23 Feb 2024 - 5 Jan 2025
Unknown Zeedijk
Collecting the City #4
23 Feb 2024 - 5 Jan 2025
Amsterdam Museum at the AmstelSee now
Collecting the City is an exhibition series in which the Amsterdam Museum, in collaboration with various communities and organizations, “collects” and presents the vibrant city of Amsterdam. Each edition consists of a few mini-expos that together form a single exhibition.
This third edition we present Unknown Zeedijk, which focuses on this old street. To whom does the Zeedijk belong?
Whose street is this?
The Zeedijk is a place where many cultures and backgrounds are represented. The Chinese, Surinamese, and Jewish communities, the queer and jazz scenes, creative young entrepreneurs—all of them feel at home here. Yet here, too, is the ever-present question: Whose street is this, and for how long?
What does the Zeedijk mean to you?
In 2021 and 2022, during the coronavirus pandemic, three trainees from the municipality of Amsterdam started the project Ongekend Zeedijk in collaboration with the Amsterdam Museum. Ravenna Westerhout, Jelmer Peter, and Niel Oedit Doebé spoke to 100 residents, entrepreneurs, and Amsterdammers from Zeedijk and surrounding streets. They posed the question: What does the Zeedijk mean to you and why do you feel connected to it?
Together with artists Susan Kooi, Neil Fortune, Tja Ling Hu, they used these stories to create an exhibition on the Zeedijk and published a book with photos by photographer Eveline Renaud, who has been photographing on the Zeedijk for more than 30 years. Due to the lockdowns, tourists were absent for the first time in years and the street had become quiet.
Crowds are back
Now that crowds are once more returning to Zeedijk, like the rest of the city center, these stories are gaining new significance. For this exhibition we again spoke with residents, business owners, and visitors. Complemented by the previously created artworks and Eveline Renaud's photographs, we bring the Zeedijk to the Amsterdam Museum this year. Here, too, we ask the question: to whom does the Zeedijk belong?
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Collecting the City #4
Until 2025, this is where the Amsterdam Museum will 'collect' and present our vibrant city, in collaboration with various parties and groups in the city. During this period, neighborhood museums, community networks, local artists, and passionate residents will share objects and stories about Amsterdam. Every half year, new contributors are invited to showcase their ideas—whether it’s a fresh perspective on the past, a beautiful or painful moment in the present, or a new vision of the city for the future. The Museum om de Hoek foundation, comprising 23 local museums throughout Amsterdam, is a permanent partner in this endeavor. They have a total of three rooms at their disposal.
Check out the other small exhibitions of Collecting the City #4:
- Museum om de Hoek
- Kazerne Reigersbos
Made possible in part by
The exhibition is made possible by the VSBfonds, Zeedijk and 750 years of Amsterdam.
The Amsterdam Museum is structurally supported by Main Beneficiary Gemeente Amsterdam, Founder VriendenLoterij and Main Partner Education ELJA Foundation.
