The Unsafe Election Night

WHERE: The Rise of the Unsafe House: The American Election WATCH PARTY, Amsterdam (NL)

DATE: 5 & 6 November, 2024.

LOVE: YES

The Unsafe Election Night

OMG, I think I was at the coolest place in Amsterdam, even if just for a few intense hours!

To be honest, I haven’t had this feeling in a long time.

Tuesday Night – Wednesday Morning, November 5th & 6th: Somewhere in a shady neighborhood near the famous Bajes—formerly an Amsterdam prison, where I gave a concert when I was 18, with the now-infamous Harm on piano.

Ok, forget the prison and harm—they’re history. The prison closed years ago, Harm moved to the countryside, and the place is now a kind of concentration camp for the underperforming creative class of Amsterdam, as I mentioned before.

But the Wenckebachweg? Sorry, I have to drop a hint for the culture police dogs, so they can catch a whiff of where this real creative scent is coming from. The Wenckebachlaan was the place to be that night. It’s a long street, though, and you’d need a strong nose to pick up the “art drops” sprinkled in the fresh autumn air of Amsterdam.

Enough rambling! I wanted to go incognito. I had a bit of an eye ache, so I wore these nighttime sunglasses to protect me from the ultra-bright film studio lights. But I took them off again because Mr. Sina Khani, the “Main Creep from the Middle East,” walked up and offered me a beer.

There was a strange mix of people in this “Unsafe House.” Mr. Khani seemed to be part of the place’s interior design—he could easily have posed for one of the creepy paintings by Mr. Tarik Sadouma himself, because we were in the domain of the informal “Night Mayor” (or should I say Nightmare) of Amsterdam.

The cast was impressive. As I’m always on the lookout for talent, I was thrilled by this concentration of inventiveness.

Steven Bos, also part of “The Creeps,” was hosting the event, sitting in a comfortable armchair from 1880, next to the couch where Mr. Sadouma reigned as the current “King of Art” in Amsterdam (sorry, Papa Adama, times are changing).

Steven Bos also invited Edo Blaauw to join on the couch, and, man, he became my favorite comedian of the night—even when he was rooting for Kamala Harris as his favorite presidential candidate.

That’s why we were there, in the end—the American Election Night had come to Amsterdam, to the Unsafe House. Edo Blaauw tried to poll the room to see how many were pro-Kamala, but not many wanted to back her, even before her defeat—maybe a sign of things to come.

Earlier today, I watched a very funny AI video of a cursing Kamala and Trump putting everyone down even ruder than he does in reality. Will future presidential candidates be as crudely Bronx-slanged as I saw on that Twitch channel? I missed the “real” election night in the USA because what was happening on the couch was far more exciting. Honestly, I forgot about Trump and Kamala right away.

Sina Khani opened, after a few jokes—though he still claims not to be funny and just a “Sina Songwriter”—with “Let’s Not Hate the Americans” on guitar. The song was almost forgotten by Khani himself, but it’s still a famous underground anthem. I even wrote another song inspired by it during those surreal COVID months in 2020.

Then, things moved quickly. Sadouma leapt off the couch as new guests took his place. Salima El Muslima, whom I’d seen before, brought an award sculpture and began “canceling” a Dutch artist she accused of mistreating her. I had heard his name before, Himmelbach, but apparently, he hadn’t left much of an impression on me. Salima accused Himmelbach of threatening her Ukrainian friend Jelena, who suffers from psychosis, and of manipulating her into stealing the award sculpture he made, only to pressure her to give it back under threat of calling the police. Jelena almost relapsed into psychosis, triggering her trauma. “These fake artists,” Salima said, “offering a woke award only to demand it back, are all about subsidy money. That’s what art is about these days: money!”

Another woman, Sharkurtala,  took a seat on the couch (this is starting to sound very Freudian) and launched into a tirade against Steven Ruitenbeek (from KIRAC), “who nominated a racist for the award.” The atmosphere in the Unsafe “Garage” turned decidedly feminist. Himmelbach and Ruitenbeek “blocked her,” and she responded, “You can talk to my lawyer later!” (The crowd cheered.)

