Kunsttour 2012
Today was the last day and I’m home now. Tired, overheated but satisfied! This year’s Kunsttour for me took place in a building I was not familiar with, namely the Royal Mosa. This building is, even today, used for making tiles the Mosa is well known for. If Wikipedia is correct about this the company was founded in 1883 by Hubert Gerard Louis Regout. It had a few rather turbulent years but is in the end still in the hands of the Dutch, making it the only company in Belgium and the Netherlands that produces ceramics on an industrial scale.
Needless to say this building breaths a lot of history which will show on the photos that will follow. This year I will not have the extensive write-up like I made the last couple of years, I’m not even sure why. Perhaps I was and am too busy. This piece will mainly contain overviews to show you what it was like, sort of. The art displayed was as usually very diverse of nature, pretty things, awesome things and not so pretty things. The weather was awesome heating up the building like mad. Luckily there was a fantastic bar with drinks, good beer from Gulpener (!) and pleasant sandwiches from d’n Auw Stoof.
A small “Behind the scenes”
My stuff reflecting “the other side”
The work of my neighbour Monika Radhoff-Troll
Monika Radhoff-Troll
A part of the stand of Gerrie Goossens Ceramics
The work of Thomas Gobbele
The kites of Ton Oostveen and the chairs by Atelier 4D (which are really awesome!)
Creative lights by Much2C made of recycled materials
Of course the Kunsttour Radio was present as well with the all-familiar host TimoArt!
The play of words by Mine Stemkens dressed up the spaciousness
Ahhh the bar! Means…beer! And proper ones with that!
A really nice furniture collection by Bruls & Co under the name “RealSoftShop”
Wooden statues by Frits van Roon. One piece, a white owl I liked very much
The miniatures made by Niels Savelkouls. On another wall he hung close-ups of the scenes created in small.
And another overview where you can see my work of you look closely. Extremely closely that is 
Only the installation of the disklavier from Intro in Sito was really annoying (sorry to say). The goal was for people to touch a key and the piano would begin making these neurotic sounds on its own (not on its own of course, encouraged by a computer), people had to follow the keys and try to press the one the disklavier was playing. Doing that would take you up a level. People were really intrigued by this and that was fun to see but awful to hear for 3 entire days. Anyway…
Of course, lot’s a more stuff happened but I was pretty busy at my stand, talking to a lot of people. I had a great couple of days, I even had a gallery owner come up to me and showed great interest in my work. I hope something will blossom from that! I also sold one of my lith prints! Quite a bit of people coming back for a second look on my work, be it the same day or the next, which is really a huge compliment.
Last but not least a video made with the Canon S100 of Sound of Tiles which was really cool. This was a performance played on tiles showcased by the Mosa and executed by Marco Mlynek, Marc Alberto and Gerry Reynders.
Btw, the “nee” expressed in the beginning of the movie was because I saw my battery going dead. Long live my cameras without these frikkin’ batteries!
KunstTour 2011 – Impressions
So , here they are at last! In short; it was a fantastic weekend. In long; please read on
Friday we set everything up. I was able to use pretty much all the space I wanted which was great. No room for hanging the work which was great too; saved a lot of work and hassle. We laid everything out on tables and saved one table in the middle to display the camera, a book with guiding information, prices and a guest book. At first we covered the tables with a green cloth which later that day got removed by Franz Rothenburg, one of the organizers, as you can see on first photos. Luckily he decided to remove them and spread the layout a little although I was a bit afraid when he mentioned having done so the night before opening.
The way things were with the green cloth
Close up of the presentation. This image actually sold that weekend!
The way things became - Photo: courtesy of Moonesque
The boat was situated at the wharf of the Landbouwbelang which, unfortunately, wasn’t clear enough for everybody as some ended up missing the boat. Great location though, not many people know this place but it’s a beautiful spot in Maastricht. Calm but raw, showing the industrial part of Maastricht in its “gone-by” glory.
The weather proved to be an excellent companion this weekend. The sky remained blue and the sun hot and burning most of the time. Also good companions were on the boat as in the other artists. Katrien Haemers showed her paintings which were quite fascinating! The work of Astrid Verkoijen also appealed to me. Her colorful work used in her furniture looked really great. Jimmy Dee played guitar on board and sang as well. He also performed on a didgeridoo which was cool!
