Stichting Ammodo, For arts, architecture and science

The artist duo Suzan Boogaerdt and Bianca van der Schoot combines performance and (video) installations. They call their field of operations the ‘grey space’: the zone between the black box (theatre) and the white cube (museum).

This approach is evident in their New Body Project, which they will present in 2024 – a diptych about mourning lost bodies and embodying a new world.

The first part, called WOMBTOMBOLA, is presented at MU Hybrid Art House in Eindhoven in spring of 2024. It consists of a series of WOMBTOMBS: hiding places that are both memorial sites and incubators. These spaces can be visited by the public and will host performances at certain times.

The second part, SONGOFSONGS, takes the form of a multimedia performance which will tour across the Netherlands in the fall of 2024. Here, new forms of existence are presented which were developed in the WOMBTOMBS, merging human, technological and digital ‘bodies’.

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Photo: Annaleen Louwes

As in previous years, Muziekgebouw aan ‘t IJ will (co-)produce three new compositions in contemporary music annually between 2024 and 2027. Dutch and international composers will get the chance to develop their practice and present their own contribution to the canon of contemporary music.

All pieces will celebrate their world premiere at Muziekgebouw. The performances are realised in cooperation with Dutch and international partners including Asko|Schönberg, Cappella Amsterdam, Klangforum Wien and Collegium Vocale Gent.

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Every other year in the summer, The Dutch National Opera & Ballet organizes the Choreographic Academy: a period of three weeks in which young talented choreographers collaborate with the dancers of the Junior Company.

The Choreographic Academy aims to be a place for research and experiment. A final result in the form of a finished choreography is not a requirement, but it happens regularly.

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Pictured: New Moves, 2022 (Photo: Khayla Fitzpatrick)

Ammodo supports the creation of three new productions by choreographer Arno Schuitemaker: Remembering the Future (2023), The Day Before (2024) and Correspondences (2025).

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Pictured: O S C A R, Arno Schuitemaker, 2021 (Photo: Bart Grietens)

Festival d’Avignon is an annual theatre festival for new French and international productions. In editions 2023 and 2024, Ammodo supports the creation of two new (co-)productions per year.

In 2023, these are Welfare by Julie Deliquet and Antigone in the Amazon by Milo Rau. In 2024, they will be Mothers – A Song For The Wartime by Marta Górnicka and second production (to be determined).

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Tatiana Filatova researches the complex dynamics between socio-economic systems and climate change, seeking, among other things, to predict societies’ responses to different climate scenarios.

A distinctive feature of her research is the use of existing knowledge from the social sciences to enrich traditional climate models. For example, using computer simulations Filatova has shown that gradual poverty traps and ghettos may arise in climate-sensitive areas, including in rich countries.

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Jingyuan Fu studies the gut microbiome in relation to disease and health, focusing in particular on complex diseases such as obesity and cardiovascular disease.

She impressively demonstrated, for example, that the gut microbiome can be manipulated by both dietary interventions and certain drugs. This makes the microbiome an important starting point for disease prevention and treatment.

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Toneelschuur Productions has selected five young directors to create several new theatre productions in the coming years. These are Abdel Daoudi, Jessie L’Herminez, Koen Verheijden, Angelo Ormskerk and Agnese Kumpina.

Each season, at least four new plays will see their premiere. In addition, Toneelschuur Productions has reserved space for ad hoc productions by guest directors.

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Pictured: Dieven, Jessie L’Herminez, 2023

The Ruhrtriennale is a renowned annual performing-arts festival in the German Ruhr area. A new artistic leader is appointed every three years. From 2024 to 2026, the festival is led by former ITA director Ivo van Hove. During this period, Ammodo supports several new (co-)productions each year which will premiere at the Ruhrtriennale and are created in cooperation with international partners, including ITA.

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The Junior Company of the Dutch National Ballet is a talent development programme for young dancers. Since its establishment in 2013, it has garnered a reputation for fostering promising new talents.

Every season, the Junior Company tours the nation with its own programme of repertoire choreographies as well as new creations. Many former participants have gone on to be selected for the Dutch National Ballet.

