Lecture series
December 2011–April 2012

Oude Lutherse Kerk
Spui 411 (corner Spui)
Amsterdam
www.facingforward.nl


Following the successful lecture series and publications Right About Now: Art & Theory in the 1990s and Now is the Time: Art & Theory in the 21st Century, the Stedelijk Museum Amsterdam, the University of Amsterdam, de Appel arts centre, W139, the Stedelijk Museum Bureau Amsterdam, and Metropolis M, jointly present a new series of lectures and debates: Facing Forward: Art & Theory from a Future Perspective. This series and its forthcoming publication will discuss art and theory of the future, focusing on seven themes that together envision possible futures for contemporary art and theory, and offering innovative models and strategies with which to look at our collective future. Over the course of seven evenings, renowned international speakers will share their perspectives on the topics of Future Tech, Future Image, Future History, Future Freedom, Future Museum, Future City and ultimately, Future’s Future.
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The Stedelijk Museum invites artists to submit projects as part of Beyond Imagination - Municipal Art Acquisitions 2012. Artists are each requested to submit a proposal for a specific artwork, accompanied by documentation. A panel of jurors will review the submissions. From the works on view, the director of the Stedelijk Museum will choose those to be purchased for the museum’s permanent collection. Proposals for Municipal Art Acquisitions 2012 are open only to artists living and/or working in the Netherlands; however, nationality is not a criterion.

The registration form with further guidelines can be downloaded here and is also available at SMBA.

A lecture by Michael Tedja followed by SMBA guided tours throughout the night.

Saturday 5 November, 7 p.m. - 2 a.m.
Lecture starts at 8 p.m. (in Dutch)
Guided tours in Dutch and English

Admission free with museumnacht ticket
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Tuesday 25 October, 8 p.m.
Free admission, lecture in English
Reservations can be made by sending a e-mail to mail@smba.nl.


Stedelijk Museum Bureau Amsterdam and ROMA Publications cordially invite you for the launch of the publication 24 European Ethnographic Museums by Sara van der Heide. For this occasion Moosje Goosen wrote the story The Museum of Western Folklore: A Commemorative Speech, which will be read this evening.
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Tuesday 25 October, 5 p.m.
Free admission, lecture in Dutch.
Reservations can be made by sending a e-mail to mail@smba.nl.

Launch of the bundle essays from students of the University of Amsterdam, on art and globalisation. Spoken language is Dutch. For more information see announcement in Dutch.

Saturday, 8 October 2011 (International Observe the Moon Night) 11 a.m. – 6 p.m.
Location: SMBA, Rozenstraat 59, Amsterdam
Entrance: free

Moon Life speculates on the possibility that humans will live in space in the future. The project examines the potentialities and challenges of life on the Moon not only in the fields of architecture and design but also for social, public and political life. Artists, architects and designers are encouraged to radical thinking towards concepts of habitat design for the Moon to create a platform for the public to engage with these notions and discuss the ‘publicness’ of the possibility for living on the Moon.
The Full Moon symposium brings together scientists, architects, designers and artists to present and exchange their ideas, visions and designs for (daily) life on the Moon and in space.
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Wednesday 21 september, starting 8 p.m.

Reservations can be made by sending an e-mail to mail@smba.nl.

Launch of the book edited by Janneke Wesseling, with brief presentations by three artists. Spoken language is Dutch; Roig Blesa’s presentation in English. For more information see announcement in Dutch

Monday, 29 August, starting 7:30 p.m.

Program in English
Admission free


Together with the artist Matthijs de Bruijne, Stedelijk Museum Bureau Amsterdam has organised an evening with presentations by artists and groups focusing on the effort to create greater social solidarity. One of the points of departure for this evening is the lecture by Joost de Bloois, given at the opening of the exhibition ‘Informality’ in the Stedelijk Museum Bureau Amsterdam, about precarity, art and political activism. Among the questions De Bloois posed in the lecture was whether artists could fulfil a different role in society. In that new role they would be less oriented to individual creative behaviour and affiliate more with groups in our society whose position can be regarded as precarious, and which, as such, share a comparable social position with that of artists. Click here for the text of De Bloois's lecture (in English).

'Participants include Domestic Workers Netherlands / Matthijs de Bruijne / Detour / FNV, Edwin Stolk, Precarious Workers Brigade (London) and Actie Schone kunsten '
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BijlmAIR is the Artist-in-Residence Programme of Centrum Beeldende Kunst Zuidoost (CBK Zuidoost – center of visual arts), Stedelijk Museum Bureau Amsterdam (SMBA) and Stichting FLAT (FLAT foundation).

For 2011 BijlmAIR invites artists and other cultural producers to live and work temporarily in Amsterdam Southeast . This period can be used for project research or for realisation of a project or work of art, following a relevant proposal made by the applicant. The selection committee of the participating organisations decides which proposals will be chosen.
The residency needs to relate to the transnational and intercultural society of Amsterdam Southeast. This can be done on all kinds of levels – urban, sociological, economical, historical, etc. The programme is primarily meant for young artists from the Netherlands and abroad, who finished their art education recently and are almost ready to enter the circuit of the larger art institutions.
BijlmAIR aims to present the different residencies in 2011 at the end of the year.
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Saturday 13 August, 5.30 p.m.


The concept of "precarity" serves as a rallying cry for a great number of contemporary protest movements (from the French anti-CPE protests to the Spanish Indignados, via the Greek social movement and recent student protests in Italy and Germany). Equally, "precarity" has become a key notion in both critical theory and artistic practice today. In his lecture at the opening of the Informality exhibition in SMBA Joost de Bloois will unpack the different meanings and the ambiguities of the notion of "precarity" within political and artistic practices and critical theory.

Dr. Joost de Bloois is lecturer at the University of Amsterdam, department of Literary and Cultural Studies

SMBA cordially invites you to the book launch of: Locating the Producers – Durational Approaches to Public Art, Paul O’Neill & Claire Doherty (eds.)

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The exhibition ‘Mounira Al Solh & Bassam Ramlawi’ in SMBA opens its doors already on Saturday, 18 June. The official opening however takes place a week later, on Saturday afternoon, 25 June. It will include the launch of the book Al Solh made on the occasion of receiving the Uriôt Prize from the Rijksakademie van beeldende kunsten, In a Time Fleece. A Publication about Bassam Ramlawi. The book includes a contribution by the Lebanese literary scholar, philosopher and art critic Jacques Aswad and an e-mail exchange between him and Al Solh.

SMBA organizes, in collaboration with the Netherlands Media Art Institute (NIMk), a screening of the film Elmina, in the presence of the artist Doug Fishbone, who plays the lead role in the film. The evening will be introduced by historian Louise Muller, a specialist in the field of Ghanaian film.

The film Elmina tells the story of a small Ghanaian village where the oil that is discovered in the ground causes an upheaval for the villagers. They are forced to sell their land to large, corrupt multinationals – a scenario that is common enough in reality. There is however an important twist in the film: although the whole project was produced by Ghana's Revele Films & Flatbush Films, and well-known African actors appear in the cast, the white artist Doug Fishbone performs the principal role.
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Project 1975 comprises not only exhibitions but also a series of lectures, seminars, artist talks and film programmes. This January the floor is to Paul Goodwin, Cross Cultural Curator at Tate Britain.

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Stedelijk Museum Bureau Amsterdam has received the very sad news that Mieke Van de Voort, artist and participant in the exhibition ‘Walker Evans and the Barn’ a year ago, died last Monday. We are shocked by her sudden passing and would like to express our sincere condolences to her family and friends.