He also gathered quite the bit of attention.
Another musical artist who performed on Sunday with Coen van Dam was Nico Zwackhalen with his bluesy voice. I met Coen before while there were still those famous jazz-monday-evenings at the Tramhalte in Maastricht. He rocked the piano there and I loved his playing from the start. Great to have met him on the boat listening to his music again. Downstairs at the boat “Viola di Gamba” gave a performance too.
Nico Zwackhalen - Photo: courtesy of Moonesque
Coen swinging the hell out of his piano, the rest enjoying the hell out of it
Coretta Dekker treated us with a comical performance which was really funny. Unfortunately she found it to be not good enough so she canceled her performance for Sunday. Too bad; would have loved to see it again 
Coretta as 'Angelle"
Let’s not forget the wonderful poet of the house “Krokus” with his sharp words. A true addition to the boat with a remarkable feel for expression.
Photo: courtesy of Moonesque
Youri Penders showed us the wonderful process of the printing press late 1800′s. Really cool as my camera is from somewhere around that very same time! He explained the process with quite the bit of passion and engagement which made it all the more fun.
Youri and his printing press
And me...enjoying the sun and stuff
Of course, let us not forget about the people who made this all worthwhile: the guests!
Photo: courtesy of Moonesque
The crowd out on the deck - Photo: courtesy of Moonesque
Some unexpected performers - Photo: courtesy of Moonesque
Also, let us thank the weather for being so incredibly kind!!
Of course, a special thanks goes to the Basta family, Suzanne Stohr and Resi Claessens, the owner of this boat (which is available for rent).
As you can see a totally different KunstTour than last year and that made it all the more fun! Hope to see you (again) next year.
Indra
Interview “Basta”
This is where it all started some 2 months ago. Jean Pluis from Basta Maastricht contacted me for an interview for their Maastrichter Cultural Magazine which they planned to bring out on paper again. And so it happened and at the Bastaboat during the Kunsttour this was presented.
To be able to read the article better you can download it here: Basta
The Kunsttour was a genuine success but more on that later!
-Indra
Bastaboot vaart uit tijdens de KunstTour
BASTABOOT VAART UIT TIJDENS KUNSTTOUR 2011
Het culturele anker BASTA Maastricht beziet alles van de zonnige kant.
Het blikveld wordt tijdens de Kunsttour 2011 wederom verlegd naar de
Maas. We zien graag het culturele licht schijnen in alleman water.
Vandaar dat we op Zaterdag 28 en Zondag 29 Mei om 12.00 en 15.00 uur
gaan cruisen en de opvarenden een verrassend programma bieden tussen
de veilige havens ‘Het Landbouwbelang en AINSI’.
Omdat we ons nooit laten insnoeren en voorschrijven waar we aan moeten
voldoen, kiezen we voor een eigenzinnig programma dat nog lang van zich
zal doen laten spreken, ook als de kruitdampen reeds lang zijn opgetrokken.
En zoals de traditie voorschrijft is onze huisdichter Krokus de rode draad in
het programma. Ook de Duitse klankarchitect ‘Der Nitszche‘ zal de Maas
vervoeren met zijn magisch gitaarspel.
Verder zijn er exposities van kunstenaars, muziek en theater die het programma
compleet maken.
Astrid Verkoijen, met Vormgeving
Coen van Dam, met piano
Coretta Dekker, met theater
GambaConsort Maastricht: Anneke Pasman – diskantgamba, Hildegard Moonen – altgamba, Bert Pasman – basgamba
Indra Moonen, fototentoonstelling (foto’s zijn gemaakt met een techniek van ±160 jaar geleden)
Jimmy Dee, met zang, gitaar en veel meer
Katrien Haemers, met haar schilderijen
Nico Zwackhalen, met zang
Ronald van Laar, met beelden
Youri Penders, met boekdruk kunst
Kortom, laat u verrassen en overrompelen. En ook niet onbelangrijk te vermelden:
De toegang is gratis. Er kunnen weliswaar 100 mensen mee op de boot maar
vanwege de enorme belangstelling is het aan te raden tijdig te reserveren.