Younes Bouadi showed up, a former campaigner in the US and now a consultant in the Netherlands. He started his career in 2004, working for a voting activation program to increase voter turnout. “You can only do this by pretending to care and be interested,” he said. Edo Blaauw jumped in: “Do you really care?”

The discussion took a more serious turn until Sina Khani asked the audience, “Who wants to see my penis?” Steven Bos ordered him and Blaauw off the stage. Blaauw refused to surrender the mic, but Bos finally succeeded, and he invited Salima El Musalima, Amsterdam’s first female imam!

During the break, Sina Khani came up to me while I was streaming the entire event on the Radio Neverno Instagram and apologized LIVE to the audience for making “racist remarks—it’s a comedy show!”

I got a strong Moscow Mule (vodka, ginger beer, lemon, gin) and got tipsy. After the break, they asked me to join them on the couch myself, but that’s another story…

Sina Khani´s new hit: "Let´s not hate the Americans"

From the creators of Creeps from the Middle East comes this unexpected love song, Let’s Not Hate the Americans.

 This smash hit dives into anti-anti-Americanism and challenges stereotypes and media-driven biases. 

Sina-Songwriter Sina Khani calls for peace, global friendship, and a world where we have to shake hands with Americans. 

Written and performed by Sina Khani 

Camera by Steven Bos Edit by Susan Lanting Audio Mix by Laurens Lanting 

*Unity 

#LoveNotHate #AntiAntiAmericanism #PeacefulWorld #PositiveVibes #GlobalLove #SinaKhani #LetsNotHate #OpenMinds #BreakStereotypes #HumanConnection #GlobalUnity #ArtAndPeace #ThinkPositive #EmbraceDiversity #WorldPeace #ShakeHands #InternationalLove #CreepsSeries #EndHate #ChooseLove #InspireChange #LoveEverywhere #CelebrateDiversity #PeaceAndLove #HumanityFirst #ArtForChange #Togetherness #WeAreOne #NewPerspectives #GoodVibesOnly #SeeTheGood #OneWorld #EmbraceOthers #UnityInDiversity #SpreadKindness #BreakBarriers #OpenHe **#Unity #Love #Peace #Harmony #Togetherness #AntiHate #Friendship #Compassion #Empathy #Positivity #Diversity #Hope #Respect #Strength #Kindness #Inclusion #Appreciation #Solidarity #Understanding #Tolerance #Change #Equality #Together #Courage #Inspiration #Humanity #Optimism #Acceptance #Joy #Growth #Peaceful #Collaboration #Connection #Community #Trust #OpenMind #Sharing #Belonging #Uplift #Smile #Encourage #Faith #Celebrate #Goodness #Oneness #Empower #Art #Listen #Freedom #Justice #Forgive #Bridge #Donald #Trump #Kamala #Harris #CurtisYarvin #TonyHinchcliff

Photos: Creeps from the Middle East/Susan Lanting

Kunstruimte 411/ Art Space 411 in Berlin

Design: Mikel Orfanos

Kunstruimte 411/ Art Space 411 will co-organize two exhibitions in Berlin in the autumn/ winter of 2024-2025.

The first, Herbstspaziergang, in cooperation with InteriorDaSein and Toolbox will open October 25th, 2024.

The second, Reclaim Reality, in cooperation with Rosalux will open November 29th, 2024. On this show later more.

A selection of artists based in the Netherlands will show latest work together with a selection of Berlin based artists.

Participants in Herbstspaziergang:

Jessica Assmann-Zwaanswijk,  Rene Bosch, Aquil Copier, Daan van Houten, Sina Khani, Hans Kuiper, Antonio Rego, Tarik Sadouma, Gerard Veldman, MC de Waal, Ilja Warmerdam, Marius van Zandwijk, Piet Zwaanswijk.

