Sarah van Sonsbeeck - Informational Weather - winner Theodora Niemeijer Prize - Het Oog
Sarah van Sonsbeeck - Informational Weather winner Theodora Niemeijer Prize - Het Oog
Sarah van Sonsbeeck says about her project: “What if the ingredients of the current political situation in the Netherlands were translated into weather? For me as an artist the political climate at the moment feels quite unreliable. It seems to coincide with the unpredictable weather of the last few months. It's summer but it's cold, there's sun and then it's raining again, and there's even been hail. Traditionally Dutch politics have been based on a model of compromise and this is also how you could describe the Dutch weather. Informational Weather in Het Oog in the Van Abbemuseum translates the changing political situation in the Netherlands into weather types, on the basis of a provisional climate system.”
The seven largest political parties will be assigned a weather element within the system. The more influential the party, the more its related element will affect the climate. Parties of the Netherlands, VVD, PvdA, CDA, PVV, SP, D66 and GroenLinks, weather elements inspired by their party philosophy. Every week, she will assess the shifting influence of each party based on polls and media coverage. A political weather forecast, with icons designed by Van Sonsbeeck, can be found in the museum. It is also spread through the Van Abbe Twitter account, Facebook and the website of the museum.
Sarah van Sonsbeeck
Sarah van Sonsbeeck (1976) lives and works in Amsterdam and is both a graduate architect and artist (Rietveld Academy and Rijksakademie Amsterdam). In 2006 she was nominated for the Rietveld Fine Art Prize. In 2012 she was nominated for De Volkskrant Beeldende Kunstprijs (The Volkskrant Fine Art Prize) for which she was announced the audience favourite. Sarah van Sonsbeeck is the winner of the first Theodora Niemeijer Prize in June 2012. In addition to a €10.000,- prize, she now gets the opportunity to realise her project proposal for Het Oog.
Niemeijer Fonds Foundation
The prize and the long-term support for this special presentation space in the Van Abbemuseum are a tribute to Theodora Niemeijer (1912-2004), a member of the well-known family of tobacco producers from Groningen. In 1996 she set up her own foundation in order to encourage young artists. She died in 2004, but the Stichting Niemeijer Fonds still exists and donates a generous sum to different artists, from musicians to visual artists, every year.
More about Niemeijer Fonds Foundation: .
live stream of the current weather... (no longer available).
