This issue of HTV de IJsberg had the title:
An artist’s guide to the galaxy, an explores artwork which bear a resemblance to science and the work of science, which is close art.

With special editorial assistance of Daan Noppen
Contributions by among others: Collectie Huis Marseille, Jan Fabre, Irene van der Mheen, Elias Tieleman, Sieger J Duinkerken and Simon Faithfull.

Cardboard Monument is a proposal for an on-site public intervention on Walter Sisulu Freedom Square, in Kliptown, Johannesburg in South Africa. An existing monument was built in this square in 2000, and intented for entertainment use by locals, but which in reality is not used or functional. Cardboard Monument is a cardboard replica, and outdoor events platform for local organisations in the area to use for performance, debate and hangout spot. The public intervention will be followed by a documentation website and documentary video. More to come in 2011.

Pre-election public campaign art interventions workshop organized together with Mediamatic

Should artists’ works pick a political side in the upcoming elections or do they stand above all sides? By hacking or commenting on messages of policital parties, do you generate attention for the object that’s commented upon thereby risking misinterpretation?
What forms of art interventions are the most effective in public campaigning?

Foundland organised an evening of discussion, together with a workshop, coinciding with the Dutch municipal elections. We used existing political campaign materials donated by parties, to create artistic interventions, which we posted back into public space. The participants were artists and designers as well as psychologists, activists and comedians.

COMING SOON in 2010

Greyland is a concept for an alternative, virtual zone for stateless people; people who cannot return to their homeland. It offers this, by claiming a virtual, online territory, for the purpose of research and visualization of findings.

A counter- campaign commenting on populist political quotes. The campaign including posters, seed packets, workshops and lectures, subverts historical quotes and changes their meaning- to be about gardening for example, was executed in public space end February 2010, to counter the political campaigning before Dutch local elections.

for more: www.sunshine.foundland.org

A dialogue between Ghalia Elsrakbi and Lauren Alexander, in the form of a comic book. Two separate personal stories, one told by Lauren from South Africa, and one by Ghalia from Syria (read from the right in Arabic). In the centre of the book is a transcribed dialogue, with the central question: “Why do we insert our own personal story, and sometimes our own image, into our artwork?”

Commissioned by Nieuwe Vide Gallery, Haarlem for the Body Double exhibition

This issue of HTV de IJsberg had the title:
POLEMIEK: Post-propaganda
In collaboration with artist Jonas Staal
Contributions by among others: Merijn Oudenampsen and Daniel van der Velden

New years greeting card 2010
For Kosmopolis Denhaag

A campaign exposing the use of stereotyped images, as found in public advertising spaces in Amsterdam.

Video stills: Taken from the documentary “I have something to hide” by students of the Sandberg Insituut 08.

We were invited by Atti Democratici, an Italian based inquiry into the relationship between art and democracy, to design a poster for their project communication. The project proposes a geographic interpretation of the theme thanks to the designers’ different cultural and political backgrounds.
In collaboration with Lungomare, Bolzano

“Internet als Middelpuntvliedende Kracht”/    The internet as a central influential force

Poster design & presentation at
KNWA conference VOX POPULI
In collaboration with Merijn Oudenampsen

We created a new visual identity for Bureau Jansen en Jassen, a research bureau who investigate amongst other things, the activities of the Dutch police force, and the Ministry of Justice.

Caché – Exposé researches Dutch detention and deportation centers. These centers are built in obscure and hard to reach places on the outskirts of towns. The project included documentary-like footage taken in these camps, particularly considering the view from inside through typically black gauss windows. Also part of the project was a map of Holland which exposed all of the locations, and the routes to arrive at these usually undetected detention camps.

More info: www.cache-expose.net

Visual inquiry into forms of protest in the Netherlands, specifically related to the connections which exist between immigration and politics. The results were presented during the “Democracy in Action” exhibition in the Atrium, City Hall in Den Haag, September 2009.
In collaboration with Jonmar van Vlijmen and Eutopia

During the “Zichtbaar afwezig”project of the Stedelijk Museum. We created a programme, whereby children at the Fons Vitae Lyceum in Amsterdam would be able to take home the artworks (reproductions) of the Stedelijk Museum.

Children photographed these by means of a disposable camera, the results can be seen on the project website: SIMH

A research based project investigating the role of images as they are used in NGO direct mail. Through interviews and investigative research in co-operation with NGO’s and advertising agencies, I compiled my story into a comprehensive direct mail package- with a 1,3 meter long guilt letter, complete with accept giro/ donation cheque attached and a promotional pamphlet.

The growing discussion on the migrant identity confronted me with my own identity and my relation towards the Netherlands. The suppressing and bureaucratic immigration policy that confines, limits any personal development in the country that you live in, cooperate in and work in for years, made me and the numerous people in the same position despair. The discrepancy between being Dutch on the one hand and being legally shut off on the other I have tried to show with this project. It thereby raises the question what is it that makes you Dutch? Is being Dutch dependent on the possession of an official document? Is it dependent on where you reside? Where you were born? Or is it related to your own intuitive connection with everyday, Dutch reality? Whatever the answer to these question may be; at this point I was without a passport and merely marginally Dutch.

A publication on the dynamics of collectives in the context of social networks. Published by the Students of the Sandberg Institute Amsterdam in collaboration with Luna Maurer and Roel Wouters .

Each contribution to the publication was a lose A3 poster, which when placed together formed a book of visual interpretations. The launch of the publication, and party, “Children of Roena” took place in October 2008 at Mediamatic.

The Collective Masters logo, was created for the graduation exhibition of the Design Department of the Sandberg Instituut. For this, we used all of the logos of the past educational institutions from all the students of the department. From 5 different countries and 14 different institutions, came the Collective Masters logo. We also created a large fake Masters diploma as insert for the booklet, thereby commenting of the role of formal education institutions in the art world.

ENG: Foundland collective initiates autonomous projects. Foundlanders ( Ghalia Elsrakbi, Lauren Alexander and Dirk Vis ) are researchers, writers, artists and designers. With our own projects and working process, we forge new and unchartered territory within our disciplines, and with respect to the three continents from which we hail (Europe, Asia an Africa)  Foundlanders bring new worlds, imaginary and virtual into site, by developing our own visual language for exhibitions, magazines, debates and websites.

NL: Het Foundland-collectief initieert autonome projecten. Foundlanders ( Ghalia Elsrakbi, Lauren Alexander en Dirk Vis ) treden op als onderzoeker, schrijver, kunstenaar of vormgever. Met onze eigen projecten en ontwerpproces probeert Foundland de langzaam verschuivende, onontgonnen gebieden van onze eigen continenten (Europa, Azië, Afrika) in het oog te krijgen. Foundlanders beheersen de vereiste technieken om virtuele en imaginaire werelden in kaart te brengen. Het uitgestrekte ontwerplandschap van Foundland beslaat onder andere het ontwikkelen van een eigen beeldtaal voor tentoonstellingen, tijdschriften, lezingen en websites.

Contact: info@foundland.org

Foundlanders:
Ghalia Elsrakbi
Lauren Alexander
Dirk Vis