Humming forward while humming back

Hum, hum. At De Appel we like to hum. That’s because we’re excited, excited about what’s yet to come. Humming stands for movement and for the connecting of one’s past to the irrefutable future. Humming happens from a position where everything is possible. It marks a special moment. A moment of transformation: becoming and change. Therefore humming implies thinking in motion by bodies in motion. It indicates an opportunity to think small. Or big. Or, as anthropologist Michael Taussig writes, it is “what can happen when something from the traumatic past is suddenly brought into the present such that another world seems possible,” and might go like this:

Tra-la-la, tra-la-la
Tra-la-la, tra-la-la     
Rum-tum-tiddle-um-tum
Tiddle-iddle, tiddle-iddle,
Tiddle-iddle, tiddle-iddle,
Rum-tum-tum-tiddle-um

Please join us. Please hum.
Hum, hum.

–Niels Van Tomme, director

De Appel timeline: 40+ years of risks
November 15–December 11, 2016
De Appel timeline: 40+ years of risks is an idiosyncratic and celebratory overview of the more than 2000 projects realised, initiated, hosted and programmed at De Appel. The installing of the timeline is organized during opening hours and will be intersected with events revolving around the former and current directors of De Appel:

Wies Smals: November 19, 7pm
With Charlemagne Palestine

Amsterdam Art Weekend special: November 25, 10pm
With performances by avant-garde composer and performance artist Jaap Blonk and performer, cabaret-comedienne and musician Izabella Finch!

Saskia Bos: November 30, 7pm
With Saskia Bos and Nina Folkersma

Ann Demeester: December 3, 7pm
With: Ann Demeester and a group of former Curatorial Programme participants

Lorenzo Benedetti: December 10, 7pm
With Lorenzo Benedetti and Arno van Roosmalen

Niels Van Tomme: December 11, 7pm; Finissage
With Niels Van Tomme, Hiwa K, Mira Asriningtyas, Lucrezia Calabrò Visconti, Mateo Chacon-Pino, Shona Mei Findlay, Kati Ilves and Fadwa Naamna

De Appel timeline: 40+ years of risks is a concept by Niels Van Tomme, curated by Florence Parot and assisted by Aurélien Lepetit and Petros Orfanos.  

Symposium "You're Such A Curator!"
November 23–24, 2016, 10am–5pm
This two-day symposium of lectures, panel discussions, performances, papers and readings will be dedicated to De Appel’s curatorial programme and our research into de-universalization. With: Mira Asriningtyas, Lucrezia Calabro Visconti, Renata Cervetto, Mateo Chacon-Pino, Galerie (Adriano Wilfert Jensen and Simon Asencio), Natasha Hoare, Kati Ilves, Prem Krishnamurthy, Inga Lace, Latitudes (Max Andrews and Mariana Cánepa Luna), Shona Mei Findlay, Fadwa Naamna, Kim Nguyen, Emma Ines Panza, Aneta Rostkowska and Kuba Woynarowski, Chris Sharp, Niels Van Tomme, Huib Haye van der Werf, and others. Curated by Guus van Engelshoven.

Open Avond(S)
November 23, 8pm-10:30pm
For more than a year, between 1979 and 1980, every first Wednesday of the month, De Appel offered artists the opportunity to show their work, on the sole condition they made their proposal at least one day in advance so that a programme could be compiled. Such a stage offered many performance artists the opportunity to show and test their work. Following the traces of this tradition, Open Avond(S) proposes artists a similarly open space, through an open call, in order to connect history with current practices. Initiated by Emma Ines Panza, with the assistance of Titus Nouwens.

In-Out Center
November 14–December 11, 2016
In-Out Center was the first independent artist space in Amsterdam. From 1972 until 1974 it offered a platform for everything that was new at the time: performances, video art, visual poetry, audio art, conceptual art and artist books. Tineke Reijnders and Corinne Groot will continue their extensive research on the history of In-Out Center at De Appel arts centre. In a lively exhibition and research space they will present archival material and original artworks.

Michael Gibbs: Let It Keep Secrets
November 4–December 11, 2016
In November, several presentations about artist Michael Gibbs (1949-2009) will be presented in various venues in Amsterdam and abroad. De Appel focuses on the artists' magazines Kontexts Magazin and Artzien, as well as a website featuring critical art on and about the internet titled Why Not Sneeze?. These self-published magazines and virtual platform present a testament to Gibbs' love for language, literature and experimental art.

+ Special booksale with lots of discounts!!!