Archives: Activiteiten

Frida Kahlo seems to have lived her entire life in defiance of normalcy. In this lecture, Musoke Nawolga wants to show how the younger generation of Amstelveen, Amsterdam and the The Netherlands at large by their own means is doing the same. Pushing boundaries in terms of what it means to be gendered, what it means to be free and finally, what it means to stand for a cause.  

This year and last year we have seen many protests; in The Netherlands, but also in the rest of the World. Black Life Matters, protests against Corona Measures, solidarity protests for Afghanistan and Palestina. Protests for human rights; for oneself and for ‘the other’. In this lecture, the outside voice of protest will be brought into a museum setting. Musoke Nawalga and Mala Badi will therein try and define the process of identity formation through protest.  

Within the Oedipus epos, the story tells that ‘the son’ – or in a more feminist perspective: he/she/they/them – has to kill their father to self-realize. Out with the old and in with an idealized and new realm of being. This kind of bravado was also a driving force during the Mexican Revolution (1910 –1929). It is also present in the new social left political space that the European Youth seems to occupy. With this lecture, Musoke will use found footage, written and recorded history of the Mexican revolution in relation to Frida Kahlo’s identity. Connections will be drawn between the protests of today and the protest of the Mexico Frida Kahlo lived in. What does it mean to be revolutionary? Is there an end-stage where the ideal self in a perfect society reaches a perfect identity, or do we all fade into oblivion and give up on our revolutionary selves when the world doesn’t move to our rhythm? 

Musoke Nawalga
Musoke Nalwoga (1994) was born and raised in Uganda. She is currently working in the Netherlands as a curator and researcher with a focus on contemporary art. She is currently working within Motormond; a non-profit contemporary art gallery in Amstelveen. 

Mala Badi
Mala is a gender non-conforming performer and conceptual artist, writer, political activist and co-founder SEHAQ ( Queer refugee in NL ). Born in Casablanca Morocco and they live in Amsterdam ,their writing and artwork focus on themes of Trans-liberation, exile and decolonization. They use art to dismantle and disrupt systems of oppression, and to give their point of view about history and social change. 

Language: English
Fee: € 5,00 euro’s.
The museum is fully booked for upcoming Sunday. You can therefore buy your lecture ticket seperately from the museum entrance ticket.

Identity and Activism: feminism, (queer) identities, and gender in contemporary art

Friday 17 September, 1pm – 4pm
Language: Dutch and English.
Tickets: €15, excl. admission. Choose in our ticketshop September 17th, timeslot 1pm and the ticket that applies.

The museum invited contemporary artists, thinkers and activists for a panel discussion about their art and social engagement. The role of women in contemporary art practice will be discussed, as well as the question whether art can still be art or is it only about social engagement? With moderator Cathelijne Blok and panelists Aynouk Tan, Naomie Pieter, AiRich and Frida Kahlo, co-founder of the Guerilla Girls, who will be present online.

Programme:
12.45-13.00: Drop-in
13.00-14.45: Panel discussion, Cathelijne Blok with Aynouk Tan, Naomie Pieter, AiRich and Frida Kahlo of Guerrilla Girls
15.00-16.00: guided tours by Cobra museum teachers
From 16.00: drinks in Cobra Café and terrace (refreshments not included in the ticket)

Benefit for Talleres Creativos Mexico Cuernavaca

Film & workshop
12 noon – 5 pm

Partners: Creatieve Projecten Mexico (Nellie Markus) part of child programme WereldOuders in Hilversum (representative of Nuestros Pequeños Hermanos Mexico

The afternoon is free of charge.
(You can buy your admission ticket to the museum here.)

Benefit event to raise funds for the Talleres Creativos Mexico Cuernavaca NPH; creative workshops – art, theatre, dance, music – for young people living in the family house of NPH Cuernavaca, Mexico. And also for underprivileged young people in the neighbourhoods around the family house. Nellie wants these projects to be a permanent part of the family house. The children who live there have been through a lot and these creative projects help them to give these experiences a place.

