Museumnacht in SMBA

Michael Tedja: Origin, race, talent

A lecture on art, identity politics and schisms

This lecture is a lament, a settlement and an attack in one. Central is the self-cleansing standard of Dutch art appreciation, which from Tedja’s perspective breathes a virtually 19th century colonial mentality: "The handling, the way in which you handle your own colour and the many colours around you are a colour study. I see it as an artist project that develops by mixing… I do not like reformed art. Piet Mondriaan didn’t want people to paint diagonals; it had to be vertical and horizontal; the narrow mindedness…."

This lecture will be streamed live through a link button on the Project '1975' website.

After the lecture there will be quick tours around the exhibition 'Vincent Vulsma - A Sign of Autumn' upon request of the visitors.

Michael Tedja (Rotterdam 1971) is a painter, writer, poet, publisher and a curator. His art work has been exhibited nationally and internationally and is amongst others represented in the collections of the Stedelijk Museum Amsterdam, Utrecht Central Museum, Arnhem Museum of Modern Art, The Frisian Museum in Leeuwarden and The Jan Cunen Museum in Oss.

Tedja was a general artistic manager for cultural diversity in art from 2007 to 2009. In this capacity he gave a lecture on engaged art and poetry in Felix Meritis, Amsterdam, wrote the novel Hustling (KIT Publishers), set up The DFI Publishers and curated the international exhibition ‘Eat the frame!’ in the gallery Nouvelles Images, Den Haag. For more information see: michaeltedja.info

Tedja’s newest book is called The auto poem and consists of nine parts. Each part comprises of 48 pages. His lecture at SMBA is part 7: ‘The teaching poem’, of which a part has appeared earlier, in the Dutch monthly ‘Hollands Maandblad’. Tedja wrote The auto poem in the framework of his BijlmAIR residency organized by CBK Zuidoost and Stedelijk Museum Bureau Amsterdam. It consists of the following nine parts:

Part 1: The 1 euro poem (Dutch) (ISBN 978-94-90667-02-3)

Part 2: The table poem (English) (ISBN 978-94-90667-03-0)

Part 3: The curator poem (English) (ISBN978-94-90667-04-7)

Part 4: The government poem (Dutch) (ISBN 978-94-90667-07-8)

Part 5: The talking poem (Dutch) (ISBN 978-94-90667-06-1)

Part 6: The picture poem (Dutch) (ISBN 978-94-90667-05-4)

Part 7: The teaching poem (Dutch) (ISBN 978-94-90667-08-5)

Part 8: The children’s poem (English) (ISBN 978-94-90667-10-8)

Part 9: The painting poem (Dutch) (ISBN 978-94-90667-09-2)

The series is available for 9 euro in total (or 1 euro per part). all sales profits are to the benefit of the cancer fund.

Both publication and lecture have been made possible by the Amsterdam Fund for the Arts.