Mediterranean - Ad van Denderen, Ik wantrouw het beeld - Oscar van Alphen, Paradox Newsletter; Olga Overbeek (oo@paradox.nl): European Fields – Hans van der Meer, Oswiecim Now - Hans Citroen, Carel van Hees, Bas Vroege, >Play – Carel van Hees, Paradox Website; Iris Sikking (is@paradox.nl): Britanya – Marjoleine Boonstra, LONG LIVE ME! – Ed van der Elsken, Paradox digital publications/films, Education
Long Live Me ! , Fotomuseum Antwerp, 20 0 6
The paperback version of the book is available in four languages; Dutch, English, French and German (21 x 29.7 cm, 176 pp, € 25) and there is a large format, luxury edition (26.6 x 38 cm, 176 pp, clothbound, € 85). For information on the publications: www. steidlville.com or www.verbeelding-fotoboeken.nl
For more information on IPRN: www.theiprn.org
Go No Go, L a Criéé, Rennes, 20 0 4
The German edition of European Fields – The Landscape of Lower League Football, which appeared late March of this year, was the language version of Hans van der Meer’s new publication, that sold out first. SteidlMACK decided to reprint the German, Dutch and English version of the book in June, less than three months after launching the new title.
picture from Dutch Fields by Hans van der Meer on the Dutch Embassy in Berlin
Second edition European Fields
UPCOMING EXHIBITIONS
(Milan) and the National Gallery in Reykjavik. The next Changing Faces exhibition with the theme WORK will be hosted by The Netherlands; this coproduction of University of Leiden and Paradox will open in spring 2007 in the city of Leiden.
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NEWSLETTER MAY / JUNE 2006
European Fields launched successfully in Rotterdam, Frankfurt to follow Cultural foundations grant support for reconstruction of De Oorlogen/The Wars
For information on the travelling exhibition, please contact Olga Overbeek oo @ paradox.nl. For information on the publications : w w w.steidlville.com or w w w.verbeelding-fotoboeken.nl
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Nederlands Fotomuseum acquires important Bertien van Manen project Between March 1991 and the fall of 1993, Dutch photographer Bertien van Manen made 16 trips to the former Soviet Union. She stayed in people’s homes to share the life of the vast majority of R ussians, documenting their lives using simple automatic cameras. It resulted in the album A Hundred Summers, A Hundred Winters, published by De Verbeelding, Amsterdam in October, 1994 (a second edition was printed in 1995). The album won several prizes; the project can be considered Bertien Van Manen’s breakthrough in the international arena.
Regarding A Hundred Summers, A Hundred Winters (and the way it was made available in book and dual exhibition format) as a key project in the history of Dutch photography, the Nederlands fotomuseum has recently acquired both the print and the projected version of the exhibition curated by Bas Vroege and developed by Paradox, as well scans of the complete book. This major acquisition for the museum reflects its ambition to collect larger bodies of work in combination with their original presentation, representing decisive moments in the medium’s history with a relation to The Netherlands.
Both the Utrecht-based VSB Fonds and the Prins Bernhard Cultuurfonds (Amsterdam) have granted their support for a digital reconstruction of Oscar van Alphen’s audiovisual installation De Oorlogen (The Wars). Earlier, the Thuiskopiefonds had also made support available. As an installation the piece was shown only twice: in Rotterdam at the Boijmans Van Beuningen Museum (1984/85) and at the Museum Fodor, Amsterdam. De Oorlogen is a complex production, combining George Bataille’s pornographic text Madame Edwarda with images of industrial decay and social disintegration. Together, the grants will enable Paradox to digitise the original slide and film material, add a sound track with English voice-over and make the piece available on DVD. It will be shown first as part of a retrospective exhibition Ik wantrouw het beeld (I distrust the image) at the new premises of the Nederlands fotomuseum in Rotterdam in the second half of 2007. Focus Publishing will issue a monograph on Van Alphen (b. 1923), written by Frits Gierstberg. For Paradox, the reconstruction of this important piece in the history of Dutch photography and audiovisual media is the second restoration project in a series that started in 2000 with Ed van der Elsken’s 1972 audiovisual Amsterdam. © OSCAR VAN ALPHEN, FROM : THE WARS, 19 8 5
Paradox toured the impressive body of work as a part of her first retrospective exhibition, covering twenty years of her career (1977-1997). The exhibition started at the Institut Néerlandais in Paris and travelled to York, Montreal, Chicago, Paris and Rotterdam, among other places. To accommodate the specific conditions of some of the venues, an audiovisual version of the project was developed as well. © BERTIEN VAN MANEN, ROSTOV ON THE DON, 19 93
Former football international Jan Mulder opened Hans van der Meer’s European Fields on March 17 at Rotterdam’s Boijmans Van Beuningen Museum. Helped by images taken from Van der Meer’s films, Mulder gave a hilarious speech about the way men behave on a football pitch. At the event Michael Mack launched the new Steidl Mack publication European Fields – The Landscape of Lower League Football. Fred Schmidt (De Verbeelding Publishers, Amsterdam) introduced the Dutch version. The paperback version of the book is available in four languages; Dutch, Eng lish, French and German (21 x 29.7 cm, 176 pp, € 25). More recently a large format, luxury edition was released as well (26.6 x 38 cm, 176 pp, clothbound, € 85). The period for the exhibition at the Boijmans Van Beuningen Museum has been ex tended until May 14. It will then travel to Germany, to be shown during the upcoming World Cham pionship Football at Fotografie Forum interna tional, located in the centre of Frankfur t. The exhibition will be up at FFi from June 3 to July 16. (see w w w.f fi-frankfur t.de for more info).
