A  classical concert with Peruvian flavors. The beautiful theater of the American School of The Hague will be the stage for a unique concert that combines three local youth orchestras with a group of guest musicians from Peru. The program holds an eclectic mix of classical compositions alternated with Peruvian folk songs and rhythms of the Andes. Close to one hundred musicians will take you on a fantastic journey from Bach to El Condor Pasa, with surprising contrasts at every turn.  Ambassador of Peru Carlos Herrera will open the concert with a special welcome. Admission is free.            

On the picture Urs Fischer, Undigested Sunset. SKELETON The body’s armature in contemporary sculpture 30 October 2015 to 7 February 2016.   This autumn, Museum Beelden aan Zee presents an exhibition exploring the role of the skeleton in contemporary sculpture. SKELETON is the result of close collaboration with collector Bert Kreuk, whose substantial contribution involves numerous loaned works. To mark the exhibition, he has also gifted Matthew Day Jackson’s Terminal Velocity (2008) to the museum. Throughout the years, humankind has remained the most common subject of sculpture (and art in general). Nowadays, artists often use the human body to make specific intrinsic commentary, the body becomes the conveyor of emotional life and of social and political conditions.

This exhibition examines the meaning of the skeleton in contemporary art. What remains of the notion of memento mori? The skeleton has proven to be an artistic form that has more than stood the test of time, but how has this concept changed over the years? The exhibition includes work by Matthew Day Jackson, Urs Fischer, Carolein Smit and many others. 17th-century still lifes abound with bones and parts of skeletons, referencing the transience and finite nature of life. They are a warning to the unsuspecting viewer, who looks upon a seemingly arbitrary composition of recently snuffed candles, skulls, hollowed out fruits, closed books and empty rummers. The skeleton and the skull have moral implications; reminding the viewer of their mortality, to live life in the correct manner and of the fact that in the hour of death, everyone is equal. The contemporary skeleton has a more modern manifestation; as an X-ray, sitting on a couch or sprawled on a wrecked car bonnet. Dutch sculptor Caspar Berger (1965) is an essential element of the exhibition – in his current project, the artist uses little other than his own skeleton, creating ‘self-portraits’ based on a 3D scan of his skeleton. Berger produces his own relics, including a 3D print of his humerus, cast in gold. One of Matthew Day Jackson’s (1974) sculptures, Terminal Velocity (2008), initially appears to be an odd collage of wooden limbs, somewhat carelessly strewn on a twisted sheet of metal. But on closer inspection, one must draw another conclusion: these forms came to be as the result of the fatal fall of an unlucky soul from a rooftop onto the bonnet of a car parked below. The work raises the question: to whom does this body belong? In his sculpture Undigested Sunset (2001-2002), Urs Fisher (1973) places a skeleton on the couch. The skeleton was once a living person, kicking back in front of the television. The artist appears to be warning us against the inert world of meaninglessness. The collection of Bert Kreuk forms the heart of the exhibition, with approximately five monumental works from his collection being loaned to the museum. Museum Beelden aan Zee has developed a close relationship with the collector in recent years, and has been the grateful recipient of several gifts from his collection: Senza Titolo (2012) by Italian artist Nicola Martini, Fibre and bonds (2013) by American artist Valerie Snobeck and Terminal Velocity (2008) by Matthew Day Jackson – one of the key works in the SKELETONS exhibition. The gifts from the Bert Kreuk Collection involve a total sum of approximately €400,000.

ICC to open its doors for The Hague International Day on 20 September 2015 On Sunday, 20 September 2015, from 11:00 to 17:00, the International Criminal Court (ICC) will open its Headquarters to the public in The Hague (Netherlands) for the annual The Hague International Day. This year’s open day event is the last one to take place in the Court’s temporary premises as the ICC will be relocating to its permanent buildings at the end of this year. Interested visitors will have the opportunity to engage with ICC representatives on a wide range of issues related to the Court’s role in the global fight against impunity, including its ongoing work, mandate, or investigations and cases. This interactive programme will take place in the Court’s Public Galleries and each session will last approximately 45 minutes. Registration is possible via the website of The Hague International Day at: http://www.justpeacethehague.com/en/#!/event/registration/ until we are fully booked.   The Hague International Day is organized on a yearly basis by the Municipality of The Hague – the Court’s host city – and gives the public the opportunity to learn more about the functioning and aims of the various international institutions and non-governmental organisations based in the city. The Hague has been hosting the ICC since 2002. The city and its surrounding area are now home to 160 international organisations.   The ICC is the first permanent, treaty-based, international criminal court established to help end impunity for the perpetrators of the most serious crimes of concern to the international community, namely war crimes, crimes against humanity and genocide.

9 October 2015 – 31 January 2016, Amstelveen. The Cobra Museum in Amstelveen, near Amsterdam, will present “Miró & CoBrA. Experimental Play”. This is the first mayor exhibition by Spanish artist Joan Miró (1893-1983) in the Netherlands in the last 60 years. The work in the exhibition demonstrates Miró’s radical liberation from form, gesture and material, and shows a striking correspondence to the works of CoBrA members, an international group of post war artists (1948-1951). The exhibition includes more than 80 works by Joan Miró and 60 works by various Cobra artists including Karel Appel, Asger Jorn, Constant and Pierre Alechinsky. A central part of the exhibition is the reconstruction of Miró’s studio in Mallorca, consisting of more than 40 original objects and shown for the first time on such a large scale. This part of the exhibition has been made possible thanks to the collaboration of the Fundació Pilar i Joan Miró in Mallorca. There are also loans of Miro’s work from international museums such as the Reina Sofia Museum in Madrid, New York’s Guggenheim Museum and the Scottish National Gallery of Modern Art.

“Miró & CoBrA. Experimental Play” is on show from 9 October 2015 to 31 January 2016. 

More information can be found at the website of the Cobra Museum.

“Portrait of Don Diego de Acedo” by Velázquez will be exhibited in The Hague. 1 October – 29 November 2015 Mauritshuis / Prince William V Gallery   The Mauritshuis presents in the Prince William V Gallery in The Hague a masterpiece of a painter whose work is not usually on display in The Netherlands. After Caravaggio and Titian in the previous two years, the renowned Spanish painter, Diego Velázquez, will be featured this year with his painting, “Portrait of Don Diego de Acedo”, loan from the Prado Museum in Madrid. This masterpiece will be presented from 1 October through 29 November 2015. As court painter to Spanish king Philip IV, Velázquez produced a great number of portraits. His series of portraits of little people and court jesters is extraordinary, and this portrait of Diego de Acedo is a beautiful example of this group of paintings. More information can be found at the website of The Prince William V Gallery.