The People’s Art

The People’s Art invokes the Dutch tradition of intense social organization, spread across every aspect of government, interest groups and human relations. This extreme degree of organization even extends to the Dutch landscape itself, which is almost entirely manmade, deftly designed and maintained by innumerable committees and rules. Dutch art, rather than resisting this organizational impulse by seeking a new relation with nature, functions as its ironic corollary. Closing the gap between art and artifice, it replicates the landscape ideal in miniature, presents the choreography of human interaction and orchestrates an altogether alien ‘nether-land’ in which it is possible to present the unfathomable and think the unthinkable. The artists exploring these notions are Anneke de Boer, Aloysius Donia, Florian Goettke, Hein Hage, Mathilde ter Heijne, Philippine Hoegen, Rob Johannesma, Jeroen Jongeleen, Laurent Malherbe, Aernout Mik, Jeroen Offerman, Vanessa Jane Phaff, Jan Rothuizen, Julika Rudelius, Gerco de Ruijter, Frank van der Salm, Peter Stel, Nasrin Tabatabai, Erik Wesselo and Edwin Zwakman.