For more information please contact Rix t Bosma (rb @ paradox.nl).
PARADOX creates projects in photography, video and media related ar ts. The interaction bet ween social, economic and technologic al change is central to most thematic and monographic projects developed. PARADOX’ activities include travelling exhibitions, film production, book and electronic publishing and organising workshops and symposiums.
The bi-monthly Paradox newsletter is distributed digitally through email. You can sign up by going to www.paradox.nl /contact /do_contact.php
Hans van der Meer’s DVD Flemish Fields will be distributed by Idea Books to museum stores and specialised book shops - not only in The Netherlands but also in other European countries and in Japan. Idea Books is an international distributor of fine books and catalogues on contemporary architecture, design, art, photography and film. Resellers can contact Idea Books, Amsterdam through their website: www.ideabooks.nl End users can order directly from Paradox at € 25. To order, see below under ‘Paradox publications still available’.
© JACQUELINE HAS SINK , CHERY GIRLS, AUTO SHANGHAI, 20 0 5
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Development started of installation of Car Girls by Jacqueline Hassink Paradox and its partner in interactive media Antenna-men, Rotterdam, have started work on the installation of Jacqueline Hassink’s project Car Girls. The New York City-based Dutch artist is best known for her project The Tables of Power, depicting conference tables in board rooms of multinational corporations. Car Girls was shot between 2002 and 2006 at major international auto shows around the world. As in earlier projects, Hassink is dealing with the visual codes connected to these events. German publisher Wasmuth Verlag will issue Car Girls October 2006 in a magazine-like book designed by Irma Boom. Boom was previously also responsible for Hassink’s highly-praised 2003 book Mindscapes. As an installation, Car Girls will be part of a joint mid-career retrospective at both Amsterdam’s Huis Marseille and the Nederlands fotomuseum in the winter of 2007/2008. The installation will be available from Paradox for touring as of the fall of this year.
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Geert van Kesteren and Speaking4Earth Geert van Kesteren spent three weeks in April in the Philippines for Speaking4Earth, an international campaign aiming to support indigenous peoples’ struggle for their land and life. From the Philippines, he travelled to Erbil in northern Iraq on assignment for Stern to report on the Iraqi Kurds. For Van Kesteren, this was his first trip back to
Iraq after having completed the impressive series on the period after the American invasion that was published in 2004 in the award winning book Why Mister, Why? Paradox developed two versions of a travelling exhibition under the same title. The weatherproof print version premiered at last year’s Rencontres d’Arles, the multimedia installation was shown by the Nederlands fotomuseum. More detailed information on Why Mister, Why? can be found at the Paradox website (www. paradox.nl). Please visit the project website www. whymisterwhy.com for extensive background information on the photographs by Van Kesteren and on the socio-economic and political background of the country, brought together by Dutch anthropologist Robert Soeterik (Middle East Research Associates, Amsterdam). Geert van Kesteren – WHY MISTER, WHY? IRAQ 20032004 published by Artimo, Amsterdam, 2004 € 24,95 / EXHIBITION: 3 billboard-size projections (minimum 3x8 m) or 25 free standing poster boards (120x160 cm), computers, books, wall texts, soundscape / Size: 200-600 m2 / Exhibition fee: € 3,500 - € 10,000. For more info: Rixt Bosma (rb@paradox.nl)
Valiauga from Vilnius (Lithuania) compared the homes of Dutch people living in Lithuania with those of Lithuanians living in The Netherlands. All five projects realised in 2005 have been published in a handsome book that can be ordered from the IPRN office at the University of Sunderland. For more information on IPRN: www.theiprn.org
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Ad van Denderen back from Syria Edges of the Mediterranean addresses the irreversible changes that intensive tourism, trade and armed conflicts are causing around the Mediterranean. Ad van Denderen started working on Edges of the Mediterranean in 2003, shortly after finishing Go No Go, his project about migration in Europe. So far Van Denderen has covered Spain, Israel and the Occupied Territories, Albania, Lebanon, Egypt, Greece and Turkey. He worked in Syria in April and plans to travel to France and Morocco later this year. © AD VAN DENDEREN, SYRIA , 20 0 6
