Mattijs Visser

Museum Kunst Palast, Düsseldorf

Artempo, Palazzo Fortuny, Venice

Otto Piene, Nuit Blanche, Paris

ZERO in NY, Sperone Westwater, New York

Artempo, Palazzo Fortuny, Venice

Gutai, Biennale di Venezia, Venice

Mat(tijs) Visser (born 1958, The Hague, Netherlands) is an organiser of art exhibitions and performances. He studied between 1978 and 1983 architecture in Delft, Holland, founded the Troubleyn theatre company in 1986 in Antwerp with Jan Fabre and the Angelos Foundation (1992). He was head of exhibitions for eight years at the Museum Kunst Palast (2001–08) in Düsseldorf and is now founding director of the international ZERO foundation.

Exhibitions

Mattijs Visser has been producing exhibitions and performances since 1984, with artists as Ilya Kabakov, Robert Mapplethorpe, Helmut Newton, Jan Fabre, Robert Wilson, Kimsooja, Wim Delvoye, Laurie Anderson, El Anatsui, Anish Kapoor, Dragset and Elmgreen, Tino Sehgal, Spencer Tunick and Carsten Höller. He organised for the Museum Kunst Palast and the Royal Academy of Arts London classical exhibitions as Bonjour Russia,^[1] masterworks from the four Russian Museums (2007). For Museum Kunst Palast the Late Works by Andy Warhol (2004),^[2] Dubuffet and Art Brut, the travelling show Africa Remix (2005–07), the Caravaggio show (2006) and Diana+Actaeon,^[3] a view on nudity. He curated the exhibition Slow Art / Slow Life (2005) in which contemporary and performance art met with classical art. For the Quadriennale Düsseldorf the international ZERO (2006) show. For the City of Venice he made the concept for the prize-winning exhibition Artempo (2007) ^[4] at the Venetian Palazzo Mariano Fortuny with the collection of Axel Vervoordt and the City of Venice. For the Nuit Blanche in Paris a large SKY-event with floating objects by Otto Piene. For Museum Kunst Palast he curated in 2009 an exhibition with accompanying publication for Marlene Dumas. 2009 he was co-curator for the Moscow Biennale ^[5] and for the Venice Biennale he curated together with Daniel Birnbaum the large Gutai show at the Central Pavilion. His exhibition ZERO in NY at Sperone Westwater ^[6] (2008) was nominated in 2009 by the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum NY as best gallery exhibition of the year 2008. For the ZERO foundation he curated exhibitions with Norbert Kricke, Jean Tinguely at the Tony Cragg Foundation Wupertal, and Jef Verheyen and ZERO friends at the Langen Foundation Neuss. Nul = 0 is the first large exhibition with the international ZERO group after the historical exhibition at the Stedelijk Museum Amsterdam in the sixties, 2010 at the Stedelijk Museum Schiedam. 2013 The Museum of Old and New Art in Tasmania invited him and Jean-Hubert Martin to organise the traveling show "Theater of the World. After receiving prices for best design and lighting, the show traveled from Hobart 2013 to Maison Rouge in Paris.

Publications

• "Theatre of the World" exhibition catalog edited by Jean-Hubert Martin and Mattijs Visser published by the Museum of Old and New Art, with essays by Jean-Hubert Martin, David Walsh, Mattijs Visser ISBN 9780980805840
• "Henk Peeters", exhibition catalog edited by Mattijs Visser and published by the Gemeentemuseum The Hague
• "Nul = 0", exhibition catalog edited by Mattijs Visser and published by the Stedelijk Museum Schiedam / NAI uitgevers Rotterdam 2011, ISBN 978-90-5662-838-3
• “Gutai, painting with time and space”, exhibition catalog edited by Mattijs Visser and published by Museo Cantonale d'Arte Lugano, with essays by Ming Tiampo, Helen Westgeest, Atsuo Yamamoto and Mattijs Visser, Lugano 2010
• "Marlene Dumas / Magnetic Fields", exhibition catalog edited by Mattijs Visser and published by Museum Kunst Palast, Düsseldorf 2009
• “Making Worlds”, exhibition catalog 53rd International Art Exhibition, with essays by Daniel Birnbaum, Paolo Baratta and Mattijs Visser, La Biennale di Venezia 2009, ISBN 9788831796965
• "Bonjour Russland", exhibition catalogue, published by Museum Kunst Palast/Palace Editions, Düsseldorf/St.Petersburg 2007, ISBN 978-3-9809060-8-1
• “ZERO in NY“, exhibition catalog edited by Mattijs Visser, published by the ZERO foundation and Sperone Westwater, New York/Düsseldorf/Ghent 2008, ISBN 978-90-76979-73-1
• “Artempo, Where Time Becomes Art“, exhibition catalog published by Musei Civici Veneziani, with essays by Jean-Hubert Martin, Heinz Norbert Jocks, Massimo Cacciari, Giandomenico Romanelli and Mattijs Visser, MER Paper Kunsthalle Ghent 2007, ISBN 978-90-76979-47-2
• “ZERO, Internationale Künstler Avantgarde“, exhibition catalog published by Museum Kunst Palast and Cantz, with essays by Jean-Hubert Martin, Valerie Hilling, Catherine Millet and Mattijs Visser, Düsseldorf/Ostfildern 2006, ISBN 3-9809060-4-3
• "Dubuffet & Art Brut", exhibition catalog published by La Collection de l'art brut Lausanne and 5Continents, with essays by Jean-Hubert Martin, Lucienne Peiry, Michel Thèvot and Mattijs Visser, Düsseldorf/Lausanne/Milano 2005, ISBN 88-7439-226-5
• “Laurie Anderson, The Record of Time“, exhibition catalog published by Museum Kunst Palast, with essays by Thierry Raspail, Jean-Hubert Martin and Mattijs Visser, Düsseldorf 2003, ISBN 3-9808208-8-2
• "Wim Delvoye, Skatalog", exhibition catalog published by Museum Kunst Palast, edited by Mattijs Visser, Düsseldorf 2002, ISBN 3-9808208-0-7
• "Jan Fabre, The Lime Twig Man", exhibition catalog published by Galerie der Stadt Stuttgart, edited by Johann-Karl Schmidt, Ursula Zeller and Tijs Visser, Stuttgart 1995, ISBN 3-89322-751-2
• ”Robert Mapplethorpe, The Power of Theatrical Madness“ published by the Institute of Contemporary Arts, London, designed and edited by Mattijs Visser, London 1968, ISBN 0-905263-90-1

Membership

• Advisory Committee, Walter Leblanc Foundation, Brussels (2009-)
• Advisory Committee, Inamori Foundation, Kyoto (2008)
• Advisory Committee, Museum of Old and New Art, Hobart (2008)
• Member Steering Committee, Islamic Museum of Modern Art, Doha (2008)
• Member Acquisition Committee, Museum Kunst Palast / Stadt Düsseldorf (2001–2008)
• Advisory Committee, Prins Claus Award 2005 ^[7]
• Member Advisory Board, Fritschy-Prijs 2005
• Member Selection Committee, Biënnale Europea Arti Visive 2003, La Spezia ^[8]
• Member Advisory Board, vzw Janus, Antwerpen (1998–2001)
• Member IKT (sinds 2001)

References

External links

• ZERO foundation
• ZERO group