Dreamscapes Exhibition 2010

I once again travelled to Amsterdam for the Dreamscapes Exhibition. This time however, I made things easy on myself and took the train. What a difference it made. I think I’m hooked on train travel.

Early Friday afternoon I arrived at the exhibition hall. The hanging of the artwork was nearing its end and Ella Buzo and Marcel Salome, the organisers were very busy. The exhibition was being installed in the same large hall they had used last time. Its size being very necessary owing to the large volume of artwork. Their exhibitions are some of the largest and best organised Fantastic Art shows I’ve attended. Although, in the Netherlands, “Imaginary Realism” is the favoured term for this sort of art. This year they broadened the scope and included a some artwork bordering on the fringes.

It proved to be a very long day as some of the artists were arriving  only that evening with their artwork. I helped out where I could with the set up.

I occupied myself through out the day photographing and shooting video of the event. Part of my aim in attending was to document the exhibition for my Fantastic Visions project. I’ve begun sorting through the footage and will post a video to YouTube and my website in the near future.

The exhibition was once again in the same large exhibition hall in Amsterdam. It is a truly impressive site to see such a large space filled with high quality artwork. Ella and Marcel put a lot of time and energy into this project to make it what it is. This year they went even further and had large posters of Viktor Safonkin’s artwork advertising the exhibition placed all over town.

Their efforts were well rewarded on the opening day. While it is impressive to see the hall filled with artwork, it is even more impressive to see the same hall filled with people looking at the artwork. Approximately 1000 visitors attended the opening with numerous sales being made. Prominent articles about the exhibition appeared in two major newspapers, the Telegraaf and the Volkskrant.

While not all exhibiting artists did attend, a sizable proportion did. Viktor Safonkin was there with his vice like handshake as well as the very congenial Olivier Zappelli who we kidnapped later that evening on a mystery tour of Amsterdam. I chatted with Siegfried Zademack. We had last met at the Art Imaginär exhibition in Mußbach, Gemany the previous year. Slowly I’m coming to know more of them as I travel about to various exhibitions, but there were still new faces to meet.

At the opening ceremony, Marcel presented the very handsome new edition of the Dreamscapes book. Marcel changed the format and design this year and also adding many more pages to the book. Everybody was thrilled with it. With the larger size, extra pages and of course weight, it feels very substantial and its content is certainly enthralling. It is now one of my favourites in my art book collection.

There were smiles all round as the hall buzzed with activity. Artists were queried about their artwork, photos were taken and autographs given. The exhibition was still busy at closing time and reluctantly, visitors had to be ushered away as there was the long expected dinner to be had. Finally people could rest and relax. It was a time of exchanging email addresses and catalogues.

Come the next day it was work again for Ella and Marcel as they opened the hall again. Where as I boarded the train for a casual return journey to Berlin.

Following is a slide show of photos I shot at the exhibition.

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