Participants in ´Reclaim Reality´ (Opening Nov. 29th)

Wafae Ahalouch, Arjan van Amsterdam, Jessica Assmann-Zwaanswijk, Aquil Copier, Iliya Fogg, Margriet Gehrels, Alissa Guillouet, Daan van Houten, Sina Khani, Hans Kuiper, Dirk van Lieshout, Claudia Mulder, Beth Namenwirth, Eva van Ooijen, Jean-Philippe Paumier, Guido Pera, Luciano Pinna, Antonio Rego, Maarten Rots, Jean-Philippe Rousset, Tarik Sadouma/ The Rise of the Unsafe House: Ben Sampson, Maria van der Velde, Ruth Spetter, Ivo Schouten, Jorrit Sinke, Rutger van der Tas, Marjolein van Veen, Sjimmie Veenhuis, Steffen Vogelezang, MC de Waal, Ilja Warmerdam, Marius van Zandwijk, Piet Zwaanswijk. 

Deutsch

411 wird in Oktober und November 2024 zwei Ausstellungen organisieren in Berlin! Das zusammen mit drei Berliner Projektraeume, InteriorDaSein, Toolbox und Rosalux. Die erste Ausstellung, Herbspaziergang, eroeffnet den 25. Oktober in InteriorDaSein und Toolbox, den zweiten, ´Reclaim Reality´ den 29. November in Rosalux, ueber diese letzte Ausstellung wird spaeter mehr Information publiziert werden.

Es wird ein Selektion von Kuenstler/innen mitmachen die in der letzte Jahren ausgestellt haben in 411 zusammen mit Berliner Kuenstler/innen.

Teilnehmende in ´Herbstspaziergang´:

Jessica Assmann-Zwaanswijk,  Rene Bosch, Aquil Copier, Daan van Houten, Sina Khani, Hans Kuiper, Antonio Rego, Tarik Sadouma, Gerard Veldman, MC de Waal, Ilja Warmerdam, Marius van Zandwijk, Piet Zwaanswijk.

Teilnehmende in ´Reclaim Reality´:

Wafae Ahalouch, Arjan van Amsterdam, Jessica Assmann-Zwaanswijk, Aquil Copier, Iliya Fogg, Margriet Gehrels, Alissa Guillouet, Daan van Houten, Sina Khani, Hans Kuiper, Dirk van Lieshout, Claudia Mulder, Beth Namenwirth, Eva van Ooijen, Jean-Philippe Paumier, Guido Pera, Luciano Pinna, Antonio Rego, Maarten Rots, Jean-Philippe Rousset, Tarik Sadouma/ The Rise of the Unsafe House, Ivo Schouten, Jorrit Sinke, Rutger van der Tas, Marjolein van Veen, Sjimmie Veenhuis, Steffen Vogelezang, MC de Waal, Ilja Warmerdam, Marius van Zandwijk, Piet Zwaanswijk. 

(Image: Antonio Rego)

(Image: Kuiperdomingos Projects, Berlin, 2011)

SOUNDSCAPE: DE VERLATEN FABRIEK

Soundscape, de Verlaten Fabriek , FIELD RECORDINGS 1- 1986, excerpt, Hans Kuiper & Hans Jansen

Radio Neverno · DE VERLATEN FABRIEK

Creeps in the Unsafe House

It took me almost a week to process the latest episode of *Creeps from the Middle East*. In the dark cellars of *The Unsafe House*, a few yards away from the former largest prison in Amsterdam, the ´Bajes´, now turned into a ´creative breeding place´ (a Dutch euphemism for a heavily subsidized work camp for underperforming wannabe artists), it´s not a particularly inviting setting to witness the next farce in the *Creeps from the Middle East* saga.

Photo: The Unsafe House with Tarik Sadouma in front of the film screen

For our readers not familiar with the Creeps, its main character is the former, failed painter, Mr. Sina Karim Khani (although he wisely deleted the "Karim" part for unknown reasons), who is also one of the three directors of the "live long project". Khani intends to make episodes until his physical death. Having seen the previous episodes, I would almost consider sending a hit squad to end this tragedy for the man, who apparently sees this as his last chance to have something like a creative career. However, I prefer to see him and his team continue struggling to create something that ressembles an interesting narrative approaching the concept of a film.

