Op 18 juni 2011 werd via de internationale e-agenda voor beeldende kunst, e-flux, een brief en oproep verzonden aan de internationale cultuursector om hun ongenoegen met de beleidsplannen van Zijlstra te delen en onze brief te ondertekenen. (De brief is hier te lezen, het persbericht naar aanleiding van de internationale respons op de brief vindt u onderaan dit bericht).
Er kwamen meer dan 2000 verontwaardigde reacties uit de hele wereld binnen. De complete lijst kan onderaan dit bericht gedownload worden in pdf formaat. De eerste honderd reacties plaatsen we ook vast hier.
1: Adrian Searle, chief art critic, The Guardian; visiting professor, Royal College of Art, London
I am astonished by this precipitous move, particularly in the field of art education. Of course some cuts are inevitable, but this blanket approach effectively throws away decades of investment and the hard-gained international reputations of a number of Europe's most important educational institutions. The proposals lack foresight, sublety and - sadly - any dignity whatsoever. I see that the advice I have given in the past has fallen on completely deaf ears.
2: Chris Dercon, director, Tate Modern, London
3: Roos Gortzak, director, Kunsthalle Basel
4: Paul Domela, program director, Liverpool Biennial
De doelgerichte afbraak van het Nederlands kunst- en cultuurstelsel wordt in Engeland als onbegrijpelijk ervaren. De fijnmazige infrastructuur heeft een generatie uitzonderlijke kunstenaars voortgebracht. Met haar open en internationale oriëntatie is Nederland tot een toonaangevend schakelpunt geworden voor ontwikkelingen in kunst en maatschappij. In plaats hiervan de vruchten te plukken hakt men de boomgaard om. Dat is niet verstandig.
5: Daniel Birnbaum, director, Moderna Museet, Stockholm, SV
6: Dr Roger Cook, Visiting Fellow, Institute of Germanic & Romance Studies School of Advanced Study, University of London, London, UK
In the field of contemporary arts institutions the Netherlands has led the field in the European Union. Such drastic measures would have devastating consequences for advanced research in art and culture in Europe.
7: Lars Bang Larsen, artist / professor, University of Copenhagen, Copenhagen
8: Rod Dickinson, senior lecturer Digital Media / Artist, University Of West England
Don't make the same mistakes that our UK coalition government is making!
9: Anton Vidokle, artist, e-flux, New York, US
10: Lawrence Weiner, artist
11: Krzysztof Wodiczko, Professor of Art Design and the Public Domain, Harvard University, USA
If implemented, the proposed Dutch government policy will damage culture and the arts in The Netherlands, weaken cultural development in Europe, negatively effect state of the arts in the world and it will be be condemned by European and international opinion.. Dutch contribution to international culture has been extremely significant.It is too precious for the world to loos.
12: Dr Vivian Sky Rehberg, art historian and critic, Parsons Paris School of Art + Design, Paris, France
13: Barnabas Bencsik, director Ludwig Museum-Museum of Contemporary Art, Budapest, HU
14: Rein Wolfs, artistic director, Kunsthalle Fridericianum, Kassel
Europe is crying about the Dutch budget cuts in culture. The Dutch artscene might loose its international quality completely. Dutch art will loose its potential for growth. Young artists will not be part of the international artworld anymore. Holland is getting old and we should try and prevent this from happening. Holland, please rethink these budget cuts, both quantitively and qualitatively!
15: Christine De Smedt, dance company Les Ballets C de la B, Ghent
16: Prof. Robert O'Brien, Design Factory international university Zhu hai, Beijing
What is it that you want to do Become like China! Where the only consideration is definition and money. Your country has gone way beyond that awful irony so why go back? I am spending time as an artist and in education to try to help young people to have a little confidence in them selves, so would you like me to come in the future to Holland?
17: Prof. Christian Huebler, member of art group Knowbotic Research, University of Arts, Zurich
18: Gavin Wade, director, Eastside Projects, Birmingham, UK
The scale of these cuts to culture in the Netherlands appears to be willfully destructive and ill considered. The impact will be deep and devastating and affects far more than any individual cultural practitioners or institutions but the spirit and will for progress. This is a backwards step. Do not pretend otherwise. The Dutch government needs to wipe its eyes and look again. Listen to your knowledgable and experienced cultural leaders and rethink.
19: Van Assche Christine, Chief Curator, Centre Pompidou, Paris
20: Carlos Basualdo, Keith L. and Katherine Sachs, curator of Contemporary Art, Philadelphia Museum of Art, Philadelphia, USA
21: Ann Goldstein, director, Stedelijk Museum, Amsterdam
22: Robert L. Pincus, art critic and author, Museum of Contemporary Art San Diego, USA
23: Professor Chantal Mouffe, director, Centre for the study of democracy, University of Westminster, London
24: Gerardo Mosquera, independent curator
25: Dr. Yilmaz Dziewior, director, Kunsthaus Bregenz, Bregenz, Austria
If these cuts will happen, the Netherlands will loose their leading role in the field of contemporary art!
