AMSTERDAM.- From February 6th until April 10th 2016 de Appel arts centre presents the first large-scale solo exhibition in the Netherlands by Saskia Noor van Imhoff. For this exhibition Van Imhoff made a new spatial installation with the title #+21.00, which occupies the entire first floor of de Appel arts centre on the Prins Hendrikkade.

#+21.00
The site-specific installations by Saskia Noor van Imhoff depart from elements that usually belong to the backside of art institutions, such as the depot, the spatial mapping, and the conservation and climate regulations. In a utilitarian infrastructure, both existing and newly made objects, artworks by other artists, but also everyday objects such as clothing, come together in an associative manner. With this installation Van Imhoff investigates how artworks and artifacts act in different stages within an exhibition and how they are treated. She poses the question of how we classify and interpret the world around us. Which status and value do we attach to the objects and systems with which we surround ourselves?

In #+21.00 Van Imhoff approaches de Appel arts centre as an artificial archeological research site. For Van Imhoff, archeology is not solely a formalistic interest, but also functions as a metaphor for a timespan that can be related to a personal mental and physical state. While in a depot we attempt to conserve objects from the test of time with ‘make up’, we surely also attempt to investigate and conserve ourselves.

Van Imhoff intuitively exposes ‘strata’ of a specific timeframe and consequently reveals the veiled structures of exhibition making, conservation and programming. In her installation the institution and the artwork are fused together, proving that it is nearly impossible to separate an artwork from the environment in which it is presented.

Saskia Noor van Imhoff (1982) lives and works in Amsterdam. She studied at the Gerrit Rietveld Academy (2001 – 2008) and was a resident artist at De Ateliers (2011 – 2012) and Kunstlerhaus Bethanien (2013). In 2013 she was nominated for the Volkskrant Beeldende Kunstprijs, for which she made a presentation in the Stedelijk Museum in Schiedam. Her work has been shown in ‘Affinities #1’, Gallery Fons Welters, Amsterdam; Gabriele Senn Gallery, Vienna, Austria; ‘#+14.00’, Gallery Fons Welters, Amsterdam; Ruisdael Stipendium i.c.w. Willem de Rooij, Bad Bentheim, (DE); 'Language Leaps', Plan B, Berlin (DE); ‘R&D Department of Black Mountain College show’, W139, Amsterdam; ‘As Everything Moves’, Node, Center for Curatorial Studies, Berlin (DE).

Coinciding with the exhibition in de Appel arts centre, the Stedelijk Museum in Amsterdam will show from February 13 until 8 May 2016 a new installation based on works by Van Imhoff that have recently been included in the collection. The two exhibitions will be connected through a limited edition publication that will be available through both institutions.