From season 2023/2024 onwards, the Junior Company expands its activities with the production of a new performance at Studio Broekman. Sedrig Verwoert is the first choreographer to be selected for this commission piece.

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Afgebeeld: In the Future, Hans van Manen, Shooting Stars tour 2022 (Photo: Altin Kaftira)

De Ateliers annually invites twenty talented artists for a two-year residence in which to develop their artistic practice under the best possible circumstances.

In 2020, De Ateliers launched a new Production Fund with support from Ammodo, which artists in residence may use to finance their practice. The fund promotes artistic experiment and gives the artists freedom to develop new ideas.

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Pictured: work by Tash Keddy at Offspring 2022. Foto: Gert Jan van Rooij

My Oma is a group exhibition around the symbolic figure of the grandmother and investigates themes such as mobility, affection and conflict.

The exhibition combines existing works and new commissions by various artists with connections to the Global South and marks the end of the six year directorship of curator Sofia Hernández Chong Cuy.

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Pictured: Kenyalang Circus, Marcos Kueh, 2022

Stan Brouns is engaged in fundamental research into the age-old battle between microbes and viruses. In particular, he studies the so-called CRISPR-Cas defence mechanisms that bacteria deploy to arm themselves against viruses.

Thanks to Brouns’ research we now know that bacteria possess a smart, adaptive immune system that can remember and render invaders harmless.

In addition, Brouns is leading an innovative study of bacteriophages, the natural enemies of bacteria, as a possible alternative to antibiotics.

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Hugo Snippert uses microscopy and molecular genetics to unravel how it is that there is a huge diversity of tumour cells and what the consequences of this are.

He was one of the first researchers to apply microscopy to organoids – mini-organs grown in the lab – enabling biological processes in living cells to be studied in detail.

He recently succeeded in using organoid technology to track how a colon tumour responds to combined drug treatment. This knowledge helps towards the tailoring of individual cancer therapies.

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In a solo exhibition in the mezzanine of Stedelijk Museum Amsterdam, Nora Turato explores the function of language in a society flooded with information. What information sticks and what is ignored? She urges her audience to reevaluate their relation to language and its underlying power structures.

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Pictured: Pool 2 (2018), Nora Turato

The Opera Forward Festival (OFF) is an annual festival for new contemporary opera productions. The festival presents opera as a relevant and forward-thinking artform to a wide audience.

Click here to read our interview from 2018 with Pierre Audi, former director of the Dutch National Opera.

operaballet.nl

Pictured: Animal Farm by Alexander Raskatov at Opera Forward Festival 2023.

Ammodo supports the creation of the new production The Balancing Act by choreographer Ann Van den Broek, in which she explores the relationship between the interests of the individual versus the community.

The performance is set to premiere in October 2023.

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In 2023, De Ateliers opens Woonhuis, a new experimental exhibition space for both current participants and alumni to present their work.

De Ateliers will also commission site-specific works and there will be readings, screenings and events.

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Pictured: work by Sam Marshall Lockyer at Offspring 2022. Foto: Gert Jan van Rooij

Tazuko van Berkel researches self-image, humanity, and worldview in classical Greek society and in particular how the advent of the money economy affected the Greek idea of friendship.

She is currently focusing her research on how the economic domain was defined in antiquity, not only by scholars, but also in the everyday views of citizens.

Van Berkel’s research invites critical reflection on economic thinking in our own time.

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Merel Keijzer researches how learning a new language contributes to healthy ageing. To do so, she uses innovative and multidisciplinary research methods and works closely with neuroscientists and cognitive psychologists.

Keijzer has shown that people who are multilingual, and who still actively used their languages, generally showed better cognitive functioning. In particular, frequent switching between different languages seems to be able to compensate for ageing processes in the brain, such as mild memory loss.

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Daniël Lakens studies how scientists conduct research, with the aim of increasing the reliability and efficiency of social science research.

He played an important role in investigating the global ‘replication crisis’ in psychology, and thanks to his empirical and theoretical analyses, scientific awareness of ‘publication bias’ and ‘p-hacking’ has grown considerably in recent years.

Over the past decade, Lakens has become one of the leading scientists in meta-science in the Netherlands and abroad.

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