model: Christiano Freire;
make-up: Sara Conesa Llorente;
photographer: Masha Ru
second photographer: Caroline Fortune
In March of 2014 a new, unusual museum will open its doors in the Southeast of Amsterdam – The Moving Museum of Clothes. An international team of two curators and four artists together with the local citizens will develop a special kind of (semi)public space where there is a place for personal stories and secrets. It will be a museum of unexpected points of views, hopes, memories, disappointments, aspirations and a continuous search for a trustful environment.
model: Cherella Gessel;
styling: Charlotte Bienen;
make-up: Nina Koleva;
photographer: Masha Ru
second photographer: Caroline Fortune
Amsterdam Southeast (the Bijlmer) is known for its contradictory past and present. An embodiment of the belief in the coming Utopia, the perfectibility of human nature and the role of architecture as a weapon for social reform, the Bijlmer anno 2013 has to deal with the lack of sense of ownership of its residents in relation to their living environment and the lack of involvement in the life of the area and of the city. This is typical Bijlmer but also a typical suburb elsewhere: from Sao Paolo to Magadan.
Which possibilities can participatory projects in the arts create in order to engage citizens with their neighborhood and with each other? How can citizens of today become a meaningful and exciting part of a story of a contemporary city? The four participating artists work inter- and transdisciplinary combining various media such as installation, performance, film, photography, and text. Each of the artists has his own approach, strategies, and tools which they apply in Amsterdam.
Masha Ru (NL/RF) researches various aspects of cultural backgrounds of contemporary citizens. For The Moving Museum Ru will put an emphasis on the interaction between the personal and national identity in relation to the choice of clothes by different participants for different situations in their lives. The stories and experiences of citizens will form a basis for the development of themes en techniques in Ru’s project.
Irina Leifer and Niki Lischow, curators of The Moving Museum of Clothes
Sponsors: Amsterdam Fonds voor de Kunsten Wilhelmina F Jansen Fonds en de Gemeente Amsterdam, stadsdeel Zuidoost.