During the benefit afternoon, we will show a film made by the children of the Family House in Cuernavaca and you can participate in a special workshop. Drawings made by the children of the Family House are also exhibited.

Atelier CoBrA
Buy your ticket here. Limited tickets available. (Choose 26 July and Summerschool)

• Fifth edition of Jonas Ohlsson’s Summerschool @ Cobra Museum
• Special guest artists: Sands Murray Wassink & Mami Wata (aka Rachel Tokromo)
• Four and a half days of drawing with a festive opening with DJ Ike (Bijlmers own James Dean) on the fifth day

For information about the programme of this year, please download HERE Jonas Ohlsson’s letter to all participants.

Practical information

Class of twentytwentyone starts on Monday July 26 at 10am. The program lasts 5 days, everyday from 10am till 5pm (the festive opening on Friday will start at 4pm till 6.30pm. The workshop is in English and Dutch.

Total participation costs are €275 (included are some materials, coffee/tea, entrance to the museum).
You bring your own sketchbook and pencils to the class.

Everyone older than 18 years may join our Class of twentytwentyone, there is no special knowledge required. Participants will receive a schedule and further clues a week prior to the workshop.

If you have any questions, please don’t hesitate and mail to activiteiten@cobra-museum.nl stating “Summerschool”.

About the artists

Jonas Ohlsson (1967, Örebro, Sweden) is an artist, and maker of drawings, installations and objects. He is a composer of music, and writes and performs as Blodfet & DJLonely. His art is as versatile as his artistical practice. Next to music, provocation and humor other important themes in his work are seks, drugs, politics and street culture. Ohlsson’s background in electronic music penetrates his artistic process, where a big part is reserved for intuition and free association. Jonas also teaches at the KABK, and Design Academy in Eindhoven. He also thaught and given workshops in Boston, Rio de Janeiro, Sydney, Los Angeles, Aruba, Xiamen and Geneva.

Mami Wata (aka Rachel Tokromo), who will provide a warm up before we start drawing…
“Free your ass and your mind will follow.”

If drawing is an extension of the hand & the body…
It is also important that you land in your body before
you start drawing…
This work out/warm up/meditation session lands you in your body and sets you up…for GREAT drawings!

MAMI WATA: I AM FEELIN’ MYSELF

For a moment feel the energy as it courses through your body, feel the pulsating strength of it. When you are able to stay in the awareness of this energy, you are basically able to contain it in your being without being dragged around by it. You will notice that this energy has the capacity to provide a sense of power within you, a sense of strength and vitality, a sense of courage, a raw sense of invincibility and “heroism” – no other energy known to humans has the ability to in still such a sense of power…… I am talking about the PUM PUM Power! 🔥Let’s get in touch with our Playful and Fi(e)r(c)e Self through Body Movement! aka Let’s set our PUM PUM on fayah through whining! In this gathering we use Body Movement to have a check-IN with Self and to indulge in I AM FEELIN’ MYSELF energy.

Music on Friday afternoon by DJ Ike (Bijlmer’s own James Dean).

Guest artist and lecturer in 2021

Sands Murray-Wassink (born 1974 Topeka, Kansas, USA; based in Amsterdam since 1994). Favorite quote: “I’m not through gathering courage.” His work is as simple and stripped down as possible. He believes art is about making space for yourself and others in the world.
The work of Murray-Wassink comes directly out of and is in line with feminist art of the last century, especially the 60s, 70s, 80s, 90s…When Sands was 19 the artist Carolee Schneemann was his teacher and this crossing of paths changed his life and developed into a 25 year friendship and lesson in courage. His trinity of influences also includes artists Adrian Piper (rigorousness) and Hannah Wilke (spontaneity). The personal and the domestic are foundational and political for him. His main art materials are relationships, behavior, thoughts, feelings and emotions. Everything visible or physical is a trace…

Sands is a painter, body artist (performance, writing) and perfume collector. He calls what he does deconstructed – embodied – philosophical – theory and is with his work in direct dialogue with artists both living and dead. Sexuality / pleasure, intersectional politics, mental health (Sands is manic-depressive and especially depression is a major theme in his work), and “how to be an artist” in relation to the art market are all themes in his work. Despite years of marginality in the institutional art world, Sands is now finishing a 2 year collaboration with the Amsterdam organization www.ificantdance.org and is at this moment one of a pool of advisers to the Mondrian Fund.

