Trixie: New Kid on the Block
Visitors to the red-light district north of The Hague’s Hollands Spoor station will be getting a new kind of eye-full in coming months with the formation of the Trixie artists initiative. To juxtapose the scantily clad, gyrating women, passing voyeurs peering through the windows at Scheldestraat 1 will see, amidst the mirror-line walls, an immersive world of art that celebrates and stimulates the neighborhood it is joining.
The Trixie initiative is seeking young artists to share in the formation of a new collaborative programming space. Trixie, which is made possible through a partnership between Stroom and the municipality of The Hague, will offer open studios for 17 artists and a public exhibition area.
Artists of all kinds – not only visual artists, but also writers, filmmakers, scriptwriters, fashion designers and other creative types – who seek an inclusive, cooperative studio environment and who graduated within the last five years are invited to apply.
J&T caught up with a few of the artists already involved to learn more about Trixie and the vision behind it.
Location
Situated between Centraal and Hollands Spoor stations near the center of The Hague is prime location for Trixie. And the proximity to one of The Hague’s red-light districts is an intriguing – and potentially inspiring – prospect for artists already involved in the initiative.
Artist Robin van der Heijden said she is drawn to the inclusive nature of the area. “The location is great, and I think putting artists in a spot like this is a really smart thing to do”, she said. “And personally, I have a link with the red-light thing. My work really deals with sexuality and deviance, so for me, it’s a great spot to practice.”
Vasiliki Giakoumi and Yara Veloso, artists also involved with Trixie, said they are anxious to see how the two communities intermix. “So far, we are a little bit on the fringe of this”, said Giakoumi. “We will see what the interaction will be like when we will actually be in the space.” “It’s something that we’re really open to find out about”, Veloso added, “how we can insert ourselves into this neighborhood and this area, how we can contribute.”
Space
The building itself is large and open, with a long corridor running perpendicular along the back of the space. The front of the building, situated on the street corner, is lined with windows. This area, which was formerly a motor vehicle showroom, will be renovated into the public gallery. The rest of the building is a blank slate, and initiative members will be responsible for shaping it into studio and shared areas.
“We have a building that it’s one big space, so we’ll do everything, from building the actual studios to eventually running a program, organize events, et cetera”, said Veloso.
Inclusion
Veloso said she sees the space being used for traditional gallery activities, such as exhibitions and film screenings, “but also host other types of initiatives that struggle to find a space; perhaps they can find a space here.”
Trixie also hopes to attract artists that may struggle to find a home, as van der Heijden explained. “For a lot of people it’s really hard to get exhibitions or get somewhere at all because generally it’s a small group (of artists) that gets the attention”, she said, “which is perfect and great, but there are a lot of people left behind who are not bad artists, who are also good artists, but they maybe do not fit into what the gallery world wants, or the museum world wants, and we want to fill that gap.”
Inclusion and diversity are important tenets of the initiative. “Our group until now is quite diverse, so we think that’s a strong point, that we have people here that already join forces from around Europe or even further”, said Giakoumi. “So we would like to maintain that character.” “And furthermore”, added artist and initiative member Jonas Raps, “it’s going to be a space that’s open for experiment.”
Collaboration
Since the initiative will be built by its members from the ground up, collaboration will be vital for Trixie to be a success. As such, Trixie invites artists who are willing to be team players to apply for the remaining slots, while keeping in mind that joining the imitative means sharing in both the success and the struggles that inevitably occur when creating a new project.
“And it’s obviously a place where you can work individually in your studio, but it’s important that you keep in mind that we are a group, and we try to organize things together. So not the fun parts, also the bad parts – we try to share everything”, said van der Heijden. “That’s an important thing so it’s not just a studio space.”
“Right now, the concept is that the residents will be here for about three years,” she continued, “and then we’ll rotate the studios, so we’ll make sure that there’s always space for new graduates.”
“Trixie is not supposed to get very old, actually”, added Giakoumi.
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The deadline to apply for Trixie is 23 March 2018.
Interested artists are invited to send a statement of their motivation, along with a CV and visual impression of their work to Remco Osório Lobato: rlobato@stroom.nl
For questions about Trixie, contact: trixiethehague@gmail.com
Studio sizes: +/- 12 m2 to 36 m2
Rent per month: +/- € 128,30 and € 188,30 incl. membership and service costs
Available: 1 April 2018
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