His voice, he live on. On Thursday 29 December, radio maker, master storyteller, magazine maker, composer, theater maker, ‘mirror’, audio tour pioneer, organiser, gallery owner, business manager of the European Mail-Order House and – above all – Fluxus artist Willem Cornelis de Knight (1939), in Amsterdam.
Willem de Ridder’s intoxicating voice was perhaps his greatest achievement, culminating in the legendary – illegal – audio tour in the Stedelijk Museum in 1997, where he gave adventurous art lovers (the headphones were provided around the corner of the museum, in the Apunto gallery). ) pointed to all kinds of secret works of art that he had installed in the Stedelijk. While other visitors marveled at the highlights in the permanent collection, the headset-clad groups were looking for works that De Ridder had added to the collection, including a dislodged piece of marble: “It may be that the recalcitrant management of the museum removes again and again, but nothing prevents you from putting something small in it. If you have something in your pockets, or in your handbag, that you can afford to miss, put it in there. A small wad or whatever is enough. It makes the artwork stronger, it’s called: Black Hole, and dates from 1995.”
Cheerful disruptive anarchism
Everything that Willem de Ridder stood for – public participation (Jeder Mensch ist ein Künstler, said Beuys), cheerful disruptive anarchism, a healthy dislike of institutions (such as museums) and aversion to art with a capital A – comes together in this audio tour, which an itself can be seen as a work of art.
Because that is what this Fluxus pioneer – a movement with the most famous representatives such as Joseph Beuys, John Cage and Yoko Ono, founded by George Maciunas in 1962, who appointed De Ridder in 1964 as Fluxus representative in Northern Europe, with the words : “You are Fluxus” – together with art brother Wim T. Schippers finally happened again: all great innovators, non-conformists and unorthodox, even the makers of anti-art, eventually end up in the museum domain. Repressive tolerance in the art world, embrace and encapsulate – no one can escape it. De Ridder’s collection of Fluxus art was purchased by the MoMA in New York. The Stedelijk itself also contributed: the premiere of the documentary ‘The disappeared works of art by Willem de Ridder’ – many of De Ridder’s works of art were found to have been removed after the renovation of the Stedelijk – was organized in the museum in 2016.
In De Ridder’s other activities, too, his passion for publicly mixing the everyday and the unusual, the artistic and the banal, always came to the fore. The magazines he invented (or made) – such as Hitweek, Aloha, Suck (‘First European Sexpaper’) – were largely written by readers themselves, and the artwork consisted of cutting and pasting in the best tradition. He was involved in the establishment of Paradiso in Amsterdam, sent thousands of VPRO radio listeners on all kinds of assignments, with unforeseen perils as a result. In recent years he has devoted himself to Ridderradio, ‘created and maintained by many fans’).
De Ridder founded the Mood Engineering Society (MES) in the 1960s, which included well-known composers such as Peter Schat, Misha Mengelberg, Louis Andriessen and Dick Raaymakers, a collective where visual art, theater and music were mixed together, unique before that time. At musical performances by Fluxus artists there was often more to see than to hear: a composition from 1962 by George Brecht is therefore called: ‘Piano Piece No. 1: A vase of flowers on (to) a piano’. In 1964 a ‘Concert for sandwiches’ and a ‘Concert for packing paper’ (both compositions by Wim T. Schippers) were performed in the Kurhaus in The Hague, organized by De Ridder.
Back to art
After he had completed the art academy in 1960, Willem de Ridder decided to stop painting and from then on the ‘Papier Konstellation’ was the focus. In a hilarious black-and-white video (viewable on willemderidder.com) we see a car driving, buried under wads of paper, accompanied by two motorcycles with a sidecar: “Accompanied by a police escort, Willem de Ridder’s Paper Konstellation has December 16, 1963 drove through the center of Amsterdam for some time. The intention is to have this PK, which is the abbreviation of Papieren Konstellation, also run in other cities. By adding a PK to the cityscape, Amsterdam is transformed into one large work of art, in which everyone participates. According to Willem de Ridder.”
De Ridder has – more than his compadre Schippers – acquired a great deal of prestige abroad, and the influence of Fluxus – or perhaps: the combination of absurdism, humor and anarchism – on contemporary artists such as Maurizio Cattelan, Gelitin and Dennis Tyfus is undeniable. The equating of art with everyday life, the ever-present humor (no blessed marriage in combination with art in the Netherlands), his love for a good story, his zest for life and his voice will forever reverberate.
On Monday evening 2 January from 21:00 to 23:00 Willem de Ridder will be given attention on Ridderradio (ridderradio.com), and the listener can participate in the conversation entirely in the style of De Ridder.
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