Presentations Abroad – 13 projects selected

7 March 2024

background

Through the Open Call Presentations Abroad, presentation institutions, exhibition venues and museums abroad can present the work of Dutch designers, architects and makers. The call is intended for presentations with a distinctive, bold or ambitious approach that take a new or different look at the design field and related social issues. The aim of the call is to share the quality and significance of contemporary Dutch architecture, design and digital culture with an international audience and, as a result, strengthen the position of the Dutch design field internationally.

general impression

In the third round of the Open Call Presentations Abroad, proposals were made for presentations in the disciplines of fashion design, urban design, digital storytelling, bio design and art-science, which related to a variety of themes and topics. These include climate change and environmental awareness, circularity, the role of technology within society and the impact of colonialism and political ideology on identity formation.

Most project forms are exhibitions of one or more works within a museum or gallery or as part of programming at a festival or event. Several projects are developing new site-specific work that responds to and/or concerns a local development, place or theme in a programme. For example, as part of Ornamenta 2024, Studio ThusThat is designing an exhibition for the project Treasure to Treasure, Dust to Dust. This deals with the ecological, social and geopolitical nuances surrounding precious metals and silverware in Germany’s northern Black Forest, for which the region was once known. For the Synthetic Exercises project, Andrius Arutiunian was invited to develop a new installation of an existing work for the 15th edition of the Gwangju Biennale in South Korea. The work explores the intertwined history of oil extraction and automatic voice-tuning technologies developed from the same algorithm and its use for value and data extraction.

A number of proposed presentations are the result of collaboration between partners in the Netherlands and other countries. For instance, a group of theatre and film makers, musicians, artists, producers and cultural venues are designing a multidisciplinary installation and performance for the project The Indonesian Dialogues. The aim is to foster space for dialogue on colonialism, heritage and identity in Indonesia through various media, including video installations, live music and illustrations.

selection

The following 13 presentations have been selected:

- Iris van Herpen: Sculpting the Senses – Queensland Art Gallery | Gallery of Modern Art | Australia
- Polyspace – Studio Klarenbeek & Dros | Germany
- Wet Dreams – Marina Otero | Spain
- Synthetic Exercises – Andrius Arutiunian | South Korea
- The Indonesian Dialogues – There Will Be Film | Indonesia
- DATAPOLIS+ – CLOUD | Italy
- Fiera del Suono, The Echoes of the Carnival Chronicles - SXSW 2024 – Stichting Pleinmuseum / DROPSTUFF.nl | United States
- TABULA SCRIPTA TOKYO – HOH Architecten | Japan
- The Soil Palace – Studio Ossidiana – Triënnale Brugge | Belgium
- Ornamenta 2024 – Jules van den Langenberg | Germany
- Sensible Spaces – Studio Janet Vollebregt | Brazil (photo above)
- Treasure to Treasure, Dust to Dust – Studio ThusThat | Germany
- Belfast Photo Festival, Rendr and Matthias Oostrik's AIAIAI.AI. - Belfast Photo Festival | Northern Ireland

numbers

Of the 28 presentations considered, 13 are receiving grants. This brings the percentage of applications receiving grants to 46.4%. A budget of € 100,000 was available for this open call. This budget was not sufficient to support all the positively assessed presentations. The available budget for this round was increased by the reserved 2024 budget, so that all the positions of assessed projects could be awarded grants for an amount of € 275,005. The contribution per project was € 10,000 - € 25,000. The contribution is intended for the fee, and travel, accommodation, transport, preparation and/or presentation costs.

assessment

All the applications received were submitted for advice to an independent committee consisting of Isabel Driessen, Branko Popoviç and Meryem Slimani. They assessed the proposals according to the following criteria:

- the artistically relevant quality of the project;
- the plan and motivation of the designer;
- the motivation of the presentation location abroad;
- the relevance of the presentation and presentation location for the Dutch creative industries;

follow-up

This was the third time that the Creative Industries Fund NL issued the Open Call Presentations Abroad. A fourth round will follow in early 2025. Keep an eye on our newsletter for information.