Photo: Sina Khani with Tunc Topcuoglu, Sohrab Bayat and some unidentifiable characters

Of all places, the Creeps end up, in this far-out shack, called *The Unsafe House*, run by former Kirac member Tarik Sadouma. As a kind of "high priest" he welcoms visitors into his kingdom for the preview of *Creeps*, episode 4, and his own film, surrounded by a selection of stand-ups including Edo Blaauw and Salima El Musalima (who both starred, by the way).

As soon as you enter the garage (it´s nothing more than a garage, stuffed with old couches, shimmering lamps, a bar with a tattooed girl working hard, and a lot of paintings) you become aware of some imminent danger. You don´t know what to expect, but it doesn´t seem to be good.

Photo: Sina Khani with Kirac actress Jini Jane

I went completely incognito, my credentials were not even checked. I saw one of the founders of Radio Neverno walking around in a ridiculously wannabe business suit with a light green tie, pretending not to know me and shooing me away as he continuously chatted with the Creeps in-crowd that he seemed to know, for whatever reason.

Two films were shown. First *The Creeps*, in which Sadouma now appears as a contributing actor and even member of the creative team. I have to say, Sadouma has the qualities to "contra star" against the rather bleak acting performances of Sina Khani. Suddenly, *The Creeps* seems to become a real movie sequence adhering to film theory, which posits that you need a main character and a opposite one, at least in so-called ´narrative film´. This opposite character needs to be as strong as the main character to create a challenging dialogue, in images or narrative or both, to keep the viewer engaged in an unfolding story.

Photo: Still of a scene with mr Sina Khani in a train discussing life and latest breaking news

Bless mr. Sadouma, he saved *The Creeps*, from ´utter boredom´, as written in a former review here.

For a video impression, check *Art Tours Amsterdam* on Instagram, to understand what we are talking about. Check it out (link below)!

The whole night featured a stand-up program with Edo Blaauw, Salima El-Musalima, John Pelech, John Kefentse, Joel, and "comedian" Sina Khani himself opening, despite claiming "not to be funny". Next to a huge Sadouma created painting of Michel Houellebecq, Khani fulminated for 15 minutes on his latest frustrations, often interrupted by Sadouma himself sitting on a couch in the limelight. "I heard of a dangerous place, a whorehouse, full of pimps and criminals, a crack house, illegal immigrants, innocent people getting beaten up in the backroom, rapists on horse and Thierry Baudet", Khani ranted about The Unsafe House.

"Tarik, you are a beautiful person, but people ask me, what do you see in Tarik? His work ethic, his generosity, he helps you solve problems, he creates" Khani continues as the crowd cheered. "Like Khadaffi", Sadouma added into his microphone, "Tarik is so patient, whenever I have a problem, he lends me an open ear, he even lends me his paintings, Tarik is paranoid, but in a good way!"

After this, the latest episode of *The Creeps from The middle East* which was shown for a selection of "invitees" and some incognitos, I have to conclude, that it was by far the best one even if I might be fired by the Radio Neverno Team now.

Photo: The surroundings of the Unsafe House

The second movie, was a creation of *The Unsafe House* team itself, apparently by director mr. Sadouma himself. As I am a critic of the Dutch politicized "Culture Industry", that claims to be permanently fit for subsidization by nepotistic culture czars, distributing tax payers money to their "artists" or better "friends" by shady committees, *The Unsafe House* seems to be an exception to the rule, I hope.

Before stating more about the second movie of the night, which I really liked, maybe because of Sina Khani NOT being in it: please never enter the subsidy abyss awaiting you by the so called "generous culture politicians". Otherwise one day you will be blamed to have collaborated with the current ultra right ´PVV´ government (on which Sadouma fulminates at the end of the night in a passionate speech) that aims to centralize all culture to create its own image and annihilating everything oppositional by first luring artists in the ´subsidy abyss´ before killing them off.

