artist: Renaud Auguste-Dormeuil, Mircea Cantor, Jota Castro, Jean-Luc Moulène, Oliver Ressler, Sebastian Romo
located in: De Pijp,
client: Combiwel, SKOR

From September 24 onwards Combiwel and SKOR are organising an art event in the De Pijp district of Amsterdam under the title Quicksand in de Pijp, starting on 24th September. It is a sequel to the Quicksand exhibition held at the De Appel art space in the spring of 2004. Curators Amiel Grumberg and Victor Palacios have invited the following artists to make a site-specific work in De Pijp: Renaud Auguste-Dormeuil (France, 1968), Mircea Cantor (Rumania, 1977), Jota Castro (Peru, 1965), Jean-Luc Moulène (France, 1955), Oliver Ressler (Austria, 1970) and Sebastian Romo (Mexico, 1973).

Various artists
Quicksand in De Pijp

'Comma, Coma', Sebastian Romo and Marisol Jimenez (photo: Gert Jan van Rooij)

The selected artists were confronted with major artistic and social challenges in De Pijp, a district that symbolises the socio-political situation characterising many cities in the Netherlands and the rest of Europe. Controversial urban and architectural plans are being made for De Pijp, which is a melting pot of more than a hundred different nationalities and cultures, and where the composition of the population is constantly changing.

The artistic interventions assume different spatial and temporal forms, varying from Jota Castro’s imaginary theatre performance to the multi-media work of Renaud Auguste-Dormeuil, from Sebastian Romo’s piece on the bridge to Jean-Luc Moulène’s video installation on the Ruysdaelkade and the postcards and posters by Oliver Ressler. Quicksand offers a different view of the the daily reality of De Pijp.