26: Saskia Bos, dean, The Cooper Union for the Advancement of Science and Art, New York, USA
Raad voor Cutuur gave sound advice and should be listened to
27: Helena Reckitt, Senior Lecturer in Curating, Goldsmiths College, London University, London, UK
The Netherlands has stood out as a beacon of artistic innovation and excellence. These cuts will be devastating for your national culture and has profound international ramifications. Stop the cuts!
28: Fiona Tan, artist who has represented The Netherlands at the Venice Biennale in 2009
29: Stephan Dillemuth, artist / professor, Akademie der Bildenden Künste, München
This is the beginning of a cultural warfare!
30: Denys Zacharopoulos, artistic director, Macedonian Museum of Contemporary Arts, Thessaloniki, Greece
Tragic!!!! It is tragic for The Netherlands, for the arts and for the international community... It is the end of a last hope for a humanist society, The Netherlands has given the brilliant example over the post war period internationally. Now it will become obvious again to remember that the word 'apartheid 'is a Dutch word. It is a shame for the Dutch Government to act in a way which reduces the cultural and artistic life of the country and damages the reality of European identity. Culture is the European word for Political and Social responsibility and cohesion... It is definitely a way to attack European cohesion and future leaving history and future to the only rules of a wild market. It is a shame!
31: Iwona Blazwick, director, Whitechapel Gallery, London
32: Kati Kivinen, curator, Museum of Contemporary Art KIASMA, Helsinki, FI
33: Vanessa Joan Müller, director, Kunstverein für die Rheinlande und Westfalen, Düsseldorf, DE
34: Anthony Reynolds, Anthony Reynolds Gallery, London, UK
35: Carol Greene, Greene Naftali Gallery, New York
Netherlands contribution to the artistic culture of the world has been invaluable for people of every class, race and age. To withdraw funding in support of the arts at this time is disrespectful to all the great artwork that was born there for all art is further elevated by the artists of our time.
36: Charles Esche, director Van Abbemuseum, Eindhoven, The Netherlands
37: Tom Morton, curator, The Hayward Gallery - Southbank Centre, London
38: Mark Sladen, director, Kunsthal Charlottenborg
39: Vasif Kortun, writer / teacher / curator / director, SALT, Istanbul
40: Laura McLean-Ferris, writer and editor, ArtReview, The Independent, London
41: Valerie Smith, Leiterin Bereich Bildene Kunst, Film, Neue Medien, Haus der Kulturen der Welt, Berlin
42: Katja Schroeder, director, Westfälischer Kunstverein, Münster
43: ute meta bauer, curator, associate director and head of the MIT program in art, culture and technology, Cambridge Mass, USA
44: Daniel Buren, artist, Paris
45: Claire Doherty, director, Situations at the University of the West of England
46: Dom Hastings, coordinator, Glasgow International Festival of Visual Art, Glasgow
47: Carolyn Christov-Bakargiev, director, dOCUMENTA (13), Kassel
48: Dr. Ulrike Groos, director Kunstmuseum Stuttgart
49: Stefanie Böttcher, artistic director, Künstlerhaus Bremen, Bremen
50: Solveig Ovstebo, director, Bergen Kunsthall, Norway
51: Chus Martinez, head of department, documenta (13), Kassel
Total condemn. it is not only injustice what transforms engages into enrages, but hypocrisy. an emercency is at hand when the established political institutions and power turns agains culture, and it must be a way to commonly move from dissent into resistance.
52: Philippe Pirotte, director Kunsthalle Bern
53: Hou Hanru, director of exhibitions and public program, chair of exhibition and museum studies, San Francisco Art Institute
54: Professor Mieke Bal, independent artist and cultural scientist, University of Amsterdam, Amsterdam
1) Since economics is the only language the government understands: this cutting of support will increase the number of people dependent on unemployment allowances. What is being saved? Nothing 2) A country without culture, cultural experiment, and freedom from economic constraints, is doomed to die. My condolences.
55: Mirjam Varadinis, curator, Kunsthaus Zurich, Zürich
The announced budget cuts are completely exagerated and irresponsible as they will lead to the end of Netherlands' strong international reputation in the fields of art. To close down such important post-academic institutions like the Ateliers, Rijksakademie and Jan van Eyck is like cutting the blood and oxygene of a vital body. All these institutions are of vital importance to the artistic scene - both in the Netherlands and abroad. I hope there will be a way to stop this insane decision!
56: Marianne Lanavère, director, La Galerie Contemporary art centre, Noisy-le-Sec, F
57: Beatrix Ruf, director, Kunsthalle Zurich, Zürich
58: Prof. Dr. Dieter Lesage, philosopher, Erasmus University College Brussels, Vrije Universiteit Brussel
59: Prof. Dr. Johan Swinnen, hoogleraar / stichtend directeur, HISK, Antwerp, B
I hereby express my opposition to this extermination of the future heritage.
60: Marta Kuzma, Director, OCA, Oslo, Norway and member of the curatorial team of documenta 13
61: Dr. Veit Görner, direktor, Kestnergesellschaft, Hannover, Deutschland
Dear Sirs, cultur is our futur not only our past.
