Expodium, platform for new art
Postbus 229
3500 AE Utrecht
www.expodium.nl
Expodium stimulates, produces and presents the youngest developments in fine art.
With its projects Expodium wants to provide an impetus for new ideas and developments. An effort will therefore be made to show artists who make a statement in their work and at the same time maintain an open attitude toward changes in the society and arts. With such an attitude, seeking the possibilities within a discipline can be combined with a clear statement on a particular matter.
Among the questions that are important for Expodium are how art can contribute to progress and offer a contrasting image to political developments, and what kind of influence changes in the world around it have on art. How can the artist bring about positive change starting from the world in which he or she lives?
Pitch
In addition to exhibitions, by offering the possibility for third parties to come together and organize events, the questions that arise from projects can be given a place. Expodium has a regular space for this: Pitch.
Pitch offers possibilities for events such as small experiments, discussions and viewing films, but it is also a reading room with books, and visitors can use the internet there. By providing these opportunities Expodium hopes to create an interesting, lively climate for art, in which experiments have a place without getting lost in informality.
History
In 1999 six art academy graduates took the initiative in establishing the exhibition space Expodium, platform for new art. Utrecht artists were given the possibility of showing their work in short exhibitions. After three years it was time for new input, the sitting directors wanted to go on further with their own work, and there was a possibility for three new former HKU students to take over the space.
The new directors, then consisting of Bart Witte, Maaike Gouwenberg and Mandy de Waal, immediately decided on a change of course, lengthened the exhibitions, intensified the approach into a closer collaboration with the artist, and offered the possibility for beginning artists from other parts of The Netherlands, and internationally, to show their work at Expodium.
They made room for small events too, and also focused on disciplines outside the visual arts in order to achieve a dialogue among various disciplines. The appointment of an external board of directors has led to a degree of professionalism that is clear to participants, visitors and funders alike.
Future
Expodium wishes to increasingly focus on the interaction between the regular annual program and the separate events in Pitch. In order to accomplish its objectives, more specialized staff will be taken on, and increasingly volunteers and interns will be part of the regular team.