Opstapplaats: Biesenwal/Wilhelminakade 28 en 29 Mei om 12.00 en 15.00 uur.
p.s. De boot heet “the Dream”
Reserveren bij:
Suzanne Stohr
suzannestohr@suzannestohr.nl
+31 6 290 55 232
KunstTour 2011 – May 27 – 29
Ladies and gentlemen…it’s almost time for the KunstTour again! This year it will be held from the 27th til the 29th of May all throughout Maastricht. For more information visit their website, join their Facebook or follow them on Twitter
The site says I’ll be located at the Frankenstraat 148 but that has changed. Me and my work will be on board of the Bastaboot where at the same time the interview with me for Basta will be presented. So…join us there. I think it’s gonna be fun! The boat is situated behind Landbouwbelang. Visit their website for more on that.
Till then!
Kunsttour 2010: Impressions
Day 1:
Ohh, how excited I was! At 10 in the morning a large breakfast started at the Timmerfabriek where a lot of the participants gathered. The food and beverages were provided by De Auw Stoof which resulted in yummy sandwiches and all and nice people. What a great start, the weather was wonderful, blue sky and all, lovely food, nice people and just a good day This is the day Bart found the time to make some photos, the rest of the days this was somewhat impossible. We’ll show some of the art that we thought to be interesting, funny or otherwise and some more.
Don't ask me for the one who made this but it was cool....
We took the time to walk through the exhibitions and enjoy what other people had been doing before taking our seats at my work. The building is so remarkable with all its rooms and spaces. From factory grounds with all its damaged walls and floors you walk into this beautiful room with high ceilings, white clean walls, original ornaments and a stunning intact wooden floor. Truly amazing and if Maastricht were to ever break down this part of their city it would be such a loss of history and bizarre gorgeousness which do not show their secrets to the outside.
Creator: Pascalle Mansvelders. Love the child with the knife; you can make of this whatever you want.
The next photo is from a sound and visual installation of my friend Bonne Knibbe. She’s currently studying Art Science in The Hague and has built this project where you have to sit in the middle of it. Sound is played through speakers on all four sides of the structure and by moving handles it starts to move and because the speakers “project” its sound onto plastic large boards you change the dimension of sound, so to say. I’m not sure if it makes sense but it was nice to sit there. Very relaxing actually.
Bonne Knibbe's Sound Installation
This would make for a brilliant (but warm) daylight studio...drool....
This just had to be photographed: a Foto Rembrandt bag, you see them everywhere
The outside blueish sky parking lot nice "chillin" area of the Timmerfabriek
This was fun (forgot the creator again) ,it was supposed to puke but it had to dry first, fun anyway
This is made by Helmut Jöcken, a talented painter, sculptor and friend. One day I will grow rich and buy one of his brass works
He’s actually the one who bought one of my plates that day. Needless to say I was very happy! I know it has found a good home. I just wish I had the money to buy a piece of him but one day I will!
A cool chair made by someone who also makes nice paintings but I forgot his name..
Jewelry by Merle Anderson
The day went until six and after that Helmut, Maurice, Bart and I went out for dinner at Cafe Sjiek to celebrate a great start of the Kunsttour 2010!
Day 2:
This day was the day I was a bit scared for and excited..the demo-day! We got at the site at 9:30, had some breakfast as we had too little time for it at home packing all things necessary for the demo. We started setting things up at 11:30 and then the day went on its own really. As soon as people saw the tent and the camera the questions started coming and by the time it was 1 o’clock a crowd had gathered for the demo.
I was kind of anxious for this moment as I thought I had to start telling a story to all the people but they kept firing questions and I did not have any trouble answering those. Luckily a friend, Jeroen de Wijs, also joined the party with his insanely gorgeous wet plate camera, HUGE Petzval lens and knowledge and together with Bart saved my day.
I started with a test plate of Bart to determine exposure time and soon people came to ask if I would do their portrait. And so the day rolled on. Lots of familiar people came to have a look and it was really fantastic! So many people interested and me telling them stuff about it, I really was digging that! I will definitely do this again in the future. The day before I even got a call from a photographer from Rotterdam who asked me if they had to buy tickets for the demo and if they were getting to see things as they had to drive a long while to get there. Awesome they did that! Too bad I didn’t get the time to talk some more with them as it was so busy but I hope they enjoyed it.