Idea Books starts distribution of Flemish Fields
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Paradox publications still available Several of the titles published or co-published by Paradox have become difficult to find in bookstores. The following publications can still be ordered directly: >Play (2001), Carel van Hees’s large format prize-winning book on youth culture, including audio CD , € 45 / Go No Go, Frontiers of Europe (2003), the English language edition of Ad van Denderen’s impressive book on migration in Europe , € 45 / P’REND (2000), one of the new Dutch ‘Vinex’ residential neighbourhoods seen through the eyes of five photographers , € 13.50 / The Deaths in Newport, CD-ROM production by Lewis Baltz, € 25. Publications can be ordered from Paradox at the prices indicated above (including shipping and VAT). The items will be sent after receiving your payment to IBAN account no: NL62ABNA0501434445 (ABNAMRO, Julianaweg, Volendam, The Netherlands: BIC/swift code: ABNANL2A). For more information about publications: Iris Sikking (is@paradox.nl)
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Museo di Fotografia Contemporanea near Milan commissions football film From June 10 to September 3 a special edition of Paradox’s touring show European Fields by photographer Hans van der Meer will be shown on the main square of Cinisello Balsamo, home of the Museo di Fotografia Contemporanea near Milan. Inspired by the results of earlier commissions in Porto and Arles, the city invited Van der Meer to shoot a film in the region. For more information: www.museofotografiacontemporanea.org
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WORK at Folkwang Museum, Essen From February 28 through April 23, the Folkwang Museum in Essen hosted an exhibition with the results of Changing Faces, an EU Culture 2000-sponsored project run by the International Photography Research Network. IPRN was founded in 2004 by the University of Sunderland (Great Britain), Museum Folkwang (Germany), Dom Fotografie in Liptovsky Mikulás (Slovakia), the University of Leiden (Netherlands) and the University of Jyväskylä (Finland). Paradox, supported by the Mondriaan Foundation, is involved as a partner to the University of Leiden. The central theme of all the photo projects is WORK. In the framework of last year’s programme, Dutch photographer Rob Hornstra covered the fishing industry in Iceland. Earlier this year Hornstra self-published a remarkable book on the subject, called Roots of the Runtur. Arturas
Edges of the Mediterranean will consist of a full-colour publication – a documentary narrative in full-page spreads – and a travelling exhibition and a website. Edges of the Mediterranean, developed by Paradox, will become available late 2007/early 2008. Coproducing partners for the project will be announced in the course of 2006. For more information contact project manager Rixt Bosma (rb@paradox.nl)
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Long Live Me! in Antwerp until May 29 Ed van der Elsken (1925-1990), generally regarded as the most important Dutch photographer from the 20th century, is best known for his passionate street photography and books. The Paradox travelling exhibition Long Live Me! can be seen at the Fotomuseum Antwerp until May 29. The exhibition brings together his books, films and photographs in a very lively manner. The Dutch webzine PhotoQ www.photoq.nl commented: ‘This well-earned stopover in Antwerp consists of more moving images in an excellent setup. It invites the viewer to wander around and to keep exploring Van der Elsken’s work. Ed van der Elsken – LONG LIVE ME! Photography and films. Exhibition : ca. 120 prints, 17 film fragments, introductory film, film projection and slide projections. Space required : 600-800 m 2 . Fee : € 7,000 (6 weeks, not including equipment). For more info: Iris Sikking (is@paradox.nl)
