This year Unseen Amsterdam is collaborating with three art academies based in the Netherlands, namely the Gerrit Rietveld Academie (Amsterdam), the Royal Academy of Art (The Hague), and the HKU University of the Arts (Utrecht) for two separate on-site projects: The Graduates exhibition and The sponge, the clay, the brick and the bridge project.

The Graduates

Exhibition featuring nine outstanding students who graduated in 2019 from three art academies in the Netherlands. Each student, selected by Unseen and an international jury, was given one of nine wooden pillars to play with, to adapt their graduating project and display it in a new way for the visitors of Unseen Amsterdam. Their works will be exhibited on the terrain of Westergas for the entire month of September.

The selected KABK graduates are:

• Linnea Frandsen
• Sonya Rebecca Mantere
• Josje van Stekelenburg

Next to this exhibition, Unseen has collaborated with Sir Hotels for a series of presentations & artist talks in

SIR HOTELS X UNSEEN AMSTERDAM 2019: Meet The Graduates,

where selected graduates will reflect on the nature of their practice and share their plans for the future:

Linnea Frandsen participates in the Meet The Graduates – part 1 on Saturday 21 September, 20.00-22.00 (moderator Vanya Pieters)
Location: Sir Adam Hotel, Overhoeksplein 7

Sonya Rebecca Mantere participates in the Meet The Graduates – part 2 on Saturday 21 September, 20.00-22.00 (moderator Rebecca Simons)
Location: Sir Albert Hotel, The Studio, Albert Cuypstraat 36

More info on amsterdam.unseenplatform.com

The sponge, the clay, the brick and the bridge

In this site-specific outdoor project, supported by Unseen Foundation, students put up a site-specific performance to offer an ironic, yet serious reflection on the concept of “development” in both art academies and the photographic process, in order to further enquire about the systems we use to develop, to grow, and to “become”. Throughout the event, they will question the logic of development in art education and the photographic process, as both an abstract and personal matter. Each day during the festival, they will focus on one item, either the sponge, the clay, the brick or the bridge, as a way to engage in a conversation about contemporary image-making, learning and teaching methods.

Participating 4th year KABK students:
Jeanne Aubert, Bebe Agterberg, Kirsten Bosma, Louiza Charitonidou, Yara Jimmink, Anastasija Kiake, Linus Kropp, Michelle Piergoelam, Steyn van Rongen, Suzanne Schols, Nina Schollaardt, Io Sivertsen, Sophie Straat, Marysia Swietlicka, Ashleigh Wilson, Pippilotta Yerna

More info on amsterdam.unseenplatform.com

Galleries & Artists

Work by KABK alumni and faculty staff will be represented by galleries in the main section of the Fair. Among others:

Marwan Bassiouni (Photography 2018) - Galerie Ron Mandos
Olya Oleinic (Photography 2014) - Red Hook Labs
Marleen Sleeuwits (Photography 2010) - Galerie Bart
Daniel van Straalen (Fine Arts 2012) - Stigter Van Doesburg
Kim Boske (Photography 2005) - Flatland
Anne Geene and Arjan de Nooy (Photography 2009) - Gallery Caroline O’Breen
Koen Hauser (teacher Photography) - The Ravestijn Gallery

Unseen Meijburg Award winner

Marleen Sleeuwits (Photography 2010) is the winner of the Meijburg Art Commission 2019. This prestigious prize, supported by tax advisory firm KPMG Meijburg & Co, is now in its fifth consecutive edition. Each year, all exhibiting artists at the Unseen Amsterdam Fair are invited to submit a proposal for a site-specific work for the KPMG Meijburg & Co offices. Sleeuwits was selected from a shortlist of five nominees. She will receive a project fund for the development of a new work that will become part of the company’s growing art collection. More info

Book market

Unseen Dummy Award

On Friday 20 September, an international jury will come together at Unseen Amsterdam to select one photobook dummy from the shortlist as this year’s winner. The winner will be announced at 16.15 - 17:00 on the same day in the Living Room.
Among the shortlisted photobooks, those of our Photography alumni:

Filippo Maria Ciriani, Silent Canary
Mafalda Rakoš, A Story to Tell, or: Regarding Male* Eating Disorders

Presentation The Europeans by Rob Hornstra & Arnold van Bruggen

Five years after The Sochi Project, Rob Hornstra (co-head of the Photography department at the KABK) and Arnold van Bruggen together with designers Kummer & Herrman, start up a new multi-year project titled The Europeans, loosely inspired by Henri Cartier Bresson's book from 1955. During Unseen Amsterdam, on Saturday 21 September, they will be unfolding their research, plans and doubts leading up to an official launch of the project in 2020.
More info on amsterdam.unseenplatform.com

Launches, Talks & Signings

By among others:
Jan Dirk van der Burg (Photography 2003), Marina Cavene (Photography 2017), Arjan de Nooy (Photography 2009).

Photobooks and publications

The Royal Academy of Art The Hague presents student and academy-related photography publications that resonate with the program and department of Photography, as well as showcasing new developments within photography and book-making.

Open Gallery Night

Unseen Amsterdam 2019 is hosting Open Gallery Night in collaboration with some of Amsterdam’s most cutting-edge art venues on Saturday 21 September. Admission to these participating institutions is free! Meet our alumni and find their work at:

• Galerie Bart, Elandsgracht 16
  Exhibition: Laying Bare by Marleen Sleeuwits
• Melkweg Expo, Marnixstraat 409
  Exhibition: The image is our voice with among others Eline Benjaminsen, Verena Blok
• Sir Adam Hotel, Overhoeksplein 7
  Meet The Graduates – part 1 with Linnea Frandsen
• Sir Albert Hotel, The Studio, Albert Cuypstraat 36
  Meet The Graduates – part 2 with Sonya Rebecca Mantere