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Exhibition 9 English  Nederlands

WatSpinoza?

Questions in Amsterdam, Mediamatic BANK and www.watspinoza.nl

During WatSpinoza? Mediamatic spread a canon of questions around Amsterdam in unexpected ways. The questions were formulated together with writer Dirk van Weelden and can be traced back to the body of thought of philosopher Spinoza. Mediamatic collected feedback, recycled interesting statements and started a dialogue with and between the people of Amsterdam.
Everybody could respond via sms, via the website www.watspinoza.nl and on the blackboards in the exhibition.

On the WatSpinoza? website you can still join in the discussions. The website is a meeting place for all the comments that were expressed throughout the duration of the project.

With:
Dirk van Weelden, zhana ivanova, Baruch Spinoza

Baruch Spinoza was a Dutch philosopher of Jewish descent who lived in Amsterdam in the 17th century. He was banished from the Jewish community as a result of his radical philosophy and moved away from Amsterdam. His famous work Ethica, published post-mortem, contains some of his most controversial ideas about God and the nature of the human spirit. The project WatSpinoza? demonstrated that his ideas are still topical today.

Respond and re-enact

During the exhibition period people could respond to the questions and participate in Re:Parallax, a re-enactment of the performance Parallax by Zhana Ivanova. May 13th, 14th and 15th Ivanova performed Parallax. This interactive performance confronts the audience with perception of freedom in the experience and design of the work. Re:Parallax allowed visitors to become part of the re-enactment of this performance. Everyone could take their picture in a professionally lit photo set according to the artists directions. Every photo is one image, one frame in a growing online imagebank. Together these pictures form a stop-motion film, which will be shown in the exhibition.

Opening and My Name is Spinoza

Until the 28th of June 2009 the exhibition could be viewed at Mediamatic BANK. WatSpinoza? opened on May 8th 2009 during the start of the art manifestation My Name is Spinoza. WatSpinoza?, Parallax and Re: Parallax are Mediamatic's contributions to the art manifestion My Name is Spinoza.

Exhibition Team

Alice Bodansky, Laura Bultman, Tom Jaspers, Ivan Kadelburg, Bram Loogman, Mhairi Macfarlane, Katja Novitskova, Jans Possel, Zepha de Roo, Liene Rubane, Jelte Timmer, Willem Velthoven, Dirk van Weelden, Marco Wessel, Rebecca Wotzko

Thank you Jan Wicher Emmens
Contributions 
Evelyn Austin, Michel Langendijk 
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