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AGENDA OF EXHIBITIONS January 20 – May 28, 2006: LONG LIVE ME! – Ed van der Elsken, Fotomuseum Provincie Antwerp, Antwerp, Belgium March 17 – May 7, 2006: European Fields – Hans van der Meer, Museum Boijmans Van Beuningen, Rotterdam, The Netherlands June 3 – July 16, 2006: European Fields – Hans van der Meer, Fotografie Forum international, Frankfurt, Germany June 10 – September 3, 2006: European Fields – Hans van der Meer, Museo di Fotografia Contemporanea, Cinisello Balsamo (near Milan), Italy June 24 - September 3, 2006: Dutch Fields – Hans van der Meer, in group exhibition Click Double Click, Palais des Beaux Arts, Brussels, Belgium
Director: Bas Vroege (bv@paradox.nl) - Project Managers: Rixt Bosma (rb@paradox.nl): Go No Go - Ad van Denderen, Why Mister, Why? - Geert van Kesteren, Edges of the Mediterranean - Ad van Denderen, Ik wantrouw het beeld - Oscar van Alphen, Paradox Newsletter; Olga Overbeek (oo@paradox.nl): European Fields – Hans van der Meer, Oswiecim Now - Hans Citroen, Carel van Hees, Bas Vroege, >Play – Carel van Hees, Paradox Website; Iris Sikking (is@paradox.nl): Britanya – Marjoleine Boonstra, LONG LIVE ME! – Ed van der Elsken, Paradox digital publications/films, Education
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© Guido Voet, FotoMuseum Provincie Antwerpen, 20 0 6
NEWSLETTER MARCH / APRIL 2006
Ed van der Elsken – LONG LIVE ME! Photography and films. Exhibition : ca. 120 prints (b &w and colour) all framed (size var ying 42,5 x 60 to 60 x 85 cm), 17 film fragments and a shor t introductor y film. One film projection and five slide-projections on screens (size var ying 135 x 135 to 120 x 180). Space required : 60-70 m 2 . Fee : € 7,000. For more info contact Iris Sikking (is @ paradox.nl)
© GEERT VAN KESTEREN, TIKRIT, IRAQ, 20 0 3
Winter trip to Oswiecim: rewriting history…
With the invaluable help of architect Barbara Starzynska, visual artist Hans Citroen and photographers Carel van Hees and Bas Vroege made another research trip to Poland in mid February. The trip was made to prepare their collaborative project dealing with the complex past and present of the town of Oswiecim (better known as Auschwitz). Through the combination of contemporary pictures, material from photo albums, historical documents and film fragments, the group aims at formulating a comprehensive book and exhibition that sheds light on life in a town doomed by history. Concurrently, Dutch filmmaker André van der Hout is preparing a documentary based on the characters of partners Hans Citroen (born in The Hague) and Barbara Starzynska (born in Oswiecim) whose versions of history differ considerably.
Geert van Kesteren named Photojournalist of the Year:
In more abstract terms, Oswiecim Now, deals with the human need to rewrite history on an almost permanent basis, with the impossibility to commemorate, with the need to create monuments that grossly simplify and with the disney fication of historical sites caused by tourism. © Hans Citroen, Oswiecim, 20 0 6
The Fotomuseum Provincie Antwerpen is showing an adapted version of LONG LIVE ME!, the Paradox production curated by Anneke Hilhorst and Jeroen de Vries that has travelled Europe since 1996. The exhibition, dealing with life and work of Ed van der Elsken (1925-1990), brings together his books, films and photographs in a very lively manner. Van der Elsken, generally regarded as the most important Dutch photographer from the 20th century, is best known for his passionate street photography and books. Experimenting with cameras and formats, however, he also made more than 40 films of which several are of remarkable originality. The very personal contact that, in the blink of an eye, Van der Elsken was able to make with somebody he just photographed on the streets of Amsterdam, Paris or Tokyo, is made tangible not only by showing his photographs on the wall but also by projecting them in slide-shows. How Van der Elsken approached people was rather unusual: he could be disarming but also very provocative. He never hid behind his camera –not even when making Bye (1990) in the knowledge that he suffered from cancer–, but he used it to make contact with the world around him. As a photographer and filmmaker, Ed van der Elsken always sought direct contact with his “co-stars”. In this sense, his oeuvre is a sequence of longer and shorter love-stories.
© Ed van der Elsken / Nederlands fotomuseum, Tokyo, 19 8 3
LONG LIVE ME! in Antwerp until May 28
Oswiecim Now will be fur ther developed by Paradox throughout 2006 and 2007, becoming available in late 2007/early 2008 as a book and a multimedia exhibition. For more information, please contact Olga Overbeek (oo @ paradox.nl).
