iNxt MuseumAmsterdam-Noord
Pioneers of Media Art: The First Years of MonteVideo
A group show with LI-MA tracing the first years of MonteVideo, the Netherlands' pioneering video-art gallery, from 1970s electronic imagery to today's immersive artists.
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In one room a hand moves through a long beam of light, and the finger looks like it is writing with it. That's Nan Hoover's Impressions, filmed in 1978, the year MonteVideo opened as the Netherlands' first video-art gallery. Its first show centred on Livinus van de Bundt, who built his own synthesisers to paint with light while his son Jeep made the soundtracks.
The route runs through ten spaces. Archive rooms loop tapes such as an excerpt of Nam June Paik's Global Groove and the Van de Bundts' Moiré, whose kit included a Pong console. In between, today's artists work at room scale. You walk into 4DSOUND's Origin, where sound moves above and through you, then circle five suspended rings of light by Children of the Light.
Nxt says most visitors spend an hour to an hour and a half. Adult tickets are timed, €22.75 to €24.75 by slot, and Fridays and Saturdays run to 22:30. The rooms are dark, with flashing light and loud sound.
Look for
Nan Hoover's Impressions (1978)
Look for a hand passing through a long beam of light, which turns into something solid while the finger writes with it.
Moiré (1975) by Livinus and Jeep van de Bundt
Electronic audio signals generate and distort abstract shapes on screen, made with a Pong console, a tone generator and modified television circuitry.
4DSOUND's Origin
A room built from sound alone, with rainfall and rhythms drifting around and above you, and no single best spot to stand.
Five rings of light in ALL-TOGETHER-NOW
Children of the Light's suspended rings, inspired by the first image of a black hole, cycle apart and briefly align as the light shifts from amber to white.
YONK's Tales of Two
Pair up with another visitor and steer a digital puppet with your movements through four different worlds, with no fixed script.
Good for
- Evening Visits
- Nerding Out
- Teenagers
About 90 min
Skip if
You're sensitive to flashing lights or loud sound: the rooms are dark and use both.
With kids
Nxt welcomes all ages, but the rooms are very dark with flashing lights and loud sound, so keep under-6s close. In Tales of Two, kids can steer a digital puppet with their movements.
Also at Nxt Museum
On now nearby
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Image credits
7
- Pioneers of Media Art: The First Years of MonteVideoPhoto: Maarten Nauw
- Ulrich Seidl – Über das Leben, die Liebe und den TodCourtesy of Eye Filmmuseum
- the ESSENCECourtesy of STRAAT Museum
- Art Is Not a CrimeCourtesy of STRAAT Museum
- Nxt MuseumCourtesy of Nxt Museum
- Eye FilmmuseumSteven Lek, via Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 4.0
- STRAAT MuseumMatthias Süßen, Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 4.0