Amsterdam Trail 2017

Upstream Gallery presents new work by Izaak Zwartjes during Amsterdam Trail 2017. From 5-7 of May 2017, the 6th edition of Amsterdam Trail will take place: a walking route along 15 Amsterdam galleries in which tribal and contemporary art are combined. Traditionally, tribal art galleries invited contemporary artists to exhibit their work in between the ethnographic objects. The 2017 edition is the second edition in which etnographic objects also infiltrate contemporary art galleries. During the Trail, unexepected combinations through time and origin can be found: objects from 3000 BC to present, from Egyptian mummies to the latest contemporary videos. 

Zwartjes builds monumental installations of partially decaying and damaged materials. Purposefully and poignantly he selects the specific building blocks for his environments. During his meanderings through the ragged edges of his own city, on undeveloped land lots and in empty, once-squatted buildings, the artist seeks suitable waste materials. For every find, be it a weathered wooden beam or a rusty bicycle, Zwartjes weighs wether or not this object meets the criteria he has already formulated for himself. He does not look for specific things. Miraculously enough, he always seems to find exactly what he needs. In the process of collecting and working with these materials, Zwartjes is both the client and the executor of his own work. On the one hand, Zwartjes' installations are a physical place, the manifestation of a mythological journey generated in the mind of the artist. On the other, this collection of objects and materials offers a space in which to reflect on our individual and collective identities, on the state in which humanity finds itself and the role that we fulfill in this society. 

Special opening hours during Amsterdam Trail:

Friday 5 May: 12.00 - 18.00 
Saturday 6 May: 12.00 - 18.00 
Sunday 7 May: 12.00 - 18.00 

Image:
Izaak Zwartjes, Siamese Pig, 2012. Mixed media, 70 x 50 x 30 cm. Photo: Andor Kranenburg