Focusing on the "subject"
I realize now I don’t have a photo of the tent and all….it went too quick for me that day and did not have any time to make them. Oh well..lesson for next time. These are photos of my dad btw.
Me in darkroom tent, bad photo qual but at least you get to see something...
Bart spent his time varnishing the plates that were done and forcing me to shoot some new plates in between me talking to everyone. Jeroen also talked to a lot of people, answering questions and all. If I had to do all of that myself that day I would’ve been dead by the end of it…
The following are 2 short films made by Ralph on his iPhone just for kicks:
Another biggie that happened today was that Eddie Willems, a teacher at SASK my “old” school, came over and asked me to think about performing a demonstration at their school. Very cool!
Another huge biggie is that I bought a new lens!! Jeroen took over a Petzval he was selling and I gladly bought it I’m not too sure about its focal length yet or aperture, Jeroen thought around 320 and f3.5 if my memory serves me well enough but I’ll measure it outside soon to be sure. It is a Darlot No. 28,249 and Petzval which I wanted to try for quite a while now and recently gave up a bit on that search and that’s when you see it gets on your path on its own, as long as you’re not looking too hard!
My Darlot Petzval
My Darlot Petzval
I also received some critics about the presentation of my work. Too simple frames doing the images no justice. One also didn’t like the metal wire I used to attach the images and while I don’t really agree it’s something I will change next time, if only because I prefer them to be completely clean. I’ll talk about the new ideas for framing in a different post soon. Things will change, not only because of some comments I received, but also because I had some in mind already. Here’s me thinking that for once a presentation does not have to cost me a kidney It was pretty tough to hear though, the first time people have something to say about my presentation and I feel a bit bad about that; I am a perfectionist so don’t like to hear this but it’s a lesson I’d like to learn from and will work on next time. Better honest critique than people only saying they like it or saying nothing at all…all I have to do is raise some funding now…
Day 3:
Not much happened today. We sat with my work most of the time but talked to a lot of people. One of them a guy who would give my card to Guido Paulussen, which I met later that day, to talk about a future exhibition of my work at the Gemeentehuis of Beek. Great news and funny because I already met Guido before at where I work. He has some really great photography.
I also got interviewed by Kunsttour Radio live for Maastricht.FM but it’s not online yet. When it is I’ll post it here.
A colleague from work visited and so did my parents in law with some friends. At the end my parents came to help packing. Glad we reached 6 o’clock, we were really really tired of those 3 days. After the packing and unpacking at home we refreshed and went for dinner at de Kokeers with everyone. Such a great end to such a great Kunsttour. Next year, I’ll definitely be there again!!
Kunsttour Maastricht 2010
Today was one of the bigger days, hanging the work at the Timmerfabriek. Yesterday I finished all the last prepping of the frames and price tags etc. to had it ready for hanging. The space I have at the Timmerfabriek is not that ideal when looking at the hanging possibilities, photos will show the “challenges” we were up against but the space is very intimate and places me right at the entrance which is good for all the visitors having to pass by. Another big advantage is that the demo will be held outside near the entrance so at all times I’ll be in contact with both places.
The hanging went without a hitch. I expected some difficulties hanging the work but it all solved itself really; very pleasant! I am looking forward to this weekend! It’ll be great! Also the building is such a treat on its own; it’s sooooo big with beautiful rooms with lots of variations. I’ll post some more photos of it somewhere around this weekend. On to the photos of my little exhibit:
More to come soon.
And if you now think you’ve seen it all….be there Anyway!!
-Indra (a very tired but satisfied one!)
Wet Plate Exhibition & Demo KunstTour Maastricht
May is filled with good things and here’s the thing I’m currently working on: a Wet Plate Collodion exhibition at the Timmerfabriek Maastricht during the KunstTour / Art Tour 2010 starting at the 22nd til the 24th of May.
On top of that I will be giving my first demonstration in public of the wet plate process on Sunday the 23th starting at 1 o’clock. I’m thrilled to be able to do so (keep fingers crossed for the weather ) and looking forward to it immensely! I hope to see you there!!