Maybe Sadouma is clever enough to arrange private investors, like Philip van den Hurk is to the Kirac Team. But: don´t make this kind of van den Hurk person to a character in your own movie, it will kill the spirit, I have seen the current Kirac Team struggling with this man in their latest episodes. Khani mentioned van den Hurk´s description of his Creeps, "Creeps of the Middle Class", which says enough.

The second movie by and in the Unsafe House, had depth, showing Sadouma working as a painter commenting  on Picasso and others and sampling parts of critics like "Paul-talk", a wannabe youtuber art specialist commenting on art, mainly painting, but even commenting *The Creeps* in one of his episodes. Next to the strong story line, we could see , for me the first time, a very appealing AI generated, animation, a celebration of his love for his lady. This movie was a good example for the Creeps team to improve the level of its episodes even more. They should keep on working with mr. Tarik Sadouma.

Photo: The dark night falling on Khani and his companions

Go and witness some secret recordings of the night at instagram.com/art_tours_Amsterdam 

Inspector Casino

Fluo Flash Fun, JP & JP in Kunstruimte 411

Zondag 30 juni, om 16.00 uur opende Fluo Flash Fun, een nieuw project van JP & JP (Jean-Philippe Paumier en Jean-Philippe Rousset) in Kunstruimte 411, in de tentoonstellingsruimte aan de Kinderhuissingel 1 in Haarlem, in gebouw Het Seinwezen. De expo is te zien tot 22 augustus 2024.

Voor meer informatie over de kunstenaars verwijzen wij naar Kunstruimte 411.

Wees welkom op deze tentoonstelling waarbij de kunstenaars nieuwe installaties zullen tonen.

Design: Studio van Amsterdam

Interview met Henk Wijnen en Wim van Sijl

 (Foto: Terra Lases)

Interview met kunstenaars Henk Wijnen en Wim van Sijl over hun projekten, met name over de "Strasse des Friedens". Dit interview werd gedaan voor Articula, het kunstmagazine van Arti et Amicitiae.

De Strasse des Friedens is een project bestaande uit sculpturen-routes over geheel Europa, een idee dat al uit de jaren ´30 stamt. Een zeer actueel thema.

Aan het einde van het interview komt de 9 mei-herinneringsbijeenkomst in Berlijn aan de orde waar zowel stands van Oekraiense als Russische organisaties stonden, vreedzaam zij aan zij, bij het Treptower Monument, dat gebouwd werd ter herinnering van de gevallenen uit de Sovjet-Unie. 9 mei is vergelijkbaar met 4 mei in Nederland, een nationale herinneringsdag voor gevallenen. Dat blijkt ook in Berlijn een grote hoeveelheid bezoekers te trekken. Russen zijn, na de Turken, de een na grootste immigranten-groep in Berlijn.

Interviewer: Hans Kuiper.

Mei 2024, Amsterdam.

Voertaal: Nederlands.

Foto/gif: Hans Kuiper

Radio Neverno · Interview met Henk Wijnen en Wim Van Sijl

Interview met Willem Gorter

 

Hier kunt u luisteren naar een interview met Willem Gorter, tekenaar en fotograaf over zijn werk, loopbaan, inspiraties, galeristen, tekenen en fotografie. 

Van 8 tot en met 19 juli 2024 toont Gorter nieuw werk in de Arti art space, Rokin 112, Amsterdam.

Interviewer: Hans Kuiper.

Inspector Casino · interview Willem Gorter

Foto: Hans Kuiper

The 7 most ridiculous things about KIRAC 28 by Sina Khani

Dear readers, yesterday was the premiere of the highly anticipated new Kirac film. If you missed it, here is a brief summary and an explanation of why it is the worst, dumbest, and most random film I have ever seen.

1 KATE SINHA

The film opens with a male voiceover informing us that there are no subtitles. Then, his girlfriend Kate Sinha patronizes him, telling him that his voiceover (for a different, undisclosed film, presumably) is terrible. So mean. When the voiceover actor asks her why it is terrible, she interrupts him with random gossip fresh off her phone: Sandra (who?) is bored with her life in Canada. It’s too cold there, and her husband is a jerk. “So she is coming to Amsterdam to live with your editor Bram.”

