This edition’s overarching theme, ‘Local and In-Depth’, highlights regional gems by opening museum archives and atelier doors of local artists to our global audience.
Through our physical programming and exclusive digital content, OBSESSED! 2021 focuses on big ideas by a diverse range of experts based in the Netherlands and Belgium: curators, artists, designers, craftspeople, collectors and more.
30 October in Rotterdam
Throughout November in Apeldoorn
5-20 November Online
5-7 November in Amsterdam
6-7 November in Amsterdam
8 November in Amsterdam
9-10-11-12 November in Utrecht
10 November in Amsterdam
10-27 November
12-13-14 November in Amsterdam
13-14-15 November in Amsterdam
13-14 November in Amsterdam
14 November in Amsterdam
14 November in Amsterdam
14-21 November in Amsterdam
18 November in Rotterdam
20 November in Amsterdam
20-21 November in Amsterdam
20-21 November in Amsterdam
22-28 November in Amsterdam
26 November in Maastricht
26-28 November in Amsterdam
27-28 November in Amsterdam
28 November – 06 March ’22 in Apeldoorn
19-20-21 November in Antwerp
19 November in Antwerp
19-20-21 November in Antwerp
19-20-21 November in Antwerp
19-20 November in Antwerp
19-20-21 November in Antwerp
We thank our team: Anna Dienemann — Wearable Scenography · Ranno Ait and Sven Raju — Website Design · Linda Beumer — Graphic Design · Vica Gábor — Research · Melanie Marsman — Photography and Videography · Margaret Munchheimer — Interview Research and Execution, Sound Editing · Sofia Nikolaeva — Sound and Video Editing · Jonas Mindaugas Paberzis — Sound and Video Editing · Marc Ferrer Vives — Visuals and Identity · Ray Zheng — Research
Morph Collective is a shifting roster of artists, whose work comprises everything from digital art to experimental ceramics and furniture. Loosely based around a common studio in Rotterdam, their collective practice is rooted in exhibition, each show a response to the space in which they present and a conversation between their individual work, creating an immersive, all-purpose environment.
DIVA ANTWERP
Antwerp’s DIVA Museum is the recent amalgamation of the former Diamond Museum and the Silver Museum, into a macro-collection of jewellery, silver-ware and ceramics. ‘DIVA’ is not an acronym, but a reference to all things glamorous and decadent. With a focus on the excellence of craftsmanship that produced these defining accessories of a bygone age of abundance, they also program temporary exhibitions that employ modern technology to illustrate the diamond trade for which Antwerp is historically known.
Perhaps even more exciting however, is the extensive reference jewellery library alone of its kind, free to the public; and the well outfitted in-house ateliers in which they host a revolving artist in residency programme.
BIBI VAN DER VELDEN
Sophisticated and successful, Amsterdam jewellery designer Bibi van der Velden challenges the notion that in order to thrive commercially, one must be a businessperson first and an artist second. We caught up with her for a glimpse of her new collection ‘Smoke’, which gets released this week, and gained some insight into her dual sculpture and jewellery- making process, about BibiMichéle, her large-scale collaboration with her mother, sculptor Michèle Deiters, and a bit about how she got where she is today
THE POOL – JEWELLERY COLLECTIVE
Not long after the closing of Amsterdam’s well-known Galerie Ra in 2019, a fortuitous opening of a small space at Grimburgwal 4, led to the reimagining of how jewellery might be shown and more importantly, sold. The Pool is a collective of 15 jewellery makers, who share this cooperatively-run space, to produce exhibitions, promote each other’s work, and take advantage of Amsterdam’s steady stream of foot traffic to sell to the public. Current Obsession had the opportunity to speak with members Paul Derrez, Morgane de Klerk and Lindsey Fontijn about their collaborative process, and their current exhibition, Synchronized Swimming.
Today wraps up the All the Glitters exhibition at CODA Museum in Apeldoorn, a survey of costume jewellery collected by illustrator and comics publisher, Jozef Joop Wiggers. Curator Rianne Groen speaks with us about her research around the golden age of costume jewellery, from its significance to Hollywood filmmaking in the 50’s and 60’s, the democratising effect it had on the market for the ‘everyday woman’, and the infamous rivalry between Coco Chanel and Elsa Schiaparelli. Plus a peek at the new addition to the Museum’s collections —Schiaparelli’s Dove brooch, a variation of which was worn by Lady Gaga!
