News from Nowhere
one-day exhibition and salon conversation
(Nelly&) Theo van Doesburg Foundation and Sara Janssen, daughter of performance artist Servie Janssen, invited a handful of carefully selected Amsterdam-based opinion makers, property developers, press and other stakeholders of our foundation to a one-day exhibition and salon conversation called News from Nowhere. The activity programme took place during the Open Monuments Days in Amsterdam.
From historic townhouse to construction site, News from Nowhere is a one-day group show in a private home bringing together alumni of Dutch art academies and works of private art collections as it relates to agrarian society, biology, class mobility, liquidity and water management. The series is named after a publication of the arts & crafts movement; news from nowhere (an epoch of rest). This soft science fiction shows how socialism not only leads to the abolition of private property but also take away the divisions between art, life, and work thus making it a conversation piece and reference point for the exhibition series. In the novel, the narrator falls asleep after returning from a meeting of the socialist league and awakes to find himself in a future society based on common ownership and democratic control of the means of production.
The selected works in the exhibition are grouped by topic and materiality, reimagining the interior with duo presentations spread over different rooms creating an utopic household. After a viewing of the art works in the historic Amsterdam townhouse we will sit down for a concentrated group talk on the development of yet to be realized public art works by upcoming artists and the foundation. Participating artists include Negiste Yesside Johnson, Agustina Woodgate, Martin Toloku, Annee Grøtte Viken, Kitty Maria van Eekeren and Elise Ehry. The 2025 edition of News from Nowhere took place at the home of Sara Janssen in Amsterdam East, featuring works from her father the performance artist Servie Janssen and other works from her collection.
News from Nowhere 2025 is the fourth in a series of exhibitions in private spaces curated by Nadine van den Boscha and Jules van den Langenberg. Previous editions included collectors Philippa van Loon, Casper van der Kruk and amongst other artists Josse Pyl, Wouter Paijmans, Carly Rose Bedford, Bin Koh, Maria Roosen, Vanessa Beecroft, Barbara Visser and Job Koelewijn. For the News from Nowhere exhibition a private home sets the stage for pairings of works from the art collectors’ collection and emerging artists. (Nelly&)Theo van Doesburg Foundation looks forward to working with these artists in public spaces.
Photos by Sander van Wettum.
