Monday 14 June 2010

Museums for photography in Amsterdam: FOAM and Huis Marseille

[Post published by Liviu on Liviu's [in Netherlands] Blog]

6th of June: dark, cloudy, showers, light rain, rain, never-stopping-rain etc. - you know, the usual Amsterdam weather.


Foam_Fotografiemuseum Amsterdam
Admission: free for Museumkaart holders. Feel free to check the detailed price list.
Of course, there are lockers at the basement.
Pictures are not allowed :)) It's a museum for photography so why should one take pictures of their exhibited pictures, right? Anyway, I consider it a very weird approach for a museum about photography!


My opinion on FOAM

Some highlights of the current exhibitions, as they are linked on front page of the site:
  • Ari Marcopoulos - It might seem familiar [short; long description]: some interesting landscapes, a very cool video with some skateboarders going down an alley at quite a high speed for some 9 minutes (the total length of the video was 10 minutes), people (faces, bodies or both)
  • Paul Graham - a shimmer of possibility [short; long description]: This is supposed to be some sort of art, the artist's intention being to show common people, contract and expand time etc. I didn't understand it.
  • Hans van den Bogaard - Collectie Vrolik [short; long description]: Quite interesting, especially if one is in the medical field. I bet the real Vrolik collection [wikipedia; uva.nl] is really cool and quite a treasure for medical doctors. However, I must note the overwhelming pictures of fetuses... couldn't they find any other pictures of exhibits to show, like the ones showing malformed human skeletons due to diseases? Oh, they also show pictures of fetuses of various animals, too just in case you wanted to ask...
  • Foam_3h: Simon Wald-Lasowski – For your eyes only [short; long description]: I didn't get it, kind of disliked it actually.
I definitely don't understand art with respect to photography...

The building: refurbished in a very artistic/cryptic manner on the inside - it's rather easy to get lost, but that is a feature here, not a bug, since I did feel the need of something to distract me and chase away the boredom.

Hint: climb to the attic, to the FOAM editions shop - forget about the shop, take a look at the view! It's great to see the surrounding buildings from up there!



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Huis Marseille - museum voor fotografie (en: House Marseille - museum for photography)
Admission: free for Museumkaart holders.
Of course, there are lockers at the basement.
Taking pictures of the exhibits is not allowed. However one is allowed to take pictures of the decorations and the architecture of the house, the garden etc. therefore one may take pictures of the house as long as one does not take pictures of the exhibits.

My opinion on Huis Marseille

I didn't understand / see the point of any of the exhibitions there (I don't even remember what the exhibitions were about).
Nothing touched me.
Sorry.

The house however looks cool. The garden is very small.



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Conclusions

Strangely, one may not take pictures of the exhibits in neither of these 2 museums, i.e. FOAM and Huis Marseille. Funny, isn't it? These are museums for photography, but one is not allowed to take pictures :D

Apparently I don't understand art with respect to photography.

I wouldn't recommend any of these 2 museums to ordinary people, i.e. people that lack a strong passion for art and/or photography.

However, I recommend you go to these museums just to see the buildings on the inside. Hey, if you have the Museumkaart it's free, right? Great!

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