The midterm presentation by the last year’s fine arts students of the Royal Academy of Arts (KABK) in The Hague takes place this weekend (today until 6 pm.)
The show is in the former school where Billytown and Stichting Ruimtevaart have settled down recently.
This is clearly a good environment for arts students to present their work.
In spite of the enormous variety of voices, ideas, styles and disciplines they seem to have co-operated well in sharing the space.
That doesn’t mean the different spaces and rooms are ideal; especially the lighting is problematic in many places.
However, as the students are still in a stage of development for their graduation show this kind of improvisatory space may work inspiring.
I especially missed some performances as i always seem to be too early or too late for them, but the whole show can easily be seen in a relatively short time.
Quite a few works are clearly in a state of development, but then any work of art is a development, even if it looks finished.
When i visited yesterday, one of my best experiences was a completely unphotographable work by Yukari Nakamichi in which the concentration of making is transferred very closely to the visitor, although i think the experience is best when entering Nakamichi’s work on your own, without company.
The whole show is an excellent appetiser for next year’s graduation show, and as such shouldn’t be missed.
© Villa Next Door 2018
Content of all photographs courtesy to the artists and the KABK, Den Haag
Bertus Pieters
