Public Art. Amsterdam

Agenda

Ontmoetingsplaats 21ste eeuw

Figuren en Vuur

Ladders

Krijger

Vruchtbaarheid

Totempaal

Mensen op strand met parasol

Monument voor de Vrede

Aardewerk

Zwerm

Blauwe Boog

Jongen met Haan

Papieren vliegtuigpijl

Schaapjes

Senza Parole

Vleugelvormen

Zonder moeite niets (Het Sieraad)

Herdenkingsmonument voor slachtoffers Tweede Wereldoorlog

De Wending 666/999

Boegbeeld

Ankh

Het Molecularium

Vierwindstrekenbrug

Zonder Titel (hekwerk poort)

Home is where the heart is: de potkachel

BOLD TOREN BOUWMATERIALEN

Strike a Pose – Wafae Ahalouch

Amsterdam, the magic center, art and counterculture 1967-1970

Schip van Slebos

De Appel

Het Bankje

Het Raam

De Oude Kerk

Het Stoepje

Licht

De Brug

De Brug

Ruimtestructuur

Het Zandkasteel en de Amsterdamse Poort

How to Kill a Tree, Edward Clydesdale Thomson

City Cells

Nelson Mandela

Monument tegen Apartheid en Racisme

DOE IETS / DO SOMETHING

Spanje Monument

De Muur

Gedenkteken Steven van Dorpel

De Grote Glijbaan

Yellow Wings

Dolle Mina

Man en Schaap

Hortus Botanicus

Portrait of Jan Pieterszoon Coen, J.L. Vreugde

Anton de Kom

Now, Speak!

Tayouken Piss

Monument Bijlmerramp

Sequin Monument

Mama Aisa

Zonder titel (Twee Schuine Naalden)

Nationaal Monument Slavernijverleden

Monument for Martin Luther King

Gloei!

Voor de Bijen

Industrieel Monument

The Black Archives

Tussentijd

Corned Beef

Sami

Brace for Impact, Node #6

Untitled (You Don’t Have To Be Here)

Staalmanplein

Wegwerphuisje

Groot Landschap

De 7 poorten

Klimmuur

De Kies

Black Waves

Tectona Grandis

Stapeling omlaag

Animaris Rhinoseros Transport

Tuinen van West

De Poort van Constant

Fietstunnel station Amsterdam CS

Noordbeeld

NDSM-Werf

Ontmoetingsplaats

IJ boulevard

ADM monument

De Ceuvel

NDSM-Werf

Observatorium

De Ceuvel

Gedenkteken Ataturk

Twee Beelden

Sunday Seminar Pay Attention Please! curating the city

Official Opening Pay Attention Please!

De Kost en de Baat

Van Eesteren Museum and Aldo van Eyck’s climbing frames

Constructie met I-balken, André Volten

Mirage, Tamás Kaszás

Rembo, Bastienne Kramer

Untitled, Margot Zanstra

Horse Chestnut, Amok Island

2 U’s naar buiten / 2 U’s naar binnen, Carel Visser

Opstandingskerk, Marius Duintjer

Cascoland

WOW Amsterdam

Leonard van Munster, Under Heaven 02

Lex Horn, Concrete relief Hendrik de Keyser

Het Wiel, Jeroen Henneman

Herbert Nouwens, Brettensuite

White Noise

De Wachter

Feestelijke Beelden (festive sculptures)

Your Life is Calling

Untitled

Primum movens ultimum moriens

11 Rue Simon Crubellier

Lady Solid

Opgelichte Stoeptegels

Ode to Mungus, Menhir Tower and Spire

Untitled (Hildo)

The First Turk Immigrant or The Nameless Heroes of The Revolution – Framer Framed

Amsterdam, the Magic Center Art and counterculture 1967-1970, Stedelijk Museum Amsterdam

Monument for the White Cube – P/////AKT

Monuments to the Unsung – Framer Framed

wild care, tame neglect – Frankendael Foundation

GET LOST – art route, several artists

Ode to the Bijlmer – CBK Zuidoost

Untitled (You Don’t Have To Be Here) – De Appel

We should have a conversation (2018) – De Appel

Fiep van Bodegom

Roos van Rijswijk

Alma Mathijsen

Massih Hutak

Chris Keulemans

Rashid Novaire

NDSM-wharf

Art tour Amsterdam Zuid

  • permanent
  • accessible

Gustav Mahlerplein is at the heart of the Zuidas. The square has developed in pace with its environment and has gone through many transformations. We’re taking a look at the various artworks that have adorned the square in the past years.

