Monika Szewczyk, a native of Szczecin, Poland who grew up and gained early curatorial experience in Vancouver, brings to De Appel her broad international experience, most recently as a curator for documenta 14: Learning from Athens. Prior to her move to the Greek capital in 2014 to realize this uniquely bi-located edition of documenta, she developed the inaugural exhibitions program of the Reva and David Logan Center for the Arts at the University of Chicago. Szewczyk also spent four formative years in Rotterdam, as head of publications at Witte de With Center for Contemporary Art and core tutor at Piet Zwart Institute for postgraduate studies and research. “These years kindled a great love for many people and initiatives then forging creative lives in The Netherlands, and for De Appel in particular as it was a key institutional partner, the creative home of dear colleagues and an outlet for my emerging voice as a writer and speaker.”

With Szewczyk De Appel found a director who expresses a deeply felt love for art. She embraces different traditions and looks to new dimensions of practice. “It’s a time of institutional renewal at De Appel and I am excited to work with the team and board to make the most of this opportunity. We can draw on the wisdom of artists, poets, critics, constructivists, politicians, beauticians, economists, entrepreneurs, historians, futurists and De Appel’s worldly support base. So my guiding question is: How can we redefine our collective desires through art and together shape our shared space – our home, our neighbourhood, our Amsterdam, our very idea of development?”

Niels Van Tomme AMSTERDAM, etcetera
Turns 40

MUNTADAS (with BALTIMORE, again, again)

Becoming minor; practicing thoughtful diminution

AMSTERDAM (M-F, BRUSSELS S-S)
Director of De Appel (2016–2018) (humming)

BUCHAREST/BRUSSELS Bucharest Biennale 7: What are we building down there? (2016) What is the difference between a fairytale in the West and a fairytale in the East? A fairytale in the West starts with the words “Once upon a time there was…” A fairytale in the East starts with the words “Once upon a time there will be…”

Contributor to THE WIRE (2016–)

NEW YORK, still Aesthetic Justice: Intersecting Artistic and Moral Perspectives (2015) (with Pascal Gielen)

NICO VAN TOMME is born on June 17, 2015 Sonja completes her PhD in Cinema Studies at New York University (2015)

Visibility Machines: Harun Farocki and Trevor Paglen (2014-16) (BALTIMORE, again, but also BERLIN and CHICAGO)

Adjunct professor at the New School (2014)

BALTIMORE Where Do We Migrate To? (2011-16) (a question we continue to ask, see: January 20, 2017) Visiting curator, Center for Art, Design and Visual Culture, UMBC, Baltimore (2011–2016, the era of academic research translated into accessible and often confrontational exhibitions)

NEW YORK (without D.C.) Contributing editor, ART PAPERS (2011–)

JENS VAN TOMME is born on November 1, 2011

NEW YORK/WASHINGTON D.C. “It serves to remind its audience that history, no matter how shameful, painful, and inconceiv­able to us in the present, can always repeat itself, or rather, can always be repeated again.” (Revisiting Histories, 2009–2010)

Contributor to Foreign Policy in Focus (2009–2010) (a familiar tale, see: The European Loser and What is Democracy?) Curator, Director of Arts and Media at Provisions Library (2008–2011)

WASHINGTON D.C. Onthaasting: About Spare Time and Slower Worlds (2008) MA in Cultural Studies at the University of Leuven (2007)

MULTIMEDIALE (2007, with Randall Packer, capturing the capital)

ANTWERP, interlude Marries SONJA SIMONYI (2006) in BUDAPEST INward OUTward (2005), first exhibition

BRUSSELS MA in Audiovisual Arts from RITSC School of Arts (2002)

Born in 1977 in Belgium

(Kim Nguyen, 2017)

During Lorenzo Benedetti’s brief directorship of De Appel (2014-2015) he created an intriguing programme, in which the possibilities of exhibiting contemporary art were investigated in a radical manner. In Benedetti’s tactile presentations, the material exhibition spaces became an integral part of the artwork. Highlights included the installations of Michael Dean, which radically transformed the spaces of the Prins Hendrikkade into a total installation. With this exhibition, Michael Dean was nominated for the Turner Prize 2016. This exhibition also marked the start of a programme in which artists, through their works, almost literally put the traditional boundaries of art institutions into question.

