Stichting Ammodo, For arts, architecture and science

Through studying 18th-century library sales catalogues, Alicia Montoya discovered that at a time when the Enlightenment changed thinking in Europe, religious books were still the biggest sellers. She questions what the impact of the philosophical transformation was amongst the wider population, outside the small circle of the intellectual elite. Has the hegemony of knowledge and reason been overstated? Alicia Montoya is Humanities laureate of the Ammodo KNAW Award 2017.

Dutch Masters from the Hermitage is a major retrospective exhibition at the Hermitage Amsterdam displaying work by the Dutch Masters of the 17th century which form part of the collection of the Hermitage in St Petersburg. Alongside work by Rembrandt, pieces by other Dutch masters from the Golden Age will be exhibited including Abraham Bloemaert, Frans Hals, Jacob van Ruisdael, Jan Steen and Joachim Wtewael. Many of these works have not been seen outside St. Petersburg before: this exhibition allows them to be seen in their country of origin for the first time. Ammodo is supporting Dutch Masters from the Hermitage so that this special retrospective can be achieved in the Netherlands.

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Dutch Masters: Rembrandt, Young woman with earrings, 1657

The opera Sunken Garden written by the Dutch composer Michel van der Aa together with the English author David Mitchell is one of the very first fully to integrate 3D film with live performance. The story is about a filmmaker who wants to make a documentary about the disappearance of three persons, and in preparing for this becomes entangled in a mystical garden, which will function as a place between life and death. Ammodo supports Sunken Garden to contribute to the development of an ambitious, experimental production of the highest international level, and as such a renewal of the opera genre.

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Amsterdam Sinfonietta, Sunken Garden, 2013, photo: Mike Hoban

Each year Toneelschuur Productions offers a select group of directors and theater artists the opportunity to further develop their talent through individual counseling by means of the programme House for Talent. The development of talent, professionalism and increasing involvement of audiences development are central to the programme. Participating makers include Paul Knieriem, Michiel de Regt, Erik Whien and Joost van Hezik. Ammodo supports Toneelschuur because House for Talent promotes the flow of directors and producers/playwrights to the big companies and thus contributes to the development of talented directors and theater makers.

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Toneelschuur Producties, Met mijn vader, photo: Annegien van Doorn

Since 2013 the Stadsschouwburg Amsterdam is extending an invitation in every odd year to an internationally interesting theater director: Brandstichter. In Brandstichter the work of the chosen international director is presented by several companies. In every even year it is the turn of an international theatre company of the highest caliber: Brandhaarden. In Brandhaarden the work of various directors is presented by one international theater company. Ammodo supports Brandhaarden/Brandstichter as a way of contributing to high quality international programming and contextualization in the Dutch theater.

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The Sound of Silence, 2007

Mime theatre maker Boukje Schweigman (1974) develops the musical movement performance Erf (“inherit”). The show is performed by local players alongside professional actors. Erf is a play with ritualistic features about intangible legacies, family ties and location history. The substantive point of departure is the origin and belonging of every man to his biological and cultural history which is passed on through the generations and place of origin (touching on the different meanings of the word “erf”. Ammodo supports Erf to contribute to the artistic development of Boukje Schweigman.

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Boukje Schweigman, Erf, 2015, photo: Jochem Jurgens

Toneelgroep Stormvogels presents the show De meester en Margarita by the Flemish director Julie Van den Berghe. De meester en Margarita is based on Mikhail Bulgakov’s novel from 1966 of the same name. The company has chosen not to use a conventional reworking of the book for the performance, but to create it’s own new stage adaptation. The aim is to create a contemporary, theatrical rendition of the underlying themes of this famous novel. Ammodo supports De meester en Margarita as a contribution to the artistic development of Julie Van den Berghe and Toneelgroep Stormvogels.

