Went to Almere last week to visit museum ‘de Paviljoens‘.  They are pondering Dutch Identity through a series of exhibitions, and have an exhibition on now titled De Kracht van Heden i.e. The Power of the Present. It is a remake of an exhibition done in 1992 by The Netherlands Foundation for Visual Arts (BKVB). Participating artists – now household names – were once kick-started by BKVB grants.  The same artists are shown now, with a number of new arrivals added for good measure.

The exhibition can be read as a finger raised in warning:  Dutch government is downsizing art funding, and Paviljoens tells them:  no grants – no new household names.

I’d never been to the Paviljoens before – building is pretty nice, a number of square boxes on stilts, which is an ok idea in a polder. Works on show vary wildly – from Navid Nuur’s tiny little balls under a plinth to the infinity hiding behind a door that Job Koelewijn puts on. There is a common denominator of sorts: works are conceptual, rich in meaning but sober in the way they are executed. We are a land of straight lines, usually our poetry has to be read between them ….  Having seen lines, I kept seeing them everywhere. Experimented with some video, am uploading now to Youtube, will post it shortly.

I was impressed by Fransje Killenaar’s NonStop Tokyo, all straight lines and soft materials. Is it inspired on the Capsule Hotels in Tokyo? If the Paviljoens would rent it out, it would sleep 16!