On January 6, 2006, Geert van Kesteren was honoured as Photojournalist of the Year 2005 at the Netherlands’ Zilveren Camera Awards. Van Kesteren received the award for his work on the devastating effects of the Tsunami (Aceh, Indonesia), a report on hunger in Niger and the effects of mining on the population and nature in Guatemala. For Geert van Kesteren the award came after a year with a lot of attention for his work. His book Why Mister, Why? Iraq 2003-2004 received several international awards. The accompanying exhibition was shown during the Rencontres d’Arles 2005 and at the Nederlands fotomuseum in Rotterdam in the fall. The Rencontres d’Arles showed the outdoor version of the exhibition, the Dutch national institute for photography showed the audiovisual version, both produced by Paradox. More detailed information of Why Mister, Why? can be found at the Paradox website (www.paradox.nl). Please visit the project website www.whymisterwhy. com for extensive background information on the photographs of Van Kesteren and on the socioeconomic and political backgrounds of the country, brought together by Dutch anthropologist Robert Soeterik (Middle East Research Associates, Amsterdam). Geert van Kesteren – WHY MISTER, WHY? IRAQ 2003-2004 published by Artimo, Amsterdam, 2004 € 24,95 / EXHIBITION: 4-6 screen projection (minimum 3x4 m) or 20-30 free standing billboards (120x160 cm), computers, books, wall texts, soundscape / Size: 200-500 m 2 / Exhibition fee: € 3.500 - € 10.000 Contact: Rixt Bosma (rb@paradox.nl)
PARADOX creates projects in photography, video and media related ar ts. The interaction bet ween social, economic and technologic al change is central to most thematic and monographic projects developed. PARADOX’ activities include travelling exhibitions, film production, book and electronic publishing and organising workshops and symposiums.
The bi-monthly Paradox newsletter is distributed digitally through email. You can sign up by going to www.paradox.nl /contact /do_contact.php
© Hans van der Meer, Perafita , Portugal, 20 0 3
Jan Mulder to open European Fields at Museum Boijmans van Beuningen: Former Dutch football international and writer Jan Mulder will open European Fields, Hans van der Meer’s pan-European amateur soccer photography exhibition at Rotterdam’s Museum Boijmans van Beuningen on March 17. European Fields: The Landscape of Lower League Football is the full title of this new traveling Paradox exhibition and steidlMACK publication that will premiere on the same date. The book will be made available in two sizes, and in several languages. The Dutch language edition will be published by De Verbeelding, Amsterdam). After Boijmans, European Fields will travel to C/O Berlin where the exhibition will be shown during this summer’s World Cup competition, thanks to the generous support of the Mondriaan Foundation and the Dutch embassy. A special version of the exhibition will be up on a public square in Cinisello di Balsamo (Milan) under the patronage of the Museo di fotografia contemporanea. The museum, founded by the province of Milan, opened it’s doors to the public in 2004.
ing place in both reception as well as production of the documentary photographic image at the time of the shift from analogue to digital. Weski, earlier responsible for major shows like Cruel and Tender, selected 12 works from Dutch Fields by Hans van der Meer to be part of Click Double Click. Dutch Fields (full scale, 46 works) will continue to travel, parallel to European Fields throughout 2006. For more information contact Olga Overbeek (oo @ paradox.nl).
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Why Mister, Why? and the international press: “Geert van Kesteren’s photographs
from Iraq were an eye-opener in terms of what is possible even within the limitations of embedding. (…) He not only used the tools of his trade – his eyes, his lenses, his wits – but also the constraints on his profession, like embedding, to bring back evidence of an Iraq that is in turmoil, but searingly alive.”[Historian and critic Ananya Vajpeyi, in The Indian Express, Mumbai, October 22, 2005] / “(…) a provocative, painful and timely presentation.” [Critic and photohistorian David Campany, in Source. The Photographic Review, issue # 44, Belfast, autumn 2005]
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The film Go No Go in Montevideo, Amsterdam. From April 7 until April 29, the film Go No Go will be shown in the group exhibition Vakmanschap = Meesterschap at the Netherlands Media Art Institute Montevideo in Amsterdam. This single channel version of Go No Go, with photography of Ad van Denderen, is directed by Boris Gerrets. The film is part of the larger project, which consists of the travelling exhibition, the book and the website www.go-no-go.nl.
For more information about Montevideo, please visit: www.montevideo.nl / Contact on the project Go No Go: Rixt Bosma (rb@paradox.nl)
For information on the travelling exhibition, please contact Olga Overbeek (oo @ paradox.nl). For information on the publications : steidlmack@ withgrace.com _________________________________________________________________________________
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Ad van Denderen receives major grant for Edges of the Mediterranean: The Nether-
The English edition of the book Go No Go. The Frontiers of Europe, published by Paradox in collaboration with Actes Sud, Edition Braus, Lunwerg Editors and Mets & Schilt has, unfortunately, become difficult to find in bookstores.