That is literally all we get to see of our once deep, profound, and almost believably intellectual Kate Sinha. What happened to her? Is she okay?

2 SANDRA WHO? 

Wow. A new character in the Kirac family saga is being introduced. Yaaay. Sandra Soliman. Middle Eastern hottie. Great. But is there anything about Sandra that makes her interesting? Let’s find out if this one came with a brain. Let’s check her IQ.

Sandra is single. Sandra is broke. Sandra starts an OnlyFans channel and makes 40 Euros. IQ test failed.

That’s all of Sandra. And we are 10 minutes into the film.

But wait. We know a similar story—the story of Jini van Rooijen aka Jini Jane. Why are they telling it again? What makes Sandra more interesting than Jini? Nothing. Jini at least wasn‘t just a pretty face. She also once put a radish into her asshole, then pulled it out and ate it. Jini had talent. And I miss that. Not even a nipple with this Sandra girl. Not even a bloody goddamn nipple. Nothing. 

3 INTERRUPTIONS

After the voiceover critique, Sandra’s story is abruptly interrupted by a third completely random storyline. We see a seemingly talentless, spoiled Dutch brat begging a reluctant rich man for 50 Euros to make a drawing or direct a theater play, or something like that. It's very unclear, but then again, also very unimportant.

4 THE BRAT

The brat is named Melchior Koch. He is a young, ambitious, self-proclaimed artist, though no one has ever seen any art from him other than some videos about himself and his friends and some drawings of, yes, himself and his friends. And an interview with his friend Michiel Lieuwma that is torturous to watch or even listen to. 

There is no hard proof of his talent, yet somehow, famous art collector and multi-millionaire Philip van den Hurk is interested in him.

I know for a fact that Philip is a cool guy because I have worked with him. He plays my father in the upcoming episode of Creeps From The Middle East. Coming soon...

So, anyways, van den Hurk pays a visit to Melchior Koch’s atelier to find out if he is worth investing in.

Unfortunately for Koch, he does not leave a good impression. He performs a one-man show on his little Ikea carpet and makes a complete fool of himself. And that, my dear reader, is not only deeply, deeply pathetic but also the worst act I have ever witnessed in my life. And I have seen a lot of bad ones. 

At this moment I realised that Melchior Koch had just killed narcissism for me. 

5 THE PLAYWRIGHT

I am not joking; this is how Melchior Koch tries to convince the potential investor. He claims his show is inspired by “Puccini’s opera,” followed by “Da Vinci’s Homo Universalis,” who is then “trapped in a cage as Che Guevara awaiting his death penalty.” But the death penalty is not what we typically think of. No, the death penalty is being fucked in the ass by a volunteer from the audience. What?! What is happening?

No one is going to give you money for this, boy. This operation does not look like it’s built to succeed, and subsequently, it doesn’t. No one likes this show. It’s a shit show, literally and figuratively. There was almost no way to see this coming, except maybe by thinking about it. 

But I guess this counts as a film scene. Why not? 

Kirac has changed. Especially now. Without Tarik Sadouma as main protagonist the fire has gone out.  Sadouma made Kirac controversial. Radical. Almost paradoxical. But necessary. 

He made Philip van den Hurk have to fight to buy his paintings. Philip had to travel to Cairo, Egypt only to see Sadouma’s work and even pay entrance to be allowed in his studio. He had to take a beating in Greece and go through numerous ordeals to get what he wants. In Kirac 28 he is portrayed by the director as just a rich man without personality or mystique. It’s a shame that he has to deal with beggars. 

Here is my prophecy: Kirac 27 will be the death of Kirac. You can quote me on that. 

6 TUNA 

They all agree on one thing: performance is clearly not Melchior Koch's forte. So, to give the impression that they haven’t wasted the potential investor’s time, they try to find something useful for Koch. Here’s another completely random idea: Let him make the soundtrack for the previous film that we have never seen. Kirac 27. The Houellebecq one. Heck yeah. This kid can sing about being broke and having cans of tuna for lunch. So he’s the perfect man for the job.

