Stedelijk Museum Bureau Amsterdam

Stedelijk Museum Bureau Amsterdam (SMBA) is a project space for contemporary art in Amsterdam, Netherlands. SMBA was founded in 1993 and is part of the Stedelijk Museum Amsterdam. It is the uccessor of Museum Fodor, a platform for young Amsterdam artists that ceased to exist in 1992. The goals of SMBA are to stimulate and signal contemporary art in Amsterdam and to create an international stage for this. SMBA organizes eight to ten solo and group exhibitions annually. The current head of Stedelijk Museum Bureau Amsterdam is Jelle Bouwhuis.

SMBA is situated at Rozenstraat 59 in Amsterdam. Apart from exhibitions other activities such as lectures, debates and (book) presentations are held here. Throughout the city of Amsterdam different projects that were made possible by SMBA take place. Examples of such projects are the residency programme BijlmAIR (in collaboration with Centrum Beeldende Kunst Zuidoost) and Artist in Residence Zuidas. Artists are invited to live and work for six months in one of the residencies and to make a work that reflects on aspects of that part of the city. SMBA is also involved with Stichting Postivisme, a programme foundation that stimulates the production and development of electronic, audiovisual, and performance art and new media.

On the occasion of the tenth anniversary of SMBA '10 Years SMBA, We Show Art' was published. This publication contained SMBA's newsletters until the end of 2003. The SMBA newsletter is published six times a year and gives explanation on current projects. It contains contributions by national and international specialists in the field. Some exhibitions are, apart from the newsletter, accompanied by book publications.

Project 1975 started in 2010 as a two-year project with the intent to explore the relationships between contemporary art and postcolonialism. In this project the role of art and visual culture in the context of colonial practices was explored. The project consisted of multiple exhibitions, seminars, reading groups, articles, and a blog. "1975" refers to the year that Suriname gained independence (the independent Republic of Surinam was founded in 1975) and the Netherlands thus became to some extent "post-colonial". In relation to the project it refers to the unsettled issues that arose from colonialism and the problematic aspects of the term "postcolonialism". The project broadened SMBA's focus, traditionally on artists based in Amsterdam, to include artists and people who were new to the city but wanted to contribute to the artistic and cultural environment. Consequently themes that had not previously been addressed in art institutions in Amsterdam found a place to be discussed at SMBA. Many questions were raised in this project. Artists and critics responded to questions such as "Do colonial mindsets persist in art and in its institutions?".

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