When you have your back turned to Hildo, you’re looking out over Gustav Mahlerplein. A square in general serves as a good metaphor for society on a small scale. It is public domain at its best:  a platform for social contact and the different authorities controlling its organisation are all visible. The analysis of a square and how it affects its surroundings gives us insight into how public space operates. Gustav Mahlerplein is at the heart of the Zuidas. Its central location is one of the reasons that in the past it was repeatedly used as a podium for the arts and as such it has a rich history of art in public space. The square developed in pace with its environment and has gone through many transformations. A brief overview of the art this place has given rise to:

Fortuna
In March 2015 a yacht stranded on the square, as designed by Leonard van Munster. He designed the work in 2012 when he was artist in residence at the Zuidas (which was an initiative of the Virtual Museum Zuidas). But because sponsors were hard to find –companies in the area weren’t willing to invest- it took three years to realise the work. The ship was eventually christened Fortuna, after the goddess of chance and good and bad luck. This work is a prime example of the social criticism which a public square traditionally facilitates. A stranded ship in the financial heart of the Netherlands- for van Munster this depicted our society in times of crisis. For a ship evokes multiple associations: the yacht can be a symbol for the wealth (and the demise) of the elite, but can also be seen as a means to escape this capitalist world, a beacon of hope.

In May 2015 the shipwreck was removed and the area was cleared so that renovations to the square could kick off. Before the construction of the Zuidasdok (the A10 underpass) began, an underground bicycle parking system was built. The square was refurbished and the white benches made way for flower beds.

Palace Ruin
In July 2016, renovations were completed and Gustav Mahlerplein was back in operation. Within a month a new artwork was revealed, this time by James Beckett. For his installation Palace RuinBeckett partly rebuilt the Paleis voor Volksvlijt, an iconic building in Amsterdam dating from 1860, which was destroyed by fire in 1929. Palace Ruin represents a remnant of the building as it looked the day after it went up in flames.

In his work, Beckett often aims to connect the past and the present. The design for the Paleis voor Volksvlijt inspired many modernist buildings, with its characteristic glass, high-rise and geometric elements which are visible at the Zuidas too nowadays. For two months the work served as a stage for experimental music performances and presentations. Gustav Mahlerplein is situated amidst the ‘palaces’ where the masters of the present day, neoliberal world order plan their strategies. As such, Palace Ruinis literally a platform for art and culture in the business world.

Ode to Mungus, Menhir Tower andSpire
These three sculptures on Gustav Mahlerplein were not originally included in the plan for the renewed square. They were installed during ARTZUID, the sculpture biennial in Amsterdam-Zuid. They were made by the artist Hans van de Bovenkamp. Dating from 2006, 2008 and 2010 respectively, the sculptures weren’t conceived specifically for the square, but they were placed here because their abstract design and baroque elegance form a nice contrast to the Zuidas’ austere architecture. Unlike the preceding artworks these were not made in relation to their environment, but a relation does come about eventually, as it often does in public space- whether that was meant to happen or not.

These three artists, expressing different views, indirectly lay bare the different power structures controlling public space. The control is not only in the hands of the government, residents too actively create public space by using it the way they choose to. The artworks at Gustav Mahlerplein are food for discussion, in the public realm as well as in their direct physical environment. As such, they take part in the manifestation of social behaviour ón the square.

More information

Meer sculpturen op de officiële website Hans van de Bovenkamp: http://www.vandebovenkamp.com/gallery4.htm

Agenda

August