about

THE ZOLDER MUSEUM

(2011-2014)

 zolder (Dutch)=attic

Dream come true

The Zolder Museum started in 2011 as an artistic research project; I wanted to create an environment which feels like home for art, artists and viewers, to understand the initial human need for artistic creation and, more importantly, what this creation (art) can do; I called myself the director because I wanted to appropriate the power I felt I lacked as an artist within the art world structure. In order to gain deeper understanding for the subject and matter of artistic practice I needed to put myself in a situation through which I can simulate the existing social arrangement the art world is based upon and observe and direct its development and growth.

The attic space (zolder) of approximately 30 m2 was divided between a gallery, office, library, museum shop and storage room. Openings and events in the Zolder Museum used to be directed according to its physical confines; 15 visitors could visit the museum at the same time. My interest was to produce a strong sense of community among local artists based on compassion and mutual interests in creation and art; not a large network of art associates driven by competition. These simple directions produced concentration and focus on art rather than on social event.

The Zolder Museum simultaneously developed in two directions; the development of the museum as an art institution and the development of the museum as my art work. These two intertwined directions affected one another by becoming one unanimous movement. The way I organized the museum was the center of my artistic practice. All arrangements within the Zolder Museum whether artistic, curatorial, organizational or bureaucratic became part of the art work.

The Zolder Museum is a movement of ideas as much as it was the physical space; it is an attitude towards artistic creation and life as much as it was an art institution. As a founder and a director of The Zolder Museum, whose artistic practice included being the director of a self-made museum, I think of the Zolder Museum as a meeting space directed by one continuous thought/question: how do we contribute to the existing social environment seen and defined as reality? Can art effect the betterment of that reality? Can it create the reality? If it can, what kind of reality is necessary to be created? These questions are asked in the silence of my own heart and working on finding out answers is both, part of my professional activity as an artist and a personal life-long journey.

My main interest lies in the creative art, rather than in critical art (what art can create- not what it can criticize). If used properly rather than abused, art can create a space, a field of immanence on which higher state of awareness can occur. Focusing on the potential artistic practice contains and accumulating practical knowledge of ways this potential can be used are my main artistic and personal concerns.

The Zolder Museum started partly because I had a strong need to stay with my work and make a long term project that has the ability to stretch through time in all directions (past, present and future i.e. art history, contemporary art and art of future generation artists). I started to study art history in a personal way, thinking of my art practice as continuation of artistic creation of all those who came before me and laying down a foundation for all those who will come in the future development of art.

Since the very beginning of the Zolder Museum I have been thinking of economy and in what ways can I make the Zolder Museum and myself as an artist and its director financially self-sustainable. For economic and commercial (advertisement) purposes I started The Zolder Museum fashion brand  called THE FASHION OF CHRIST and the Zolder Museum Paper, which were sold in the Zolder Museum and during presentations which take place out of zolder.

The Zolder Museum was a communal project and it was supported by a strong, growing community who feelt the necessity for a small, intimate corner of the art world. The Zolder Museum would not have been possible without a generous moral and advisory support from all artists who exhibited/gave talks in the Zolder Museum since its beginning.

I would like to express my deep gratitude to the form- the museum- for serving its purpose of being my personal joy-ride.

Founder and EX-director of the Zolder Museum: Iva Supic Jankovic

The Zolder Museum program and the UNIVERS(E)ity was funded by: Amsterdam Funds for art AFK