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WELCOME STRANGER IN brief
Welcome Stranger has organised projects since the 1990s. Rather than starting from a set subject, motto, or motif, the focus lies on the discoveries that naturally arise from a simple situation: a house in the city, and with it the interplay between private and public space, between publicity and privacy. As the relevance of these questions continues to grow, Welcome Stranger keeps exploring them with renewed urgency. Notions of privacy, hospitality, strangeness, and belonging have taken on fresh social and political significance.
Since 2020, artists have been invited to create temporary works from their own homes, using façades, rooftops, and thresholds as sites for intervention. A meandering line of artworks has appeared across Amsterdam, slipping into the everyday fabric of the city — with contributions by Bastienne Kramer, Simon Wald-Lasowski, Lily van der Stokker, and others. Walks and gatherings are organised on the streets, often in conversation with the artists themselves.
At its core, Welcome Stranger seeks to create space for experimentation, exchange, and equality — fostering dialogue between artists and enabling art to emerge in unexpected and unfamiliar places.
ABOUT US
Initiator and curator Marianna van der Zwaag (1971) studied art history (MA) at the University of Amsterdam and is interested in new forms of art production and presentation and fostering collaborations between artists. From 2017, she is revitalising Welcome Stranger.
Graphic design: Tariq Heijboer
Communication: Joanie Croes
Advisory board: Ann Demeester, art critic and museum director, Marijn van Kreij, visual artist
The foundation's supervisory board consists of Saskia Janssen (chairman), Simon Wald-Lasowski, both visual artist, Wytske Visser (secretary), coördinator Public Program Museum De Lakenhal. The board members receive no remuneration for their work.
Before: Marjolein Schaap en Ken Zeph, art critic and artist respectively, were instigators in the '90's. Hester Elzerman, arthistorian, educator and researcher was committed from 1998-2020.
Welcome Stranger Foundation
by adress Da Costakade 19hs
1052 SE Amsterdam
Chamber of Commerce number: 41212760
RSIN: 802067700
welcomestrangerfoundation@gmail.com
Welcome Stranger foundation is a cultural ANBI (RSIN 802067700). You can find more about this on this page. This makes donating to the foundation fiscally attractive.
The activities of Welcome Stranger are generously supported by:
