ARTZUID is an international

sculpture Sculpture is the branch of the visual arts that operates in three dimensions. Sculpture is the three-dimensional art work which is physically presented in the dimensions of height, width and depth. It is one of the plastic arts. Durable sc ...

biennale In the art world, a biennale ( , ; ), is a large-scale international contemporary art exhibition. The term was popularised by the Venice Biennale, which was first held in 1895, but the concept of such a large scale, and intentionally internationa ...

held in

Amsterdam-Zuid Amsterdam-Zuid (; Amsterdam South) is a Boroughs of Amsterdam, borough (''stadsdeel'') of Amsterdam, Netherlands. The borough was formed in 2010 as a merger of the former boroughs Amsterdam Oud-Zuid, Oud-Zuid and Zuideramstel. The borough has almo ...

Netherlands , Terminology of the Low Countries, informally Holland, is a country in Northwestern Europe, with Caribbean Netherlands, overseas territories in the Caribbean. It is the largest of the four constituent countries of the Kingdom of the Nether ...

, particularly along Apollolaan, Minervalaan, Churchillaan, and surrounding areas of Amsterdam-Zuid. Established in 2008, the

exhibition An exhibition, in the most general sense, is an organized presentation and display of a selection of items. In practice, exhibitions usually occur within a cultural or educational setting such as a museum, art gallery, park, library, exhibiti ...

showcases large-scale contemporary sculptures and installations in public spaces, integrating them with the urban design of Hendrik Petrus Berlage’s 1917

Plan Zuid The Plan Zuid ("South Plan") is an urban development plan of Amsterdam-Zuid, Amsterdam South in the city of Amsterdam, Netherlands, designed by architect Hendrik Petrus Berlage. Berlage was responsible for the urban concept (1915) and the archite ...

History

The ARTZUID Foundation was founded as a cultural

non-profit organization A nonprofit organization (NPO), also known as a nonbusiness entity, nonprofit institution, not-for-profit organization, or simply a nonprofit, is a non-governmental (private) legal entity organized and operated for a collective, public, or so ...

in 2008 by Cintha van Heeswijck and local residents of Amsterdam Zuid. The first biennial ARTZUID exhibition took place in 2009 and has since grown into a widely known outdoor celebration of

contemporary Contemporary history, in English-language historiography, is a subset of modern history that describes the historical period from about 1945 to the present. In the social sciences, contemporary history is also continuous with, and related t ...

sculpture, attracting thousands of visitors and featuring works by various contemporary artists. The Foundation won the

Europa Nostra Europa Nostra (Latin for "Our Europe") is a pan-European Federation for cultural heritage, Cultural Heritage, representing citizens' organisations that work on safeguarding Europe's cultural and natural heritage. It is the voice of this movement ...

Award in 2011 for making a hidden cultural heritage site known to a broad public.

Editions

* ARTZUID 2009: The first free accessible exhibition was called ''Berlage in Sculptures''. The creator was Michiel Romeyn. The history of the neighborhood helped him select the art presented. It was supported by international galleries, the

Rijksakademie The Rijksakademie van beeldende kunsten (State Academy of Fine Arts) was founded in 1870 in Amsterdam. It is a classical academy, a place where philosophers, academics and artists meet to test and exchange ideas and knowledge. The school supports ...

, Dutch company collections, artists, and museums like the

Stedelijk Museum The Stedelijk Museum Amsterdam (; Municipal Museum Amsterdam), colloquially known as the Stedelijk, is a museum for modern art, contemporary art, and design located in Amsterdam, Netherlands.

. The event attracted 90,000 visitors. * ARTZUID 2011: The second edition of ARTZUID was called ''The World Around — Equality in Diversity'' and opened by

Queen Beatrix Beatrix (Beatrix Wilhelmina Armgard, ; born 31 January 1938) is a member of the Dutch royal house who reigned as Queen of the Netherlands from 30 April 1980 until her abdication in 2013. Beatrix was born during the reign of her maternal gr ...

. Curator

Jan Cremer Johan Cremer (; 20 April 1940 – 19 June 2024) was a Dutch author, photographer and painter. His best known work is the novel ' ("I, Jan Cremer"; 1964) and the sequel ''Ik, Jan Cremer, tweede boek'' ("I, Jan Cremer, second book"; 1966). The pub ...

mixed European sculptures with works by artists from Brazil, Suriname, India, Ghana, China, Indonesia, the United States, and more to reflect the mixed population of Amsterdam. Artists from 21 countries participated with 58 sculptures from artists such as

Anthony Caro Sir Anthony Alfred Caro (8 March 192423 October 2013) was an English abstract sculptor whose work is characterised by assemblages of metal using ' found' and industrial objects. He began as a member of the modernist school, having worked with ...