International and national artists such as Michael Dean, Michael E. Smith, Melanie Gilligan, gerlach en koop and Saskia Noor van Imhoff were given the opportunity, through solo exhibitions and thus the whole building, to experiment with the full potential of contemporary art. With these uncompromising exhibitions, the discussion on the role of art and the art institute once again became an important starting point for De Appel, as it had been since the establishment of the institution by Wies Smals. This research was continued in the exhibition programme LocusSolus, in which young artists were invited to work with the archives of De Appel. In this way, the history of De Appel and thus the history of contemporary art were examined in the context of current events.

Benedetti’s curatorship was a bold reappraisal of the autonomy of art and showed a great interest in the history of both De Appel and exhibiting contemporary art. His uncompromising vision on curating made him a dedicated sparring partner of the artists whose work he presented. Under his directorship, De Appel grew into a place where artists and art lovers loved to come.

“In a few months, Benedetti brought De Appel back to the years at Prinseneiland, where Saskia Bos invited artist after artist to realize beautiful installations. These were simply not to be missed, and if you have seen them they still linger on in memory. Under Benedetti, the ever so awkward exhibition building on the Prins Hendrikkade blossomed into something of a genius loci, the building slowly got an exhibition soul and exhibition history. It again became a place that was not to be missed for art lovers.”
Ruyters, Witte Raaf, Opinion, 18.09.2015 in Metropolis M.

Ann Demeester started out her career as arts and culture editor at Belgian newspapers De Morgen and De Tijd, after which she was taken under the aegis of renowned curator and critic Jan Hoet. Eventually she relocated to the Netherlands, where she successfully ran the exhibition space W139 in Amsterdam (2002-2006). In 2006 she was named the new director of De Appel, which, during her seven years of directorship, grew with high velocity.

Led by Demeester, De Appel ambitiously increased their focus on collaborations, public visibility and reaching a broad national and international range. In the furtherance of Wies Smals’ interests, Demeester also paid special attention to performance art and the manner in which it can be archived and preserved. In doing this, Demeester realised, among others, projects such as That was then, this is now.An additional focal point was the professionalisation of the Curatorial Programme. Demeester brought De Appel to undergo a vast theoretical discourse, which produced an increase of journals, books and theoretical publications. During these years De Appel realised an impressive string of ambitious and innovative projects, publishing among others the F.R. David series, The Shadowfiles, and the various publications about curatorship in collaboration with Paul O’Neill.Demeester argued that partnerships and collaborations were of essential value for the De Appel, which brought her to establish contact with the Lutheran church, the Frascati Theater and the University of Amsterdam. This resulted in various projects, such as the extensive lecture series Right About Now, The Old Brand New and Facing Forward. However, the most important mission Demeester has initiated was the search for a new abode, a home for De Appel.

In 2012, under the care of Demeester, De Appel withdrew from the building on the Spiegelgracht and entered its new location: an imposing building on the Prins Hendrikkade in Amsterdam, decked with marble floors and tall, white walls. This space gave house to an ambitious and internationally-oriented programme. The initiation of the building was carried out with the group exhibition Topsy Turvy, which was followed by several solo-exhibitions of artists such as Sven Augustijnen, Dirk Braeckman and Zarina Bhimji. Demeester’s directorship coincided with another important period within recent Dutch art and culture history, namely that of the severe subsidy cuts. The cutbacks on the art and culture budgets that were announced in 2012 struck a large amount of small(er) organisations and companies. This brought along a coarsening of the political and public debate revolving around the ‘social value of art’, which lead to a flood of protests and resistance.

De Appel, and notably Demeester personally, took on an important role as a representative and public defender of the visual arts. During this time of Demeester’s leadership a double-edge battle had to be fought: for the importance of the visual arts on one hand, and for the retainment of a programme without any compromises or sacrifices on the other. As she had resiliently shown so far during her directorship, Demeester continued to remain committed to the artists. Thus, in 2014 De Appel said farewell to Ann Demeester with her final exhibitions ASCO No moving and Nina Yuen.

