Interview with Bart Rutten, curator of “Do it! Load It!” at Stedelijk Museum
The 6th october 2011 the Stedelijk Museum in Amsterdam Holland presented an evening called “Do it! Load it!”. The evening was a result of a long and unique collaboration between the art museum and the production company Submarine Channel. The museum presented three new art games: Sollmann (Part 1: The Harbour) by Marcel van Eeden and Jorrit de Vries; FLX. by Han Hoogebrugge and Sander van der Vegte; Styleclash – The Painting Machine Construction Kit by Jochem van der Spek. Since 2008 the three artists had worked “secretly” with game designers from Submarine Channel in a project called “A Split Second”, described as:
“a three-year research project initiated by the Stedelijk Museum and Submarine Channel, which explores the concept of artistic authorship within the context of video games by fostering cross-disciplinary collaborations between visual artists and game designers.”
Can you tell me how the collaboration between Stedelijk Museum and the production company Submarine Channel started and why did Stedelijk Museum got involved in a video game project?
The Stedelijk has a long, pioneering history in paying attention to new developments in society and media, related to art. The Stedelijk was for example the first museum world wide who introduced the audio tour as an educational tool and one of the first in collecting video art in the 70ties. In 2006 we organized the exhibition Next Level, on the influence of games in the works of artists. After this show, curator Marten Jongema, who sadly enough passed away this spring, came in contact with Bruno Felix, one of the directors of Submarine Channel. Together they made this plan to hook up an artist with an interaction or game designer to see how they could influence each other’s practice. This was bound to end up in some interesting new, artistic videogames.
Did any of the artists in the project have any previous experience working with video games?
No, none of them had, and that was a very interesting fact. The works of Han Hoogerbrugge and Jochem van der Spek take place in the digital realm but they never worked with a game structure. The artists were specifically selected to give three completely different angels on what a game as a structure or a narrative could be.
Can you tell me about the event “Do it! Load it!”? There were a panel discussions and an exhibition with the new art games?
We had the three new games in two gallery spaces (Han and Jochem shared a space). The selection of other games, indeed a few a more commercial than the others, where installed in the museum just for just one night, as a kind of intervention. The selection was based on how these, what we thought high quality games, related to the art works in its surrounding. For example: Path was shown next to the exhibition that showed with artists who dealt with the representation of nature. Mirrors Edge was in a room that contained a work by the artist Germaine Kruip, and that work itself is made out of mirrors.
Is this the beginning of a closer collaboration between artists and game designers in the Netherlands?
We will see, at the moment we are still enjoying the success of last Thursday – the Load It!-night – and the positive responses to the three new games. Although they still need to be finished in its definitive form, so they can be distributed online, all three are already acquired for the collection of the Stedelijk Museum. So that is definitely a start. On the special Load It!-night there also was a very interesting panel discussion about your question. It all starts with discussing the subject, because curating video games is not an easy matter. At this moment, with our grand reopening coming up in 2012, it is too soon to commit us to another project like this. But we will keep you posted!
What position has Game Art in Netherlands and what part has Stedelijk Museum in this development?
Besides Next Level, the Stedelijk show I mentioned earlier, there have been several shows in the Netherlands dealing with games and art. But they mainly took place in a more alternative circuit of artists organizations focusing on new media and digital art like NIMk and Mediamatic in Amsterdam, MU in Eindhoven or Mama in Rotterdam. So in a way I think the Netherlands has already a stirring culture on this subject matter. What the Stedelijk Museum will do in the future regarding games and art is not sure jet, but whatever we will do, it will be built on a strong tradition.
Mathias Jansson
art critic
Uitgebreid beeldverslag van Load it op Kunstbeeld.nl
Review over Load it op Bashers.nl
Verslag over Load it op Trendbeheer.com
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