Jean Tinguely Jean Tinguely (22 May 1925 – 30 August 1991) was a Swiss sculptor best known for his kinetic art sculptural machines (known officially as Métamatics) that extended the Dada tradition into the later part of the 20th century.Chilvers, Ian; Gl ...

Anthony Gormley Sir Antony Mark David Gormley (born 30 August 1950) is a British sculptor. His works include the ''Angel of the North'', a public sculpture in Gateshead in the north of England, commissioned in 1994 and erected in February 1998; ''Another Pl ...

, and

Ugo Rondinone Ugo Rondinone (born November 30, 1964) is a Swiss-born contemporary artist. Rondinone is known for his temporary, large-scale land art sculpture, '' Seven Magic Mountains'' (2016–2021), with its seven fluorescently-painted totems of large ...

. * ARTZUID 2013: The theme of the third exhibition was ''Engagement''. The Foundation, together with curator Henk van Os, professor of art and society at the University of Amsterdam, decided to "shake up assumptions and suppositions." The exhibition featured artists from every continent. * ARTZUID 2015: ''Amsterdam, City of Sculptures'' was the title of the fourth edition of the exhibition, and it was curated by

Rudi Fuchs Rudolf Herman "Rudi" Fuchs (born 28 April 1942) is a Dutch art historian and curator. Personal life Rudolf Herman Fuchs was born on 28 April 1942 in Eindhoven in the Netherlands. He studied art history from 1967 to 1975 at Leiden University, aft ...

, former director of the Stedelijk Museum. This time, the open-air sculpture route in Amsterdam attracted ~500,000 visitors. Exhibitions included

Tony Cragg Sir Anthony Douglas Cragg (born Liverpool 9 April 1949) is an Anglo-German sculptor, resident in Wuppertal, Germany since 1977. Early life and training Tony Cragg was born in Liverpool."Tony Cragg." ''Contemporary Artists''. Farmington Hills, ...

's bronze works,

Mimmo Paladino Mimmo Paladino (born in Paduli on 18 December 1948) is an Italian sculptor, painter and printmaker. He is a leading name in the Transvanguardia artistic movement and one of the many European artists to revive Expressionism in the 1980s. Biograp ...

's statues,

KAWS Brian Donnelly (born November 4, 1974), known professionally as Kaws (stylized as KAWS), is an American artist and designer. His work includes repeated use of a cast of figurative characters and motifs, some dating back to the beginning of his ...

' cartoon figures,

Jaume Plensa Jaume Plensa i Suñé (; born 23 August 1955) is a Spanish people, Catalan visual artist, sculptor, designer and engraver. He has also created opera sets, video projections and acoustic installations. Biography Plensa was born in Barcelona, Ca ...

's monumental sculptures. * ARTZUID 2017: The celebration of the fifth edition ARTZUID coincided with the 100th anniversary of the

De Stijl De Stijl (, ; 'The Style') was a Dutch art movement founded in 1917 by a group of artists and architects based in Leiden (Theo van Doesburg, Jacobus Oud, J.J.P. Oud), Voorburg (Vilmos Huszár, Jan Wils) and Laren, North Holland, Laren (Piet Mo ...

movement. This time Rudi Fuchs chose Dutch abstraction, "the great new revelation of modern art", as a theme connecting all the sculptures placed along the 2.5-kilometer route in South Amsterdam. Participating artists included

Klaas Gubbels Klaas Gubbels (born 1934) is a Dutch painter and sculptor with a special love of coffeepots. Biography He was born in Rotterdam and in 1954 he became assistant to Wally Elenbaas and Louis van Roode.Arne Quinze Arne Quinze (born 15 December 1971) is a Belgian conceptual artist known for his public art installations, which include sculptures, drawings, and paintings. He began as a graffiti artist in Brussels in his late teens with no formal art educ ...

, an
Esther Tielemans
Atelier Van Lieshout also contributed to the sculpture route. * ARTZUID 2019: The sixth edition of the sculpture route and was called ''The Sculptures, The Figurations, The Garden & The Spectacle''. Art historian and retired art critic Jhim Lamoree and visual artist Michiel Romeyn curated the exhibition, which was themed around figuration in modern and contemporary art, as well as the adornment of the South Amsterdam area Plan Zuid. The curators organized ARTZUID 2019 as a reflection on the impact of modern art and sculpture on today's artists, and how they use this history to be critical of their foundations. Artists such as

Yoshitomo Nara is a Japanese artist. He lives and works in Nasushiobara, Tochigi Prefecture, though his artwork has been exhibited worldwide. Nara has had nearly 40 solo exhibitions since 1984. His art work has been housed at the MoMA and the Los Angeles Coun ...