Edges of the Mediterranean will consist of a fullcolour publication, a travelling exhibition and a website. Edges of the Mediterranean will be developed by Paradox and become available late 2007/early 2008. For more information contact project manager Rix t Bosma (rb @ paradox.nl)
lands Foundation for Visual Arts, Design and Architecture (known in the Netherlands as Fonds BK VB) has granted photographer Ad van Denderen a second stipend to continue working on his project Edges of the Mediterranean. Earlier on, the Anna Cornelis Foundation, also supported Van Denderen with this body of work. Ad van Denderen started working on Edges of the Mediterranean in 20 03, shortly after finishing Go No Go, his project about migration in Europe. Edges of the Mediterranean addresses the irreversible changes that intensive tourism, trade and armed conflicts are causing around the Mediterranean. The Mediterranean area is surrounded by sixteen countries that are both divided and unified by their economic, religious and political differences. So far Van Denderen covered Spain, Israel and the Occupied Territories, Albania, Lebanon, Egypt, Greece and Turkey. Van Denderen plans to travel to Syria, France and Morocco this year.
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TRANSIT at World Fair - Fair World, Amsterdam: The French physical dance theatre
© Ad van Denderen, Albania , 20 0 4
group Osmosis Cie incorporated the photographs of Ad van Denderen in their show TRANSIT. Trailers of a big truck were used as stages for both the performance and the photographs from Go No Go. The cross-media dance piece has been performed in public space in various cities in France and Switzerland in 2004 and 2005. TRANSIT is now coming to the Netherlands. The piece will be performed March 18 on World Fair - Fair World at the Westergasfabriek in Amsterdam at the occasion of 50th anniversary of Novib, the Dutch branch of Oxfam. For more information on this project, tickets and programme, please check: w w w.novib.nl and w w w.osmosiscie.com
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Dutch Fields in Click Double Click: Click
Double Click, occupying most of the first floor of Munich’s impressive Haus der Kunst, was opened on February 7. The exhibition, curated by Thomas Weski, will be up until April 23 and then travel to BOZAR, Brussels, to open on June 24. Click Double Click, subtitled ‘the documentary moment’, encompasses the work by artists like Luc Delahaye, Rineke Dijkstra, Andreas Gursky, Thomas Ruff, Thomas Struth, Jeff Wall, Hans van der Meer and others. The exhibition aims at addressing the changes tak-
Go No Go, order now!
The book can, however, be ordered from Paradox at € 45 (including shipping and VAT). The book will be sent after receiving your payment on IBAN account no: NL62ABNA0501434445 (ABN-AMRO, Julianaweg, Volendam, The Netherlands; BIC/swift code: ABNANL2A). ISBN: 90 802655 6X (English Edition).
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January 20 – May 28, 2006: LONG LIVE ME! – Ed van der Elsken, Fotomuseum Provincie Antwerpen, Antwerp, Belgium / March 17 – May 7, 2006: European Fields – Hans van der Meer: Museum Boymans van Beuningen, Rotterdam, The Netherland / February 18 – March 31, 2006: Dutch and Flemish Fields – Hans van der Meer, in group exhibition Cinquième Biennale Internationale de la Photographie et des Arts visuels de Liège, organised by Les Chiroux, Liège, Belgium / February 6 - April 17, 2006: Dutch Fields – Hans van der Meer, in group exhibition Click Double Click, Haus der Kunst, Munich, Germany / April 7 - April 29: film Go No Go by Ad van Denderen and Boris Gerrets shown in group exhibition Vakmanschap=Meesterschap at the Netherlands Media Art Institute Montevideo, Amsterdam, The Netherlands.
Director: Bas Vroege (bv @ paradox.nl) - Project Manager for Go No Go, Why Mister, Why?, Edges of the Mediterranean and newsletter: Rixt Bosma (rb @ paradox.nl) Project Manager for European Fields, Oswiecim Now, >Play and website : Olga Overbeek (oo @ paradox.nl) - Project Manager for Britanya, LONG LIVE ME!, digital publications and education: Iris Sikking (is @ paradox.nl)
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newsletter NOV/DEC 2005
Why Mister, Why? Just a week after the war ended in April 2003, Dutch photojournalist Geert van Kesteren travelled to Baghdad. Assigned by UNICEF, Newsweek and Stern, he would report from Iraq for almost seven months, working as an embedded journalist for seven weeks, a position which he initially had had strong doubts about. Van Kesteren experienced the absurdity of the war and the underlying clash of cultures, and converted this into images and text. This resulted in an impressive book, bearing witness of what went wrong in Iraq during the American occupation. Why Mister, Why? was awarded several prizes like the Primo del Libro 2005 of PhotoEspaña and the Dutch Kees Scherer Prize. As a photographer Geert van Kesteren gained recognition by winning the 3rd prize stories at World Press Photo 2005. Next to that, he was invited to join the Magnum Photo agency as a nominee. Now, more than a year after the book was
Geert van Kesteren teamed up with Paradox in November 2004, to develop an exhibition from the same source material. In collaboration with designer Jeroen de Vries, two versions were developed: an outdoor exhibition based on billboards which was shown at Rencontres d’Arles this summer, and an impressive audiovisual environment with large projections, computers, books, a soundscape and projected real-time newsfeeds. A short history of Iraq in the shape of a timeline is projected as well. More detailed information can be obtained from the website. The Nederlands fotomuseum in Rotterdam was the first venue to show the multimedia version of Why Mister, Why? (17 September - 20 November 2005). For more information visit www.whymisterwhy. com, for a preview of the exhibition visit: www.paradox.nl/wmw Geert van Kesteren - ‘Why Mister, Why? Iraq 2003-2004’ published by Artimo, Amsterdam, 2004 € 24,95 / EXHIBITION: 4 - 6 screen projection (minimum 3 x 4 m) or 20 - 30 free standing billboards (120 x 160 cm), computers, books, walltexts, soundscape / Size: 200 500 m 2 / Exhibition fee: € 3.500 - € 10.000 ----------------------------------------------------------------