Melchior Koch is happy with this new job opportunity and smiles like he means it. He takes out his guitar, and they all do a little sing-along and have a great fucking time. It’s cute. I needed this.

Now would be the perfect time for a fade out. But there is no fade out. There is another scene, and it is spectacular. Are you ready?

7 ANAL SEX

Remember the poor voiceover guy from the beginning of the film, whose wife was super mean to him? Well, his name is Stefan Ruitenbeek. And Stefan Ruitenbeek has had enough of that Melchior clown, with his ridiculous theater ideas and his silly performances. 

So he takes him to the park and fucks the shit out of him. 

No, I’m joking. That would actually be impressive. In reality, they only make out like cute little harmless teenagers, and that stands symbolically for this entire film: too safe, boring, insignificant, irrelevant, superficial, forgettable… You get the point. 

And this, dear reader, is the end of Kirac 28. Fade out. Finally. 

Sina Khani is a comedian, filmmaker and our newest guest columnist. Watch his web series ´Creeps from the Middle East HERE.

Kirac 28 : The dream of the young artist

I was invited to the preview of Kirac 28, the latest movie in a long series that started so promising with its critical approach of the established art world, like gallerists on an art fair (the daughter of Paul McCarthy as a manoeuvering galerist), the art collectors and their influence on collection forming of  subsidized musea and the like.

Kirac had a refreshing approach to a domain which knows almost its own rituals, trends, financial interests and nepotistic relation structures. Anybody working professionally in art knows that also there reputations of artists are established by certain gallerists and their sympathetic journalists, writing in world wide dispersed magazines, sometimes conversing in congress with art theorists combining professorships with publishing every now and then a contemplative meta theoretical book critical on latest trends in established art institutions.

Kirac was, at least to me, a refreshing approach to all those processes and people who live by art but are not artists themselves. The army of curators, art historians and the like with their own career interests is big nowadays and these careers tend to spread globally. A succesful curator can move from a small art institution to becoming a curator responsible for the artistic policy of an art fair, a Biennial and so on. These careers are following their own path and are often dependent on trends in public debates. Not art seems to be central, but definitions of curators, in which artists seem to be puppets in a discours battle. Currently, for example, it seems to be very en vogue to appoint non western artistic directors to art institutions in the ongoing wave of anti racism and post colonialism. These directors subsequently start to redefine the art discours in which the art shown becomes instrumentalised for politically correct positions according to the new vocabulary. I liked the focus of Kirac, coming out of a fusion of artists and an art historian, on these kind of processes, demasking agendas maybe not so discernable for the public that is not familiar with these power processes steering reputations and careers in art.

Kirac´s initial movies touched these subjects and made them, at least in the Netherlands, known in the public realm. It became international news when they got in a controversy with famous French writer Michel Houellebecq, who accused them in 2023 in a booklet of around 90 pages of "character assassination", "rape" and the like, while he was lured in playing a role in a erotic movie initiated by Kirac and with one of the actresses swarming around the Kirac team. The switch of institutional critique towards openly luring erotically naive, like Sid Lucassen, or even sophisticated, like Houellebecq, nerd like men, into a having sex with young women on camera was a path which could be described as critique on society and the way of establishing erotic relations in a time of Tinder like social media, if you wanted to give it a noble purpose, where artists try to get to grips with society in 21st century. 

Some would see, though, a switch of Kirac into vulgarity as it didn´t seem to have a deeper reflection on what they were trying to expose now, after their strong anti institutional crusade. Was Houellebecq symptomatic of the moral corruption of famous artists or of art in general, what was the link with the former film in which self proclaimed right wing philosopher Sid Lucassen was exposed to being an inexperienced, socially, rather dumb, man, who was lured into an erotic movie?

