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Jacob Dwyer, Spreekbuis, metal pipe and horn with speaker, on invitation of Welcome Stranger, photo: Gert Jan van Rooij, technical production & install Tom Jaspers / Artvark Projects
A new edition of Welcome Stranger is on! We are looking forward to welcome you in one of the streets and to a range of gatherings (see below newsitem).
The new, temporarly artwork of Jacob Dwyer in Amsterdam Centrum-Oost gives you new perspectives on housing and the work of Sarah van Sonsbeeck that is nearby sparks your day. In Amsterdam Noord Kristina Benjocki and Stijn Verhoeff made a work that unfolds their neighborhood, the hidden layers of Plan van Gool, a very special post-war '70's neighborhood where cultural memory is engraved in architecture and the urban environment.
Find out more about the individual artworks, the streets and the artists below and at the side via MAP.
Since 2020, Welcome Stranger has invited several Amsterdam based artists to make new, temporary artworks on the facades of their homes. In doing so, they are revealing something personal in public space within their own neighborhood. The facades create an environment for new observations, where every passer-by is welcome to experience strange encounters through different parts of the city.
Welcome Stranger has always sought dialogue and free space with contemporary art. Characteristic of the first projects in the 1990s, art was shown in a private home - the first being 112 Stadhouderskade. Partly influenced by the pandemic, the environment has shifted in recent years and artists have been asked to create a work for the facade of their own homes. Participants over the years have included Mark Manders, Rob Birza, Jan van de Pavert, Bastienne Kramer, Fortuyn/O’Brian, Esther Tielemans, Lily van der Stokker and Minne Kersten. Each time, the focus is simply on the particulars that arise naturally from the situation: a house in the city and the associated interactions between the private room and the public space, publicness and privacy. The relevance has only increased over the years—think on the rise of surveillance techniques and online privacy issues. Notions of hospitality, being a stranger and belonging to a place have also taken on new social and political meaning. Accordingly, Welcome Stranger continues to explore them.
Kristina Benjocki (YU) and Stijn Verhoeff Het Laagt 24
Sarah van Sonsbeeck (NL) Spinozastraat 9
Jacob Dwyer (GB) Kleine Wittenburgerstraat 315
More about Welcome Stranger
Welcome Stranger has always sought dialogue, experiment and free space with contemporary art. Characteristic of the first projects in the 1990s, art was shown in a private home - the first being 112 Stadhouderskade. Participants over the years have included Mark Manders, Rob Birza, Jan van de Pavert, Bastienne Kramer, Fortuyn/O’Brian, Esther Tielemans, Lily van der Stokker and Minne Kersten. Partly influenced by the pandemic, the environment has shifted in recent years and artists have been asked to create a work for the facade of their own homes. Each time, the focus is simply on the particulars that arise naturally from the situation: a house in the city and the associated interactions between the private room and the public space, publicness and privacy. The relevance has only increased over the years—think on the rise of surveillance techniques and online privacy issues. Notions of hospitality, being a stranger and belonging to a place have also taken on new social and political meaning. Accordingly, Welcome Stranger continues to explore them.
Ontmoetingsplaats (Forum) 1976, Shinkichi Tajiri, Breedveld t.h.v. Het Breed 701, Amsterdam-Noord. Photo: Shakuru Tajiri
This summer we arrange a series streetgatherings, all starting at 12h. To meet the artist and have a coffee and croissant. Feel very free to join us!
June: Saturday June 15 (Spinozastraat 9) -.- Saturday June 22 (Kleine Wittenburgerstraat 315) -.- Saturday June 29 (Spinozastraat 9)
July: Wednesday July 3 (K. Wittenburgerstraat 315) -.- Saturday July 13 (Spinozastraat 9) -.-
July & August: Sa July 27, Wed July 31, Sa August 31 (Plan van Gool*Live Screening* 12 - 15 pm.)
September: Friday September 13 (K. Wittenburgerstraat 315) -.- Saturday September 14 (Spinozastraat 9).
* in Plan van Gool we first meet at Bovenover 241, the last communal space in Plan van Gool. Afterward you are invited to walk through Plan van Gool and also meet at Meeting Point an artwork by Shinkichi Tajiri
Recently a publication was published entitled 'Schaepmanstraat - De Kempenaerstraat' in response to the artwork that Lucas Lenglet made for Welcome Stranger in 2020. The design is by Michaël Snitker.