from Go No Go. Osmosis Cie will continue to play TRANSIT throughout 2006, being invited by the Oerol festival in the Netherlands as well as the city of Flushing. The Rotterdam based dance theatre group ‘Conny Janssen Danst’ and photographer Carel van Hees worked together on the performance I’M HERE, performed in theatres all over Holland in March, April and May 2005. Van Hees and choreographer Conny Janssen share a fascination for the human being and their behaviour. In I’M HERE, photographs which Van Hees made for his project >Play as well as new video material shaped the dynamic environment for the dancers. >Play was a tribute to the multicultural youth of Rotterdam.
Paradox productions involved in cross-media dance projects >Play by Rotterdam based photographer Carel van Hees and Go No Go by photographer Ad van Denderen, (projects developed by Paradox in the recent past as books, exhibitions and websites) have inspired international performance artists recently. published, the American mission is far from accomplished. Although the acceptance of the constitution can be seen as a step forward, the safety of the people in Iraq has further decreased due to continuing terrorist attacks and resistance to the American occupation. The situation as depicted in the book continues therefore to exist, so does the underlying cultural clash.
The French physical dance theatre group Osmosis Cie incorporated the photographs of Van Denderen in their show TRANSIT. This crossmedia dance piece was performed in public space, in various cities in France and Switzerland in 2004 and 2005. The trailers of a big truck were used as stages for both the performance and the projection of the photographs
Please visit for more information on the projects mentioned above: www.osmosiscie.com and www.connyjanssendanst.nl >Play can be found at www.play-record.nl or through www.paradox.nl
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PARADOX creates projects in photography, video and media related arts. The interaction between social, economic and technological change is central to most thematic and monographic projects developed. PARADOX’ activities include travelling exhibitions, film production, book and electronic publishing and organising workshops and symposiums.
This newsletter and coming newsletters will be spread digitally through email. If you would like to receive newsletters in the future (not more then once a month) please visit www.paradox.nl/contact/do_contact.php and sign up.
Upcoming: European Fields
In September 1995 Hans van der Meer (b. 1955) started taking photographs of lower division amateur football games in The Netherlands. He went out looking for football in its original form, as it had started more than hundred years ago: a plot of ground, 22 players, hardly any spectators around the pitch, just a horse in the next meadow. His results were published in Hollandse Velden (Dutch Fields), for which former Dutch soccer international Jan Mulder wrote the accompanying texts. Van Der Meers pictures are as much about landscape as it is about culture at large. Amateur football turns out to be the perfect metaphor for life in general. With a mild irony, Van Der Meer shows us the mismatch between human ambition and the effective result, between an individual’s ‘inside’ perception and a more objective, distanced view of our behaviour. Acting on commissions by various organisations such as the Rencontres d’Arles, the National Museum for Photography, Film and Television in Bradford (UK), the Dutch football magazine JOHAN, and self-assigned, Hans van der Meer has been covering most of Europe between 1999 and 2005. The dry, almost conceptual photographs will be combined with his more narrative video works in a new traveling Paradox exhibition. The première will be on March 18, 2006 at Museum Boijmans van Beuningen in Rotterdam. The show will then travel to C/O Berlin, where it will be shown during the upcoming world championship football in Germany. SteidlMACK will publish a carefully designed, large format book containing some 80 of his pictures as well as a more affordable smaller format version. The latter version is expected to have co-editions in other languages. For more info on the publications: www.steidlmack.com For touring info please check: www.paradox.nl
For thirteen years Ad van Denderen travelled along what later came to be called the Schengen borders and photographed migrants and refugees on their way to Europe. The film Go No Go is part of a larger project consisting of a travelling exhibition, a book and an extensive website (www.go-nogo.nl). The film premiered during a special hearing at the European parliament in Brussels in November 2003. The exhibition is still touring. For more info, please contact Rixt Bosma at P aradox (rb@paradox.nl). The film will be made available on dvd by Paradox soon. For more information about the Copenhagen International Documentary Festival, please visit: www.cphdox.dk ---------------------------------------------------------
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Go No Go shown at Copenhagen International Documentary Festival
The 3rd Copenhagen International Documentary Festival entitled CPH:DOX included Go No Go by filmmaker Boris Gerrets and documentary photographer Ad van Denderen in their official programme (3 - 14 November, 2005).