EVERT NIJLAND
It might be easy to miscategorise Dutch artist Evert Nijland’s work at first glance; rich in art historical themes of the Renaissance and antiquity, and a clear dedication to the highest standards in handcraft. But his current work is the result of two key collaborations, with digital craftsman Alan Nguyen, and master glass blower, Edwin Dieperink – joining his own intuitive explorations of form with the possibilities available when digital and handcraft are united is his own way of, ‘humanising the digital language.’ And unmistakably contemporary.
The work of Salim Bayri is a revolving examination of movement, migration and human/object interaction. Constantly in motion, he is attracted by the parallel or sandwich situations between diaspora, weaving every material or situation encountered into a multimedia approach that includes everything from film to digital art, painting and wearable objects, mapping lived experiences through object, space and sound.
Represented by Galerie Van Gelder, and a recent resident at Rijksakademie, he began teaching at Gerrit Rietveld Academie in April 2020. We joined Salim for the build up of his exhibition, Moving Archive, at CODA museum in Apeldoorn, to see his process in action.
Author, activist and curator, Janice Deul who will be delivering the Marjan Unger lecture on Monday 8 November at the Rijksmuseum, is a unique voice in the world of fashion.
Since 2014, her platform Diversity Rules, has been actively promoting a reboot of beauty standards in the media, for a more accurate representation of the world’s beauty beyond whiteness. Dutch jewellery designer Kalkidan Hoex uses her brand, TheNEWtribe – rooted in the representational practice of black culture- to speak directly to others who share her third culture reality of being born in one culture and raised in another.
After working together during the Voices of Fashion Centraal Museum exhibition, co-curated by Deul, Janice and Kalkidan weigh in on their experiences as women of colour in the world of design, the after-effects of Janice’s well-documented 2020 piece for the Volkskrant, and her upcoming lecture on cultural appropriation, in this very special conversation at Amsterdam’s Nelson Mandela Park.
Suzanne van Leeuwen is a Junior Curator and Conservator of Jewellery at the Rijksmuseum in Amsterdam. Her unique background covers everything from archaeology to gemmology, and upon landing her dream job in 2014, found herself working directly alongside the late educator and collector, Marjan Unger, on her book ‘Jewellery Matters’. Now on the committee to select the speaker of the Rijks’ biennial Marjan Unger lecture, Suzanne speaks to us about working with Marjan, and about the nature of the lecture series, and gives us a private tour of the Rijksmuseum’s jewellery collection.
Austrian jewellery designer Benedikt Fischer and Dutch artist Rudy de Gruyl first met in the context of Amsterdam’s OutsiderWear project, which pairs less-recognised ‘outsider’ artists- those with, for example, a mental or physical disability or psychological vulnerability, with artists or designers already established in their field, for a one year collaboration.
Producing jewellery, objects and paintings, the partnership was so fruitful that Rudy and Benedikt have continued their work together beyond the initial project, and will exhibit in Amsterdam 13-14 November at Derde Kostverlorenkade 35
Danish designer Anna Aargard Jensen is a force. She began teaching soon after her own graduation from Design Academy Eindhoven in 2018, where her project, ‘A Basic Instinct’, a series of sprawling pink chairs explicitly designed to encourage women to take up more physical space, quickly gathered international recognition.
Now the head of Rietveld Academie’s DesignLab, and an active member of Rotterdam art collective Morph, Anna speaks to us about education, multi-disciplinary collaboration, and why design is the perfect form of activism.
Gijs Bakker is an icon of Dutch design. Both an industrial- and a jewelry designer, he has produced everything from housewares and furniture to public spaces and exhibitions, and was founding member of award-winning organizations Droog Design and chp? Jewelry.
But Gijs has also been an educator for 40 years, the most recent iteration of which is in the administering of the project MASieraad, a masters program based between Amsterdam and Hasselt, Belgium, called Challenging Gold. We caught up with Gijs to speak about this new venture, his outlook on education, and his design philosophies in general.