Sunday 27 of January, 2013
Loods 6, KNSM Laan 143, 1019 LB Amsterdam
The monumental “Bagagehal” of the former passenger terminal of the Koninklijke Nederlandsche Stoomboot Maatschappij
This was my very first venture into the art fairs world all on my own. Scary! I was very nervous, way beyond my comfort zone, how would my work be received by the public, did I overestimate myself, how would my work compare to the other work there? I was even freaked out about the logistics of getting my work there, unloading it and setting it up.
It was a daylong event, hosted in a huge, rather dark and at some places quite narrow hall at the former passengers terminal.
Paintings and 0ther 2D work were aligned along the walls and the rest in the middle, with the idea the visitors would move in one direction, like in a round about.
I was the first 3D artist at the beginning of a longer, narrow stretch and the visitors had to move in a line of one person to pass between my work and the 2D work. Numerous times the visitors came close enough to bump into my work and I was very preoccupied with how to keep it all safe. On the positive, it was a perfect spot for being seen, as my work was the first in a line of 3D work.
I did not sell anything, but there was a reasonable amount of visitors showing genuine interest in my “Community” and “Grid(B)lock,” enough to make my head turn.
What I did not know at that time is, that the admittance to this fair gave me access to the “Nationale Kunstdagen” that same year and subsequent years. I only learned this in 2015, when I applied for acceptance to the “Nationale Kunstdagen” of that year.