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Toneelgroep Stormvogels, De meester en Margarita, 2016, photo: Floyd Koster

Through the international exhibition Lissitzky – Kabakov, Utopia and Reality the Van Abbemuseum brought the oeuvres of renowned Russian artists, Ilya and Emilia Kabakov and El Lissitzky together for the first time. Following on from the Van Abbemuseum it could be seen in the Hermitage in St. Petersburg and the Multimedia Art Museum (MAMM) in Moscow. Ammodo supports Lissitzky – Kabakov, Utopia and Reality to bring the early Soviet avant-garde art and the art that emerged at the end of the Soviet era to a larger public audience and to help stimulate new insights in the discourse concerning art history in the twenty-first century.

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El Lissitzky, Prounenraum, 1923 (reconstructie uit 1971), photo: Peter Cox

Together with the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York, the Rijksmuseum organises the exhibition Hercules Segers Wonderland. The Rijksmuseum has the largest collection of Segers work in the world. The exhibition includes these works alongside (inter)national loans from London, Dresden, Paris and Berlin, amongst others to provide an overview of Seger’s work which is as complete as possible. Hercules Segers (1589/90 – 1633/38) was a celebrated printmaker, painter of landscapes, artist and artdealer. Ammodo supports Hercules Segers Wonderland to contribute to the creation of this exclusive retrospective.

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Hercules Segers, Larch, ca. 1615 – 1630

SHIROKURO is a performance by pianist Tomoko Mukaiyama, choreographer Nicole Beutler and lighting designer Jean Kalman. The foundations of SHIROKURO are the compositions of Galina Ustvolskaya and Robert Schumann. The nature of SHIROKURO is innovative: in this “dance concert” the basic principle is that dance and music are equal. By supporting this collaboration Ammodo aims to contribute to the development of a production in which dance, music and light are approached in an innovative way.

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Tomoko Mukaiyama and Nicole Beutler, SHIROKURO, 2013, photo: Anja Beutler

SPRING is a festival that encourages and presents contemporary artistic developments in the field of crossovers between dance, performance and theater. In May 2016 SPRING presents eight new (co)productions of new work by Jan Martens, Nicole Beutler and Tim Etchells, amongst others. In the series, a balance is sought between young and ‘established’ innovators with both small and larger productions. Ammodo is supporting SPRING over the period 2016-2018 to contribute to the realisation of new international (co)productions.

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SACRIFICE, Erna Omarsdottir & Valdimar Johannsson, Icelandic Dance Company

To commemorate the 500th anniversary of the death of Hieronymus Bosch in 2016, the Bosch 500 Foundation is organising an exhibitions entitled Hieronymus Bosch – Visions of a Genius in the Noordbrabants Museum. The exhibition aims to provide a complete overview of the works attributed to Hieronymus Bosch. It will bring together for the first time drawings, paintings, panels and triptychs on loan from international museums and private collections. The exhibition is accompanied by a scientific research project, the Bosch Research and Conservation Project, which amongst other things will include the restoration of certain works by Bosch. Ammodo supports Hieronymus Bosch – Visions of a genius to contribute to the realisation of this unique exhibition.

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Hieronymus Bosch, The Magician

Located at the corner of the Oudezijds Voorburgwal and the Heintje Hoekssteeg in Amsterdam the Museum Ons’ Lieve Heer op Solder has an original 17th-century historical interior and a well-preserved Catholic Church in the attic. The museum is developing an underground link to a second original 17th-century canal house on the other side of the Heintje Hoeksteeg to accommodate the growing number of international visitors. The design for this has been drawn up by Claus and Kaan Architects. Ammodo supports the new architecture to contribute to the maintenance of, and to allow more convenient access to, this valuable monument in Amsterdam.

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Museum Ons’ Lieve Heer op Solder, The Attic Church, photo: Arjan Bronkhorst

In the exhibition Close-Up, EYE Film Museum presents recent film and video works and installations by a new generation of artists working in the Netherlands. The medium of film has undergone a major development in recent years: the relatively young generation explores the boundaries between film, video and visual arts and is no longer tied to a single medium. The exhibition includes work by Melanie Bonajo (1978), Felix Burger (1982), Janis Rafa (1984) and David Verbeek (1980). Ammodo supports Close-Up to contribute to the development of contemporary artists by offering them the opportunity to demonstrate recent work within a museum context where the work can be displayed under optimal conditions at a high technical level.

