Exposities

 


Dear Windnomaden artists,

It has been quiet around Windnomaden recently but here is a newsletter with new information about: 1. a short review of Oerol, 2. information about the New Island Festival in New York, and 3. answers to questions poised to us via email. Due to the pressure of work and vacation, we did not always have the opportunity to respond to the questions we received by email. We hope you can appreciate this and thank you for understanding. This newsletter will attempt to answer these questions.


1. Windnomaden at the Oerol festival – June 2009

We can speak of a very successful Oerol project. Many of you were present at the opening and had the chance to marvel at the project on the Noordsvaarder wad. There were articles and photos in many newspapers from all over the Netherlands (we gladly accept a copy of any newspaper article you might have) and we received very many positive reactions. We are extremely pleased with the result. The wind nomads remained undamaged even in force 7 winds. You can see photos of the wind nomads at low and high tides on the SLeM website under the heading ‘fotogalerie’ (
www.slem.org). You can also find films under the heading ‘videos’. If you Google the words ‘windnomaden’ or ‘wind nomaden’, wonderful images of the Windnomaden paintings can be found. Up till now, the sale of Windnomaden has fallen short of our expectations. A total of 14 have been sold to date. You can see which ones those are under the heading ‘catalogus’ on the website. We are busy setting up a sales strategy (see point 3). The 20% payment to the artists for the paintings sold will be made at the end of the year. The Windnomaden catalogue and the SLeM book have sold well. They are still available via the order form on the SLeM website and we have often heard that these beautiful books are great gift to give. presents.


2. New Island Festival, Governers Island New York, September 10 – 20, 2009


Preparations are in full swing. The SLeM container, together with the other containers, left by boat for New York last Friday. The airline tickets for the SLeM team have been booked and the final aspects of the production are being brought into line with the production bureau in New York. The festival website,
www.newislandfestival.com, will be available from this weekend and contains all sorts of information about the program, participating artists, ticket sales, directions, etc. The festival will take place twice for four days, it begins on Thursday afternoon, September 10 and continues until the end of Sunday, September 13. The second part will begin on Thursday, September 17 in the afternoon and end on Sunday, September 20. Only registered festival employees can stay the night on the island. Unfortunately, SLeM cannot arrange for reduced-price tickets nor can we offer or arrange accommodation for those artists who either want to visit or help install/pull down the project. Windnomaden will descend on the large grass field close to the old fort and will be accessible from 10:30 am – 8 pm ( no ticket is needed to visit the Windnomaden installation, but the other shows require tickets). Due to the many activities organized, there will be no special Windnomaden opening. But there will most probably be activities taking place amongst the wind nomads. The premiere of our Windnomaden film ( which is being edited right now) will also take place at this festival, although the date has not yet been finalized. The SLeM installation and demolition team consists of 12 people. A number of artists who will be visiting the festival have offered their help. We could especially use help to install the installation from Sunday September 6 to Wednesday September 9 and to pull it down Monday and Tuesday, September 21 - 22. It was our intention to expand the installation by asking artists from, from among others, New York to paint a wind nomad. Sadly, we were not able to realize this for organizational reasons. It is our intention to keep you up-to-date about Windnomaden during the festival in New York.


3. Other questions asked

What is the situation with regards to South Africa and other locations?

Very little is known at the moment. At the moment, complete attention is being given to the preparations for the New Island Festival. We are still in discussion with several locations.

SLeM has invested heavily in this project. Will the costs be covered?
In order to cover the costs, 60-70% of the Wind nomads need to be sold. This is why we are concentrating on finalizing the sales strategy. We have also received a short term loan for 50,000 Euros from the FCSF (Friesian Sport and Culture Fond) to temporarily resolve liquidity problems.

Can a wind nomad be individually exhibited after New York?
We would like to keep Windnomaden together for the time being. Dividing them up then bringing them back together again is far too work intensive. We simply don’t have the capacity.

When will the sold wind nomad be delivered?
Of the 14 wind nomads already sold, 5 new owners asked to receive their wind nomad as quickly as possible. This means that 5 will not be travelling to NY. The other wind nomads sold will go to NY and will be delivered or picked up by the new owners around the end of October.

Is the plan to let the Windnomaden installation continue to grow still relevant?
Yes, in principle. We would very much like to see artists from other countries make a wind nomad and make the installation increasingly multi-cultural. We first need to generate the financial means before we can invest again.

What about the bas-plate?
To place a wind nomad indoors, a steel base-plate comes with the wind nomad when sold. We advise placing the wind nomads outside only ‘on holidays and when it is sunny’.

Have all the silhouettes (Opdrift)and glass shells (Zomersprookjes) been sold?
Not all, but a lot. We still have seven shells and thirty silhouettes. You can see which ones are still available on our website.


We hope that this newsletter has brought you up-to-date about Windnomaden. We are very curious to hear the New Yorker’s reaction to the Windnomaden installation after its success at Oerol. The fact that almost 400 artists – originally from 30 different countries – produced a unique landscape of moving paintings can truly be called unique and will certainly demand attention. This landscape could not have been made without your help. Therefore we would once again like to thank you.

Yours most sincerely,
Bruno Doeden - SLeM

Please send the published articles about Windnomaden to:SLeM, Bruno Doedens, Frederik Hendrikstraat 9a, 1052 HG Amsterdam.