When I was called by the main character of the latest film, no 28, Melchior Koch, I didn´t know what to expect, but curiosity drove me towards the theatre the movie was shown in. Koch was waiting outside and checked my credentials. A young handsome man, with a sensitive glance promises at least some youthful energy pouring again into a new episode of the Kirac team. Looking around I discerned some women that were "starring" in some of the former episodes in which, young female sexuality and male wannabe intellectuals collude in a estranging splash of domains, leaving mostly the men behind in utter despair. Sid Lucassen was a victim, and even famous writer Michel Houellebecq a next one.

What could we expect now? Melchior plays himself and tells Stefan Ruitenbeek and Philip van den Hurk, the other male protagonists also of this episode on his challenges as a young, starting and aspiring artist. In the beginning the talent of Melchior Koch is not that clear, is he a musician, an actor, what are his aspirations? Is he only looking for money and in this way tries to use the Kirac team to get to financier van den Hurk?

The plot is not that clear. Van den Hurk and Ruitenbeek might be interesting personalities with a certain sense of humour that try to play the tutor to Koch in the beginning but slowly start to unravel the young Melchior on his true motives, not stopping in softly insulting him and trying to make him feel his dependence.It is at least Koch who shows vulnerability in his insecurity and his lack of knowledge on how to build an artistic career. Well, the two older men might not be the right companions for furthering that career as they have their own agendas.

Melchior turns out to make drawings, after the movie, in which last scene there is a pseudo sexual assault of Ruitenbeek on Koch, a drawing is shown, after pulling up the projection screen. Koch seems to have chosen the wrong partners to enhance and boost his career. When I talk to him afterwards he says he likes drawing, "that is the thing I can do best". But why then play in a movie of the current Kirac team that has no ostensable interest in your drawings or in your endeavours as long as you play a role they can use to, eventually, shock and awe? The departure of former Kirac contributor Tarik Sadouma seems to be felt till today. The pepper content and his confrontational approach seems to be for a big part due to his contribution and now that he left the team, Kirac struggles to be able to keep its former supporters and attain its former level. 

Looking around I see a lot of wannabe sharp looking people, that apparently are still drawn to the Kirac project. Some of them even seem to expect an actor´s career growing out of this. I hope their expectations are not too high, because the Kirac project doesn´t seem to be focused on enhancing any careers except their own, for which we can not even blame them, as they seem to be, financially at least, dependent on the capital of business man van den Hurk, who, as a real potential Macchiavellist, seems to pull the financial strings, as long as the Kirac team delivers and don´t hurt his feelings or business interests. In former episodes, he repeatingly threatens to cut funds in front of the camera, when Ruitenbeek is about to reveal his business dealings.

I would never give a financier such a big acting role as the current Kirac team seems to offer him, Van den Hurk is now even "starring" as one of the main characters. His role in the film is not that exciting. He keeps his tightly self controlled persona up even as an actor and is seldomly really challenged in front of the camera. If Ruitenbeek has something to win, it is by not focusing too much on van den Hurk anymore, to begin with curtailing his now rather dominant role in the movie, how charming he might be as a person, as he seems to be blocking its narrative development. It can be interesting to show the relationship between director and financier in one film, but to repeatingly showing the tension between him and director Ruitenbeek is not adding much. But that might need courage and directly endanger the ongoing production of a, still, seemingly succesful, project. Public funds now also support Kirac. The whole Dutch cultural  establishment was eager to open its arms to a, finally, internationally, known project and even in the US, professional artists follow it, some even producing a sequence of video blogs on it. Not bad for a small Amsterdam based video company. As Dutch public funds eagerly stepped in as co sponsors of the project, even the financial dependence on Van den Hurk might be diminished.

The big waiting is still for the final cut of Kirac 27, the Houellebecq film, that is supposed to make them ´really big´ and probably more independent of van den Hurk. Kirac, dreaming of world fame, finally, on the back of the French writer Houellebecq, who made a fool of himself. Kirac wouldn´t care less. Van den Hurk, as a real business man, shall probably be very happy in having contributed to this success, if it happens, because the Kirac project already seems to have lost momentum...his revenues of the project are less clear, but at least he can say to himself that he contributed to an almost world wide famous video art project...

Hans Kuiper