 

Maakplaats on Tour

in Atelier CoBrA
Art & technique workshop
Children aged 10-12 years

Together with the Amstelland Library, the museum is organising a Makey Makey workshop on 14 July: make your own musical instrument. This is an exciting tour and workshop for children aged 10-12 in the Cobra Museum of Modern Art. Inspired by Frida Kahlo’s fruit artwork, you will make a fruit instrument with cardboard and a Makey Makey kit. Purchase your ticket here via the library.

What are we going to do?

The Makey Makey workshop is going on tour to the Cobra Museum of Modern Art. First, participants draw inspiration from Frida Kahlo’s fruit pieces and then make their own music with a Makey Makey.
You can design a fruit instrument using pencil and paper, and then bring it to life by making musical circuits with Makey Makey.

Makey Makey allows you to draw the keys of your instrument on paper. By making circuits you can actually play these keys and surprise your fellow participants with your music. A creative and instructive workshop at the interface between technique and art education.

 

Frida Kahlo Piñata workshop

3 – 5 pm
ages 6 and up

Tickets per person: €20 (including museum admission & surcharge)
Reserve a spot for the whole family here. (choose 6 July & workshop)

Frida Kahlo was born on 6 July. To celebrate her birthday, the Cobra Museum is organizing a festive Frida-piñata workshop developed by Mexican artists.

During the exhibition Frida Kahlo and Diego Rivera: A Love Revolution, Atelier CoBrA organises family workshops for the whole family every Wednesday (3 – 5 pm) and Saturday (11 am – 1 pm), for ages 6 and up. Also during the summer holidays!
For your safety, applicable corona measures are in place during all our workshops.

Workshops until Saturday 26 September 2021.

Tickets per person: €20 (including museum admission & surcharge)
Reserve a spot for the whole family here, including admission. Choose date & workshop.

Wednesdays

Framing Frida
3 – 5 pm

Frida Kahlo made many self-portraits. You can make one too! Get to work in Atelier CoBrA and make your own colourful passe-partout. We will paint in bright old-Mexican colours and make our own flowers, birds and butterflies for decoration. When you’ re finished, it’s time for a fun selfie moment with your frame.

Saturdays

My Deer Self
11 am – 1 pm

Inspired by the Frida Kahlo painting in which she depicted herself as a deer, you will make your own three-dimensional deer. After an art appreciation session with the teacher, you will work together in the studio using cardboard and paint.

 

 

 

 

 

 

We would like to welcome you to the online opening of Frida Kahlo & Diego Rivera: A Love Revolution. Due to the corona restrictions, the program has been adjusted and the Cobra Museum will open its doors in a festive and safe way with a livestream opening.

Talkshow
City Poet of Amstelveen Matthijs den Hollander and guest curator Stefan van Raay will talk with, amongst others, Anja Meulenbelt, Karin Haanappel, Bruno Aguilar and Aynouk Tan. The talk is accompanied by music and dance.

Practical information
The livestream starts at 16:00 and lasts about 45 minutes.
Register here and you will receive a link to the livestream in your inbox.

This is a private event

From 8 to 12 November 2021, the Cobra Museum welcomes students of the Fashion department of the Rietveld Academy and students of the Master Gender Studies of Utrecht University. They will take part in a four-day master class on the artist Claude Cahun, whose work will be on display in the exhibition Under the Skin – Claude Cahun until 9 May 2021. The masterclass will be led and moderated by artists Anouchka Oler and Marni Slater.

Please note that this is a private event. Registration is not possible.

Supported by
The masterclass is sponsored by the Algemeen Nederlands Verbond, the Gerrit Rietveld Academy and Utrecht University.