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 West

  • permanent
  • accessible

Aldo van Eyck nurtures the imagination with his abstractions

Until shortly after the war it was entirely normal that a child needed to be a member to be allowed on a playground. Playground equipment was available in Amsterdam, but often only in fenced off courtyards. Urban designer Jakoba Mulder identified this as a problem and commissioned the architect Aldo van Eyck to design small public playgrounds for every Amsterdam neighbourhood.

Van Eyck, who whole-heartedly supported the playful city, was on a mission to realise pleasant playgrounds for children and their parents. One important element was the structure of free-standing but loosely linked pieces of equipment- a clever way of stimulating endless variation.

The Van Eesteren Musuem exhibits Van Eyck’s sketches of floor plans with schematic arrangements of sandboxes, swingsets and monkey bars, the sight of which almost resembles a Mondriaan painting. What’s more, the minimalist design of the equipment was meant to give room for the children’s imagination to turn a climbing frame into a hut, a spaceship or an igloo. They were urged to reflect, imagine freely and involve other children in their games: abstraction nurturing social contact.

Besides providing detailed information about Van Eyck’s vision, the Van Eesteren Museum is all about its eponym. In the museum, the cultural heritage of urban designer Cornelis van Eesteren is literally and figuratively mapped out. In Amsterdam, his achievements are best experienced in Nieuw-West, Buitenveldert and in some places in Noord. This is where you can really feel the light-air-and-space principle of het Nieuwe Bouwen (new building). It is therefore recommended to check the museum’s website for tours that take you through Van Eesteren’s Nieuw-West.

The museum is presently in the midst of a crowdfunding campaign to install a large Van Eyck climbing frame in front of the building. There is something unusual about adults cherishing an object made for children. It occurs with Barbie dolls never taken out of their packaging and with rare comic books never unwrapped from their cellophane. At this moment of writing, the climbing frame is still on a small public playground in Stoomgemaalstraat in Osdorp. The small square is going to be refurbished, and there will no longer be room for Van Eyck’s piece.

If the crowdfunding campaign succeeds and the frame is brought to the museum, the climbing frame will become an illustration. People can watch it while they are being taught about it. Shall we leave the route for what it is and start playing?

More information

Bergen, Marina van den (2002) De speelplaatsen van Aldo van Eyck, www.archined.nl. URL bezocht op 25 mei 2018.
https://www.archined.nl/2002/06/de-speelplaatsen-van-aldo-van-eyck

Agenda

March