On the occasion of this publication, Lucas Lenglet also has an exhibition at the Stigter Van Doesburg gallery, 'Caged' it is titled. It shows an overview of his cage and grid works (on display until March 2, 2024). In addition, the work is part of the Imagine Home exhibition in the North Brabants Museum (on display until June 2, 2024).
Find out more about the work below.
Welcome Stranger co-published an edition of De Gids. Besides an essay about Welcome Stranger by Marianna van der Zwaag, Mia You and Siel Verhanneman write letters to the one who is always a guest in their writing: the imaginary reader. There are also short stories by Richard de Nooy, Maarten Inghels and Wytske Versteeg, and an essay by Florette Dijkstra.
Also to be read in this issue: essays by Sander Kollaard, Anneke Brassinga, Donald Niedekker, Maria Barnas and Niña Weijers, stories by Hamed A. Nadoshan, Max Urai and Aska Hayakawa and poetry by r. skipper, Hans Faverey, Yasmin Namavar, Ghayath Almadhoun and Tomas Lieske.
Here you will find the issue of De Gids in Dutch. The English version of the text of Marianna van der Zwaag you find here.
Can't face another sad salad!, Simon Wald-Lasowski, 20.10.22 - 13.01.2023, prolonged till 21.06.23, photo: studioLNDW
Welcome Stranger meandered through Amsterdam for the past three years, claiming public space in an unassuming way. Artists were invited to make new work for on, above, or with their own homes. In doing so, they worked in the unexplored area between personal and public space. Passersby became chance visitors or sharers, and places that people might have walked by for years were magically seen with different eyes.
Four new artworks are coming soon, all starting at the same time. We will update this website when information is available. You can also follow Welcome Stranger on Instagram: @_welcomestranger_
In the meantime, do explore what was created so far and continues its life online EXPLORE THE ARCHIVE
Roos van Lint, Groene Amsterdammer, 7 juli 2022
Press about earlier editions here
Recording live from somewhere (Hoofdweg reflections) is a radio show hosted by Radna Rumping, live from her living room, somewhere on the Hoofdweg in Amsterdam. The radio show is as a 'hidden track', which appears a few months after the opening of the work Hoofdweg (a possible line), an audio essay that Radna made at the invitation of Welcome Stranger.
While the sound work invites the listener to take a walk and thus form a long line along the Hoofdweg (2.5 kilometres), this radio show returns back to the intimacy of the living room, behind the facade. Here, Radna's record collection is housed in a built-in cupboard, which she does not often look at anymore, but opens again for this occasion.
During Recording live from somewhere (Hoofdweg reflections) the living room turns into a radio studio for a while; invisible to the listener but still 'from somewhere'. Radna will play music for an hour that is loosely related to the audio essay, and will discuss thoughts and questions that arose both during and after making Hoofdweg (a possible line).
The broadcast can be listened to via jajajaneeneenee.com -
The audio essay 'Hoofdweg (a possible line)' is available over here.
Tracklist:
La Monte Young - Composition 1960 #7
Sun Araw - Flote
June Tyson - Theme of the stargazers
Sun Ra - New Horizons
The Natural Spiritual Orchestra - We love roll call y’all (fragment Do the right thing)
Rammellzee - Beat Bop (instrumental)
Peter Tosh & The Wailers - Steppin Razor
Adrian Piper - The Mythic Being (fragment Other than art’s sake)
The Slits - Newtown
Massive Attack - Exchange (mountain steppers dub)
Yoko Ono - She hits back
The Raincoats - Ooh Ooh La La La
Quasimoto - Come on Feet
De La Soul - can you keep a secret? (skit)
Inoyama Land - Bananatron
David Byrne - Tree (Today is an important occasion)
Poly Styrene on privacy (fragment Who is Poly Styrene?)
Curtis Mayfield - To Be invisible
Finis Africae - Segundos y segundos y segundos
Joanna MacGregor - Moondog Sidewalk dances
Laraaji - All Pervading
Donald Byrd - Stepping into tomorrow
