Keeping It Real Art Critics

The survival of Kunstcentrum de Appel is under pressure. A few months ago Kate Sinha and I visited de Appel and made this video. We criticize the exhibition and reflect on the artistic policy of de Appel. We show how the ideology and aesthetics of the art on display can be traced directly back to the economic position of de Appel. In view of recent developments, this film is again relevant, especially since no one really cares about the content aspect until now of this discussion. Is De Appel worth a visit? If not, why not and why? The art we are discussing is by Saskia Noor van Imhoff and Alicja Kwade. The video was taken on March 29, 2016.

Meet the second installment of 'Keeping It Real Art Critics', the experimental cultural perspective I'm developing with Kate Sinha. An episode about integrity, ambition and good intentions. Filmmaker Isabel Lamberti and producer Steven Rubinstein are scouting for 3 girls who are into sex a lot. They go looking for black girls in the Bijlmer. We start asking questions and criticizing. Steven and Isabel are upset about the way in which this dialectic takes shape. Suddenly they become the subject of consideration, instead of the girls they are scouting. An extremely moralistic episode, in which we make a statement about making fiction film and documentary. The project to which our criticism relates is 'Thelma', supported by the Film Fund. Director: Isabel Lamberti, Screenplay: Lenina Ungari & Isabel Lamberti, Producer: IJswater Films

About the psychology of the art subsidy discussion. Artists find it difficult to cope with their position and get confused.

We take apart and review the morality and psychology in the work of artists Jon Rafman and Anna Uddenberg, who are exhibiting in the Stedelijk Museum Amsterdam. It's a critical psychological portrait of a certain artistic and ideological tendency. This tendency is an example of how people generalise in order to see meaning, drama, depth and to be interesting. We talk about Marx and alienation and the idea that the world needs to be saved from this. It's about how people, ideologies, art-movements make themselves 'relevant' by identifying root causes for problems in society. Notwithstanding that these ideas are just fantasies. We also suggest that contemporary artists are more regressive and conservative then ever. Pointing at sex and freedom and unbounded individualism as the source of our problems, they behave like a kind of Grand Inquisitor by Fyodor Dostoyevsky, who is concerned with how to manipulate and discipline a horrible, irresponsible, weak mass of people.

A gallerist cries under artistic pressure.

About an artist who dedicates his art to help the underprivileged black people in Africa and has this fantasy that activist sacrificial art is the only direction left for our western culture.

KIRAC is doing a couple of episodes on Documenta art festival in Athens. In this episode we stumble upon the Sami Flag project. Which exemplifies a very typical mix of modernistic cliches and political cliches, very common for art events such as Documenta. What is Documenta? Documenta is a German art festival held in the little town of Kassel.They started it to put Germany back on the Avantgarde scene after the Nazi Germany. Now they are expanding to Athens. The theme, or working title of this Documenta is 'Learning from Athens'. This theme was inspired by the Greek crisis and the dominant role of Germany in this. Greece is being crushed by European politics, IMF, the banks, and this Documenta is supposed to be a critical reflection on the situation. In this specific episode we talk about the work of Synnøve Persen. Who was invited to show her Sami flag project.

Our famous film about the notorious art-dealer.

Kate Sinha about female sexuality in the #metoo era. About Harvey Weinstein and Léa Seydoux.

This film is applauded by KIRAC-fans for it’s comparison between Van Gogh and Mondriaan.

An ode to the sexual power of neo-marxism.

Bert Kreuk is an art collector who explains conceptual art in his book.

We might lose our Netflix-deal after Kate called someone a spoiled bitch.

About a migrant child with an identity crisis

Shit literally hits the fan.

Team KIRAC hopes to extract some money from King Philip, a millionaire art collector. But Philip lures them into a strange affair with international star curator Charles Esche.

Artist Stefan Ruitenbeek and Collector Philip van den Hurk reflect upon a dark moment in their relationship.

Join Team-KIRAC on a dark trip to Cairo, as they try to transform King Philip into the ultimate maecenas.

A saga full of frenzy, hostility, love, sorrow and pleasure. The film begins in Cairo, in Tariks cabaret, where Tarik puts on a magnificent show for art-collector Philip, leaving him starstruck. The film ends in conflict back in Holland, where Stefan tries to blackmail Philip into buying Tariks paintings.

In KIRAC’s 20th film, you can see how artist Jordan Wolfson is shocked when billionaire Rob Defares comes walking into his exhibition wearing a fur coat. Is the billionaire there to buy something, or just to shock the hell out of Jordan Wolfson? Jordan is an activist who wouldn’t pass up an opportunity to save the life of an animal. In this film, you can see how he adapts to the situation. Team-KIRAC (Tarik Sadouma, Kate Sinha and Stefan Ruitenbeek) identifies the dawn of a glorious and dangerous paradigm shift, shimmering beyond the horizon of this comedy of manners.

Buse, a teenager from Istanbul, is an art student at the Gerrit Rietveld Academy in Amsterdam. She wants to make a movie about her experiences at the school but she is afraid she will be kicked out for making a critical film about the world-renowned institution. KIRAC advises Buse to make the most of the decline of this institution and the bleak future it offers her.

Oscar van der Kroon works for Dutch public television. He wants to do Avant Garde Television but his mediocrity is holding him back. At the end of the Episode, he promises to do some introspection.

In this film, you will witness the unlikely endeavour of right-wing conservative Sid Lukkassen who chivalrously tries to win the heart of lefty student Jini. When he enters her boudoir in Zandvoort, he gets caught up in a literary, enchanting and unpredictable world, in which Jini starts to undress him, surrounded by classical music and grapes. While Sid tries his best to connect to Jini, he realises that the woman has set him up for humiliation. How will Sid save himself from this situation? Will he, despite everything, find love?

This film was commissioned by KIOSK / KASK. An art school in Ghent, Belgium. They cancelled one day before the premiere. It is now available for the public. It’s a film about the desires and illusions of young art students coming of age in a world that is saying goodbye to the enlightenment and its values; about the cheerful anticipation with which they face the possibilities of a setting sun. This film features various canceled youths; they are no longer welcome at their school, academy or social environment because of accusations of sexually transgressive behaviour.

This episode is the first of many about the bullshit surrounding a million euro art deal. And the desire of three men to make a film about it

Art is a product of abundance! Episode 26 begins where episode 25 left us, and shows the dramatic attempts of art dealer Paul van Esch to shatter his financial ceiling and escape the boredom of the art world.

Sandra has fled cold Toronto. She thought she could be a loving wife, but when the lockdowns forced her to spend one hundred percent of her time with her husband, she found it so awful that the only option was to run away. Her first destination is Amsterdam. The Dutch are impressed by her worldly charms, so they start filming her. In the eye of my camera, her newfound freedom appears less harsh. Also, Melchior wants to join the KIRAC collective, and our patron Philip seems to like him – a lot.