62: Tino Haenen, general & artistic director, Muziekgebouw aan 't IJ, Amsterdam, NL
63: Alexander Strengers, voorzitter Kunstcommissie DNB, Amsterdam, NL
64: Stine Hebert, director, Baltic Art Center
65: Maurice Carlin, artist, Islington Mill, Manchester, UK
66: Mihnea Mircan, director, Extra City Kunsthal, Antwerpen
67: Pierre Courtin, director, Contemporary Art Center Duplex, Sarajevo, Bosna-Hercegovina
68: Brandon LaBelle, artist, writer, professor, Bergen National Academy of the Arts
69: Martha Rosler, artist, DAAD Berlin fellow, professor emerita Rutgers University, US
I have often worked with Dutch art and architecture institutions, including Witte de With, the Berlage Institute, Stedelijk Amsterdam, Netherlands Photo Institute, the Architecture Institute, Stedelijk s'Hertogenbosch, Manifesta, SKOR, BAK, Hermes, Casco, Jan Van Eyck Academie, the Rijksakademie, SKOR, and Mute, and cannot understand a policy that would cut funding to any of these diverse, valuable, and highly visible and influential institutions.
70: Preston Thayer, PhD, Director, University Art Gallery New Mexico State University, Las Cruces, USA
The Netherlands' contemporary art scene has been a shining light of thoughtful investigation and ambitious cultural production on the international stage. Only last week, I was enthralled by The Netherlands pavilion at the International Art Exhibition - La Biennale di Venezia in Venice, Italy. From many standpoints -- including I should imagine international tourism -- supporting contemporary art in The Netherlands should not be dismissed lightly.
71: René Zechlin, director, Kunstverein Hannover, Hannover
72: Annelise E. Ream, Keith Haring Foundation
73: Emily Pethick, director, The Showroom, London
74: Dirk van Weelden, author / editor of De Gids, Amsterdam
75: Tirdad Zolghadr, Center for Curatorial Studies Bard College, New York
76: Tobias Ostrander, Director Museo Experimental El Eco, Mexico City, Mexico
77: Marlene Dumas, artist, Amsterdam
How tragic and dangerous a government that is proud that it neither understands the arts, nor the dynamics of culture.,e.g. it claims to admire internationalism in the arts, while rejecting multiculturalism at home.
78: Henry Meyrik Hughes, honorary President, International Association of Art Critics (AICA), Paris
Institutions and the fragile ecology in which they must thrive have to be built up over a period of years. It is much easier to destroy than to replace them. I urge all those concerned to think hard, and think again about the devastating impact of what is proposed. The system of arts funding enjoyed in The Netherlands since the last War has proved exemplary, for its practical embodiment of democratic ideals. The scale of cuts proposed will cause disproporionate damage to the country's standing in the world.
79: Carlos Amorales, visual artist
80: Beaud Marie Claude, directrice Nouveau Musee National de Monaco
81: Marjetica Potrc, artist
82: Yaffa Goldfinger, director Tel Aviv Museum of Art, Tel Aviv, Israel
83: Paul Clay, designer and visual artist
I rely on the thinking and vision coming out of The Netherlands for much of my understanding of where Global culture is trending. This vision which the Netherlands has generated is one of the crown jewels of its many historical cultural achievements and a linch pin in its National status in the World today. It seems very odd that the government is unaware of how much the Netherlands is looked up to because of this vital achievement, and what losing it will mean.
84: V.R. de Gruijter, artist
85: Fiona Annis, artist
86: Bart Keijzer, artist, Kunstenaarsvereniging Diep Water
87: Alexandra van Smoorenburg, alternative conflict resolution, De Vrijplaatscoach
To settle a culture takes decades, to tear it down: one sad reign
88: Masha Matijevic, artist
89: Ben Kinsley, artist and educator, Carnegie Mellon University
90: Hyo Kwon, South Korea
91: Kevin E. Consey, executive vice president, Harriet and Esteban Vicente Foundation, New York
I was a recipient of a Mondriaan Foundation International Fellowship in 2002. It enabled me to spend a few weeks visiting and learning about Dutch visual arts institutions. This cut in funding, for idealogical purposes more than economic reasons, is beyond comprehension. Why a government would desire to destroy a part of a countries culture known internationally for its leadership and quality is beyond belief.
92: Susanne, PhD student, University of North Carolina, US
93: Marijn van Hoorn, conservator, Teylers Museum
94: Kimberley Mackenzie, New Museum
95: Floor Meijers, artist
96: Nina Canell, artist
97: Anthony R. Chadwick, professor of French (retired), Memorial University of Newfoundland, St. John's, NL, Canada
The heritage you are attacking belongs to the world; you are the custodians of that heritage, which is not simply what has been created in the past, but what is now being created and will be created by the artists born in your country.
98: Vincent Verhoef, artist
99: Valeria Paz, independent curator and researcher, University of Essex, United Kingdom
100: Emilie Lauriola, music & art journalist, Wow Magazine - France
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