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Melanie Bonajo, videostill from Night Soil – Economy of Love, Close-up, 2015

Since 2011 De Nieuwe Kerk Amsterdam presents an annual series of exhibitions with international masterpieces. Each year Masterpiece exhibits a piece of art of the highest quality in the church space. A prerequisite for selection is that the work has either never been seen in the Netherlands before, or at least not for a very long time. In addition to being of a very high quality the pieces chosen are also of a spiritual or religious nature. Ammodo supports Masterpiece to contribute to the development of exhibition concepts in De Nieuwe Kerk Amsterdam.

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El Greco, Pentecostés (Pinksteren), ca. 1600, Photographic Archive

Programme V – Spiritwalking is a (international) co-production from the Nederlands Dans Theater (NDT). For this production NDT collaborates with the Kronos Quartet from San Francisco. The Kronos Quartet plays new and existing works from among others composer Philip Glass. The production is shown in the Food Center Amsterdam, the previous Markthal. The support of Ammodo is aimed at contributing to the development of a (international) co-production which will add to the renewal of the art of dance.

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NDT, Programme V – Spiritwalking, photo: Rahi Rezvani

Germaine Kruip presents the performance A Possibility of an Abstraction: a sixty-minute transdisciplinary, international co-production in which theater, film and visual arts are integrated. The performance is a cinematic theater experience creating the illusion of an abstract video game created on the spot by a combination of sound, light, shadow and reflection. Ammodo supports the production of A Possibility of an Abstraction to contribute to the development of contemporary performance art and the artistic development of Germaine Kruip.

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Germaine Kruip, A Possibility of an Abstraction, 2016

Blank Out is the new operatic production from composer-director Michel van der Aa. It is a composition for a ‘real’ soprano and a virtual baritone. The opera examines the human condition in a combination of live action, interactive 3D film and music. The performance premieres in 2016 during the Opera Forward Festival. Blank Out pushes the dramatic possibilities of opera by fully integrating technological resources in the theatrical performance. The project is a continuation of the technological innovation that Van der Aa applied in his film opera Sunken Garden (2011-2012), amongst other projects. Ammodo supports Blank Out to contribute to the creation of new work and the artistic development of Michel van der Aa.

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Michel van der Aa, Blank Out, 2016, photo: Marco Borggreve

In 2011-2012 the Dutch National Ballet organizes the festival of new work entitled Present/s. Ten leading choreographers will create new pieces for the Dutch National Ballet. The ten choreographers are: Hans van Manen, Ton Simons, Paul Lightfoot & Sol León, Krzysztof Pastor, Ted Brandsen, Alexei Ratmansky, David Dawson, Christopher Wheeldon and Juanjo Arqués. All new choreographies will be performed with musical accompaniment by the Dutch Symphony Orchestra. Ammodo supports Present/s to contribute to the development of dance in general and in particular to the expanding repertoire of the Dutch National Ballet.

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Present/s, 2011

Nederlands Dans Theater (NDT) presents the contemporary dance performance Separate Ways, performed by the dancers of NDT 1. The performance consists of two world premieres: Clowns by Hofesh Shechter and Shut Eye from the choreographers Sol León and Paul Lightfoot. It is the first time that Shechter choreographed a piece for the NDT. He wrote the music and designed the costumes for Clowns himself. Ammodo supported Separate Ways as a way of contributing to the development of the NDT dancers and choreographers in question, and thus to the furtherance of contemporary dance.

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NDT 1, Seperate Ways, 2016, photo: Rahi Rezvani

Under the artistic direction of Lotte de Beer, from 2016-2018, Operafront will each year present an international co-production of new work for small and medium-sized halls. By editing existing operas and applying flexible manufacturing methods Operafront seeks to develop the opera of the future. The first production is an adaptation of Verdi’s La Traviata. The second opera, Caliban, is a new production and the third opera, Die Fledermaus by Johann Strauss jr., is an adaptation of new and existing material. Ammodo supports Operafront as a way of contributing to the professional development of Lotte de Beer and the renewal of the opera genre.

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Photo: Caliban, 2017