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(Museum)ParX | eXperiment 1.0
Analogue x Digital
We represent a broad group of creators. Creatives who go off the beaten track to find themselves, let their voices be heard and contribute to the cultural development of metropolitan areas. Our community is looking for a place where they can frequently come together. A place that feels like home. A breeding ground that stimulates the need to create awareness and where there is room to transform sustainable ambitions into actual solutions for tomorrow’s structural problems in the cultural-art industry. A meeting point for different creative disciplines that live in a synergetic coexistent world. A meeting point in which all senses are stimulated and challenged. All of this in collaboration with the new generation of Rotterdam-based creators, community leaders and art institutions. The exciting message is out there now; we are crafting the structure of today’s hub and tomorrow’s art, music and tech design festival called (Museum)ParX.
Our aim to nourish the iconic city of Rotterdam with passionate projects that contribute to a new world is what drives us. Mind you that this can only be realised in a collective effort. So late 2019 we laid the foundation of this project, by setting up a physical place where social networks could be created in order for them to reinforce each other. A place where we produced an event with room for cross-pollination and where we could collectively test and examine ideas. Better known as eXperiment 1.0.
The world of creators has drastically changed due to the structural shifts the world is going through. New currents are emerging, traditional structures are turned upside down and seem to be in need of a firm refreshment. Also, with the growth of social media channels, the voice of the independent creator is louder than ever before: “If established organisations don’t give us a stage, we’ll build one ourselves”. All these developments go hand in hand with trends and social movements, which in turn are often accompanied by lots of — not always well-founded — criticism. We are not here to exclude or point fingers, but to create a balanced dialogue and create a safe place where our community can create and flourish without the oppressed need to follow the masses.
We draw inspiration from great masters such as Socrates or Jean-Michel Basquiat, who tried to answer problems by breaking them down into a series of questions. The habit of questioning everything led to groundbreaking findings. Let’s take you to a little passage that resonated with our beliefs and mindset.
When one day a fellow philosopher talked to me and said that he doubted one of his theories, Socrates replied: “I know you don’t believe me, but the best thing a human being can do is doubt himself and others. His most famous philosophical statement is, “I know only one thing, and that’s that I know nothing.”
During eXperiment 1.0 we carried out the theme Analogue x Digital. We invited a group of hundred creatives individuals and community leaders to MONO Rotterdam. During this evening we sketched the different future scenarios of art institutions and our creative society, and by doing so collectively wrote the first page of the new cultural bible of Rotterdam. Our main goal was accomplished; the conversation was started between creators who are often pinned to their own island and don’t always seem to find their way to each other.
In anticipation to the first experiment (in a series of three) we produced a short documentary in which the not-to-be-boxed-in autonomous artist Noël Deelen, filmmaker Véras Fawaz and visual artist Iriée Zamble could be admired. They shared their insights on this theme with us and gave us a little scope of what drives their artistic and social minds.
It is important to mention we are approaching this adventure with a synergetic hat, and very much include the established art institutions in the process. We’re all in this together. Due to our relationship with museum Boijmans Van Beuningen, it was only right we joined forces with them for the kick-off experiment. We engaged the panel talk with Daniël Bouw, Boijmans’ head of Marketing & Communication as well as spiritual father of Museumnacht Amsterdam. This may sound a bit levitated, but we look back on a magical evening where egos were parked at front door and every single participant engaged with mutual love for craftsmanship and our creative scene. Although the Corona virus has kept us in a pretty tight grip, we never stopped thinking in solutions. Which basically means the preparations for the follow up event (eXperiment 2.0: Social x Antisocial) are in full effect. For now, be kind to each other, take your vitamins, stay healthy and watch the recap of eXperiment 1.0 down below.
Video afspelen
(Museum)ParX eXperiment 1.0 werd mede mogelijk gemaakt door het VSB Fonds en Stimuleringsfonds Creatieve Industrie.