In the twenty years (1984-2006) that Saskia Bos served as the head of De Appel, the public got to know her as a passionate and highly engaged director who continued to place the artists at the centre. With her programs she aimed to raise the visitors’ awareness of the process behind the creation and presentation of art, and the societal and political role the artist could fulfil within this. Bos profiled De Appel as an internationally oriented art institute which offered an alternative to galleries and museums, and prioritised the production and presentation of new art. A constant factor within her policies and programs were the artists she invited for their research-focused and (self-)critical attitude, or their socially engaged practices. Through founding the Curatorial Training Programme (CTP) in 1994 she further solidified De Appel’s place on the international map. This international context was of great importance to Bos, and she provided form and content to this context through the CTP as well as the programming of artists who were or would become of international significance. Through this, Bos provided De Appel with a role, function, and profile that far transcended the national purport of an art institute. To Bos, the artists with whom she worked were ‘receptors’ of society. One of the most important drivers of Bos’ policy and programme was therefore to play upon topical issues. It was this, which she passed on to her CTP students too: to relate oneself to the present day was crucial. Whereas between 1986 and 1994 the focus of De Appel – housed on the Prinseneiland – lied on the way in which artists engaged with the space and the ‘in situ’ impact of art and the art institute, the move of De Appel to the Nieuwe Spiegelstraat in 1994 also shifted Bos’ emphasis. In part due to the changes in the art world and perceptions of this, Bos’ focus became increasingly with the artists who engaged their art with larger societal developments. In this way the attention of shifted away from an inward-looking focus of art on art and the art institute itself, towards art that was outward looking and placed itself within a larger global context. Through curating artists engaged in this matter, Bos expressed her belief in art’s potential to change the world – or at least raise people’s social awareness – and positioned De Appel as a socially responsible art institute. Both at the Prinseneiland as well as in the Nieuwe Spiegelstraat, Bos provided a space for contemporary and topical art that was not shown in other spaces, including the art market. She did not make concessions to the content of exhibitions and organised profound and sometimes complex exhibitions. In addition Bos presented De Appel as a self-critical institute by curating critical artists, organising immersive activities and contributing to the art discourse. The Curatorial Training Programme provided an important contribution to this furthering of engagement and moreover shaped Bos’ feel for the developments in the art world.

- Agnes Winter, Een ruimte voor geëngageerd kunstenaarschap: De Appel 1984-2005: Het directoraat van Saskia Bos

Wies Smals, who worked as a librarian for the Stedelijk Museum Amsterdam from until 1969 and as a gallery director of Seriaal between 1968 and 1975, selling multiples and prints, founded de Appel in 1975 as a reaction to the lack of platforms and possibilities to show contemporary art practices like performance, video and conceptual art at the time. These time-based practices, without a marketable object, required a different kind of space and new ways of presentation. At de Appel, Wies Smals gave artists carte blanche to realize their projects. Artists like Ben d’Armagnac, Gerrit Dekker, Marina Abramović, Ulay, Bruce Nauman, James Lee Byars and Joan Jonas presented work at de Appel in the early stages of their careers. During this period, de Appel also initiated a system where artists were paid a fee for their performances and activities, a decision that played an important role in the professional recognition of performance art. In this period De Appel was characterised by its experimental and ground breaking programme. Led by Wies Smals de Appel became one of the most important spaces in the Netherlands (and in Europe) for upcoming, immaterial, post-minimalist art practices. Artists and curators alike travelled to de Appel to orientate themselves on these new practices. Nowadays, the history of de Appel is most known for this early experimental period when performance, body art and early video art was developed and shown. Smals had an open and flexible attitude towards the identity and profile of de Appel. She was averse to the idea of institutionalization. From its initiation, she constantly reflected on the question of what art needed and what an art space like De Appel could facilitate. Because of this, de Appel was changing constantly. Around 1980, Wies Smals decided to change course and started organizing (media) projects on site. In this period, de Appel presented itself as an independent film producer and produced films by General Idea and Barbara Bloom, in addition to developing its other art programs. During these years, de Appel increasingly developed itself in the direction of an agency or project office. Due to Smals’ unfortunate, untimely dead, her directorship at de Appel came to an abrupt ending. Along with Gerhard von Graevenitz (De Appel committee member and Wies’s partner), their baby Hendrik, colleague Josine van Droffelaar and her boyfriend Martin Barkhuis, Smals was killed in a plane crash on August 20, 1983 in the Swiss Alps. Because of their sudden death, it long remained unclear what would happen to de Appel. The question arose whether de Appel could still exist without Smals and Droffelaar. The board decided to continue and to keep the goals of De Appel to ‘identify and display current developments in contemporary art’ alive. This was and remains to this day the main objective of de Appel.