Take the Money and Run in de Appel

Take the Money and Run in de Appel
Exhibition: 3rd-12th May 2009, from 2pm to 8pm
Location: Warehouse De Appel
Brouwersgracht 196, Amsterdam

Ann Demeester, director of De Appel and Nicolaus Schafhausen, director of Witte de With jointly present, in collaboration with Christie's Amsterdam: Two in One a benefit auction of more than 100 works by internationally acclaimed contemporary artists to benefit new projects.
The collaboration between de Appel, Witte de With and Christie's is unique within the Netherlands. In addition to the need to keep the institutions vital in a changing socio-economic landscape, it is just as much a call to shake hands at the institutional level on a regular basis.
Moreover, this benefit auction offers a rare retrospective view of Witte de With's and de Appel's ongoing commitment to contemporary art, as the list of artists involved traces the rich, international networks and trajectories forged by both institutions for over three decades.

Take the Money and Run
At the location where Wies Smals initiated de Appel in 1974, thirty artists are reflecting within the context of the auction, upon the relationship between the economic and the symbolic value of art. The artists have been invited to make a new work on A4, in which the changed value system within the art world in these times of financial crisis is being brought up for discussion. After being exhibited, the conceptual works, texts, drawings, promises, understatements, ideas, visions and performances will be part of the Two in One auction. The project is an empathetic critique from within, in which de Appel and the artists assume the simultaneous role of contemporary collaborator and critical inquirer.

For more information: http://www.deappel.nl - http://www.wdw.nl – http://www.christies.com