Ai Weiwei Ai Weiwei ( ; , IPA: ; born 28 August 1957) is a Chinese contemporary artist, documentarian, and activist. Ai grew up in the far northwest of China, where he lived under harsh conditions due to his father's exile. As an activist, he has been ...

Takashi Murakami is a Japanese contemporary artist. He works in fine arts (such as painting and sculpture) as well as commercial media (such as fashion, merchandise, and animation) and is known for blurring the line between High art, high and low arts. His wo ...

, and

Nancy Rubins Nancy Rubins (born 1952) is an American sculptor and Installation (art), installation artist. Her sculptural works are primarily composed of blooming arrangements of large rigid objects such as televisions, small Small appliance, appliances, ca ...

participated. The

also participated and exhibited the works of

Henry Moore Henry Spencer Moore (30 July 1898 – 31 August 1986) was an English artist. He is best known for his semi-abstract art, abstract monumental Bronze sculpture, bronze sculptures which are located around the world as public works of art. Moore ...

. * ARTZUID 2021: Ralph Keuning, a Dutch art historian curated the seventh edition, ''Imagine.'' Artists such as

Sarah Lucas Sarah Lucas (born 1962) is an English artist. She is part of the generation of Young British Artists who emerged in 1988. Her works frequently employ visual puns and bawdy humour by incorporating photography, sculpture, collage and found object ...

Joanneke Meester

, and

Sokari Douglas Camp Sokari Douglas Camp CBE (born 1958 in Nigeria) is a London-based artist who has had exhibitions all over the world and was the recipient of a bursary from the Henry Moore Foundation. She was honoured as a Commander of the Order of the British ...

participated. * ARTZUID 2023 marked the exhibition's eighth edition and the 15th anniversary of the Foundation. Artist and TV personality Jasper Krabbé curated this edition, which explored pop art, neo-pop art, and street art. * ARTZUID 2025 will return with the title ''Enlightenment.'' Amsterdam celebrates its 750th jubilee and this ninth edition aims to reflect on the city's freedom and tolerance. This year's key artists are

Magdalena Abakanowicz Magdalena Abakanowicz (; 20 June 1930 – 20 April 2017) was a Polish sculpture, sculptor and fiber artist. Known for her use of textiles as a sculptural medium and for outdoor installations, Abakanowicz has been considered among the most influen ...

Alicja Kwade Alicja Kwade (born 1979) is a Polish-German contemporary visual artist. Her sculptures and installations focus on the subjectivity of time and space. Kwade lives and works in Berlin. Early life and education Kwade was born in the industrial cit ...

, David Nash,

, and

Arlene Shechet Arlene Shechet (born 1951) is an American sculptor known for her inventive, gravity-defying arrangements and experimental use of diverse materials.Adamson, Glenn"How Arlene Shechet Makes Her Recalcitrant Materials Come Alive,"''Art in America'', M ...

Format

For each edition, a

curator A curator (from , meaning 'to take care') is a manager or overseer. When working with cultural organizations, a curator is typically a "collections curator" or an "exhibitions curator", and has multifaceted tasks dependent on the particular ins ...

is commissioned to select sculptures based on the exhibition theme. The exhibition takes place every other year in the

Art-Deco Art Deco, short for the French (), is a style of visual arts, architecture, and product design that first appeared in Paris in the 1910s just before World War I and flourished in the United States and Europe during the 1920s to early 1930s, ...

district in Amsterdam, and the ARTZUID sculpture trail starts at Minervalaan 1, at the Information Pavilion. Well-known former curators include

Henk van Os Hendrik Willem van Os (28 February 1938 – 14 June 2025) was a Dutch art historian. He served as professor of Art and Cultural History, director of the Rijksmuseum in Amsterdam, and presenter of television programs on art. Biography Henk v ...

, Michiel Romeyn & Roberto Meyer, Jhim Lamoree, Maarten Bertheux, Ralph Keuning, and Jasper Krabbé. In the words of

, ARTZUID is "a unique event on a global scale." Fuchs says he is "not aware of any other biennale that focuses solely on outdoor sculpture."

References

External links

*{{Official website, https://www.artzuid.nl/en/ Sculpture exhibitions Public art

History

Editions

Format

References

Further reading

External links