During the corona outbreak, Merel van Helsdingen opened Nxt Museum, the first museum in the Netherlands to show new media art, in which science, technology and art come together. With the often overwhelming installations she wants to address topics of the future and discuss social themes that influence our interaction with technology. “Here you really get an experience.” Text: Bart-Jan Brouwer
Image: John van Helvert
“I worked at tech companies in London, including Apple, and was always working on technology and progress in a creative environment. I also worked at advertising agency BBH, where we did Twitter campaigns with British Airways and had partnerships with Disney, Rovio and YouTube. And I was one of the first employees at Crowdmix, truly a 'classic Silicon Valley startup' story. They had raised fourteen million pounds and built a new app – a social network for musicians and music lovers, to which you can connect all streaming services. After two years the company went bankrupt. It's a shame that it ended like this, but I learned so much there! Also especially what you should not do as an entrepreneur.”
“Growing too fast, hiring too many people too fast. I think there was a very big mistake there. In no time we went from thirty-five to one hundred and fifty people, even though no money was being made. I've learned those kinds of lessons. And also that you don't have to do everything in-house, but it is better to leave some things to external parties. For example, with Nxt Museum we have partners in the field of technology and ticketing. You don't have to build everything yourself.”
“I went back to the Netherlands, where I spent two more years doing e-commerce and business development at PVH for fashion brands Tommy Hilfiger and Calvin Klein. But in the meantime, I felt the itch to become an entrepreneur myself and set up a museum around digital art. Late 1900, early In 2000, this art form was on the rise, but there was no place for it in the traditional museum world. That is why this movement moved very much towards festivals: Playgrounds, TodaysArt, MUTEK, Burning Man… But it was not yet in one permanent place in a museum.”
“Art was always a hobby of mine. I lived in London for seven years and in Paris for six months. In both cities I went to a museum at least once a week. Eyeopener was an installation by Olafur Eliasson in the Turbine Hall of Tate Modern, The Weather Project. Mirrors hung all over the ceiling and underneath he imitated a sun with hundreds of LED lights. He also made a kind of mist through which the light gave off a soft yellow and orange glow. Sound, image and light made me completely absorbed in that work of art. Not only mentally, but also physically. I thought that was so special. Since then I have started pursuing installation art with digital technology.”
“During the period that I worked for PVH, I worked on the business plan in the evenings. In the meantime, I started doing research and talking to people. Then you think 'the time is not yet right' and the idea is put back on the shelf. When a similar place opened in both New York and Paris and I saw the traffic there, I knew I had to do it now before someone else came up with the idea. I had such a clear idea of what it should be that I quit my job and went for it.”
“Devising the legal form. I soon knew that it had to become a BV. This is fairly unique in the Dutch art world: most museums are a foundation. However, I have learned in tech that if you want to be agile and able to switch and build quickly, it is better not to set up a foundation with all the subsidy applications and approvals that that entails. Also the freedom this brings when it comes to curating the exhibition, for example working with outsider artists, was a decisive factor. Then I had to raise financing. But in order to calculate how much money I needed, I needed a location. That kind of went hand in hand. I looked for locations for over a year; I have seen thirty-five buildings in Amsterdam. I had some conditions. Firstly, the building had to have high ceilings, for optimal use of projectors and maximum experience. Secondly, it had to have sufficient electricity supplies. Funnily enough, an old electricity factory failed because there was not enough power. Thirdly, a lot of noise had to be produced, so a location in a residential area was a no-go. I had some kind of warehouse in mind, preferably in Amsterdam North, because that is the most multicultural creative place in the city. I ended up at this former television studio through someone else.”
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