See All This is here to stay!

Tuesday, January 19^th at the Eye in Amsterdam. In the beginning, there was this wild idea. Now, there is See All This: the new art platform collaborating with 16 museums and the RKD. Art lovers gathered together to celebrate the much anticipated launch of See All This. Besides joy, a sense of urgency could be detected: See All This had to happen.

And not just the people at See All This sensed it. Hans van Beek, journalist at the Parool’s ‘Schuim’ – or ‘Foam’ column (that speaks of feasts and parties taking place in the city): ‘I came to this place and thought: ‘Well then, yet another art magazine: who goes to see such a thing? But the place is packed! And it is a rather big deal, managing to unite so many museums and creating such an enormous platform. I can’t imagine that this won’t become a huge hit… And I’m giving an extra ‘star’ to people who will be dancing on the table later!’

Rise above average

Marjan Ruiter, director of the Zeeuws Museum, shares the enthusiasm: ‘I wanted to be part of See All This, because I think us making it together is what helps it rise above your average art magazine. Besides, I confide in Nicole Ex. I know that she can combine accessibility with depth. We saw that much with Hollands Diep.’

Ralph Keuning, director of Museum de Fundatie in Zwolle, shares See All This’ makers’ sense of urgency: ‘It’s about time the Netherlands get a good magazine for art. For a long time, the art world has lived off of a ‘better safe than sorry’ mentality, which makes this a very courageous move. And by the way, it’s great that they have ‘bitterballen’ in here!’

Something that doesn’t exist yet

Eye, January 19 2016

Chris Stolwijk, director of the RKD – the Netherlands Institute for Art History, is one of the fellow initiators of See All This. ‘I believe in See All This’, he says.
‘It is very important to connect museums and to find a contemporary way to bring out the meaning of art to an audience. By offering space to contemporary art and design, while constructing the link to tradition, See All This offers something extra that didn’t exist yet.’

Almost all the directors of the participating museums were captured in a single picture by photographer Robin de Puy. ‘Of course, it had to become a group portrait’ she explains, ‘and in a group portrait you would still want to bring out the individuals. They are obviously all people with a character, characters that I wanted to give a voice to. I think it worked this time!’ You can see the unique picture here. ‘I am still a huge fan of magazines’, De Puy continues. ‘The tangible is still of great value to me, I think it’s a beautiful initiative and I hope that the platform will live a long life, both online and offline.

Maximum accessibility

Hans den Hartog Jager, writer and art historian, contributed to the first edition of See All This and is also curator on the See All This-website. ‘See All This is both substantially maximal and maximally accessible. If you know what I mean,’ he states. ‘See All this is so enthusing that people will be like: this is going to keep me up-to-date and excited.’