Based on the personal story of the Dutch artist Hans Citroen (b. 1946), Paradox has started developing a project under the working title Oswiecim Now. As for many survivors of the Nazi deathcamps, Citroen’s grandfather and uncle, remained largely silent about their experiences. In 1991, Hans Citroen met Barbara Starzynska in Rotterdam. She turned out to be born in Oswiecim (Auschwitz) where she had grown up under the post-war communist regime. Her reading of the place and its history differed significantly from Citroens. It became the starting point for their mutual investigation in the many versions of history that exist about the south Polish town. Oswiecim Now takes the inhabitants as the starting point. How have people of different generations dealt with the heritage of the holocaust? What is it to live in a place that is struggling with tourism, being visited by almost a million people every year? These people visit the camps of Auschwitz and Birkenau and then leave town as soon as they can without spending a dime, much to the frustration of local entrepreneurs and the city administration that need economic alternatives for a place where the industry is in crisis.
Work in progress: Edges of the Mediterranean - Ad van Denderen
Since 2003, the Dutch documentary photographer Ad van Denderen has been working on his new project Edges of the Mediterranean. The starting point for Van Denderen’s work in the sixteen countries around the Mediterranean Sea are the irreversible changes that intensive tourism, trade and armed conflicts are causing. What are these drastic – and characteristic - developments? And in which way are these changes manifesting themselves visibly in these societies? When working on his project Go No Go, Van Denderen already experienced the idiosyncratic effects social-economic developments have had in the Mediterranean landscape. On the south coast of Spain, he photographed a group of hundred illegal immigrants landing on the beach with rubber boats. Soaked to the skin, they ran off in the early morning light. Three hours later tourists appeared on the beach, spreading out their towels to enjoy another sunny day on the beach.
Hans van der Meer – European Fields: The Landscape of Lower League Football Publication: SteidlMACK / De Verbeelding, 360 x 240 cm, 176 pages, clothbound hardback with dust jacket, ISBN 3-86521-191-7, € 45 (subject to change) / Exhibition: ca. 100 photographs, sizes varying from 22x32 cm - 100x140 cm, 4 videos (ca. 30 mins. each) on DVD / Exhibition fee: € 8250 (provisional, not including equipment)
Under development: Oswiecim Now Hans Citroen, Carel van Hees, Bas Vroege
Ultimately, Ad van Denderen made a shift in his approach to his work. Where he previously worked on extensive documentary projects in black and white, with a small format camera, close up to the people he portrayed, Van Denderen now chooses to photograph in color with a medium format camera. Edges of the Mediterranean provides a broader and more distant vision. In a literal and formal sense, Van Denderen focuses on the environment as a whole. Human beings are revealed as involuntary actors, ‘drowning’ in their self-created landscape. The project Edges of the Mediterranean will consist of a full-color publication – a documentary narrative in full-page spreads – a travelling exhibition and a website. The exhibition and book will become available in 2007
The immense chemical plant, now known as Dwory Chemical, has been key to the region’s economy since the 1940s when it was known as IG Farben, producer of artificial rubber as well as Zyklon B. As a consequence, a rural town of some 11,000 inhabitants (of whom 55% were Jewish) was turned into a main industrial site, needing manpower to build and run it. During the war, political prisoners, prisoners of war and deported Jews from all over Europe fulfilled that role. After the liberation more than 25,000 people from all over Poland were ‘encouraged’ to settle down in the socially ravaged Oswiecim. In Oswiecim Now we meet a taxi driver who makes his money from driving both tourists, former victims as well as film crews around (including Steven Spielberg running Schindler’s List). But we also meet the director of the Auschwitz museum, a recognized international expert who had hoped to find a house for his family with no war history attached to it… There are the kids cleaning windshields of vehicles in the car park at Birkenau and we meet Barbara who, as a school kid had to stand hours in the street waving a small Polish flag for foreign politicians passing by in limousines, being told they came to visit the chemical plant, the city was so proud of. Through them and others we are confronted with the dilemmas, the possibilities and impossibilities of living in a place under the burden of history. But also with the human need to create and manipulate monuments and modify history at will in order to live. The exhibition, book and film will be available as of February 2007