I have just packed our boy James Holden off to the airport for his weekend ride on the Amsterdam-Rotterdam-Wuppertal express: first stop is Pixel at Amsterdam's Trouw club tonight (4th February), which occupies the former newspaper printing warehouse of the Dutch national newspaper Trouw until the end of 2010 as one of those multi-functional restaurant / club / art spaces that the Dutch do so well. The last 300 tickets are still available to buy on the door, so I would get yourself down there early to avoid disappointment:


And in a coincidence that I can only describe as blogworthy, an installation by LA-based artist Richard Wearn (titled simply Trouw) that recently opened at Crisp London has a little more to illuminate about this special party location to the unwitting foreigner (me!). Focusing on the building's sign as the sun sets and the sign is turned on, his 30 minute long dual screen rear projection video (video art - how very Dutch!) is concerned with the traces of utopian mythologies that exist within our urban environment: the word "trouw" means "fidelity", and the newspaper was initially extablished during WWII to counter the Nazi occupation and extermination of Holland's Jewish population.


And just as Wearn is occupied with seeking and highlighting the clues and submerged meanings that exist within the buildings around us, the techno scene too traditionally loves a venue with a bit of history whenever it can get its hands on one, even if the signifigance of that location ends up being lost on a large proportion of their footfall. But thanks to the Wearn installation, James at least has been made aware of the Trouw story in advance of his appearance, lending that little extra spark to proceedings later on tonight...

Labels: Holden

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