Street art is booming. Since October 2020, there has even been a museum that focuses entirely on this art form: STRAAT, on the NDSM wharf in Amsterdam North. David Roos (Rotterdam, 1986) is curator and creative director of this largest street art museum in the world. "We want to get rid of the taboo surrounding it. "Text: Bart-Jan Brouwer
Image: John van Helvert
Online Editor: Fleur de JongWhatis your background?
"My background has nothing to do with art: I studied Medicine, then went on to the Master's program in International Health in Berlin. I already had a love for street art. But when I was in Berlin, it really hit me. I saw the art being made. With my little brother, I shared my passion via WhatsApp: "Look what I saw again! He advised me to post the photos I took on Instagram so more people could see them. Playfully, I got better at photography and more proficient in social media. I got more and more followers, which created all kinds of opportunities: I got in touch with artists, a mutual understanding developed with people I didn't know at all. After that year in Berlin, I did another Master's in Rotterdam. On the weekends I went out to seek art. Medicine is nice and all, but art really grabs me. The place where the museum is now located - the former Welding shed on the NDSM shipyard, where ship parts were once welded together - used to be part of the largest flea market in Europe, the IJ-Hallen. A huge building, twice the size of the Tate Modern's Turbine Hall. Owner Peter Hoogerwerf wanted to brighten up the hall with art. With the network I had, he saw me as the right person to help him do that and bring artists to Amsterdam. What started with a few canvases to brighten up the location for the public, grew into the idea of starting a museum around street art. I started here in December 2016. Back then, there was no lighting, no heating, there were cracks in the windows... It was freezing cold, we sat with the team around a gas stove. Very exciting."
And, did you succeed in bringing artists to Amsterdam?
"STRAAT didn't exist yet, it was just a concept. 'We are building the biggest street art museum in the world,' I said, showing the photo of the outside of the building showing the Anne Frank portrait Let me be myself by Eduardo Kobra and a panoramic view of the inside, where a number of works were already hanging. Do you find that interesting? That involved a lot of emailing back and forth before the tickets could be booked. "La Contemplación (2018) by Peruvian artist Entes as the backdrop ear the portrait of the creative director.Could you make ends meet on that?
"On the side, I had a job in the pharmaceutical sector, and later in youth protection, to pay my rent. I had also started an agency with a good friend: we became intermediaries between artists and clients who wanted street art as art on the walls - hotels, companies, restaurants... And I became the manager of artist DOES, which is now also hanging here in the museum. It was my dream to work full-time in street art, but for now I was dependent on those other jobs for income. Until Peter offered me the opportunity to work as a curator and creative director. So I started working full-time for the museum at the beginning of spring 2020. A lot of art had already been created, a beautiful composition in a great building, only the organization was still inadequate. During the project there had been many hick-ups: a leaking roof, disagreements in previous teams, ambiguity about the final destination of the hall... As a result, the overall picture had fallen somewhat out of focus. I cut through knots to begin with, created clarity, introduced structure."
On Oct. 9, 2020, the museum opened with the exhibition Quote from the Street: 150 artworks by 140 artists from 27 different countries. How did this selection come about?
"I try to show a diversity of styles, strive to get the proportions right between male and female artists - during the construction of the museum there was a skew, more men than women, which I am now trying to rectify - and preferably I want all continents to be represented. Currently I still miss African and, to a lesser extent, Asian artists. And the emphasis is more on street art than graffiti; I'm straining hard to give graffiti artists more of a platform."
Also read: 'Simonis: The fish king of Scheveningen'
Read more of the interview with David Roos and find out the difference between graffiti and street art? The spring issue of MASTERS celebrates regained freedom after two years of corona. Its value is underscored by developments in Eastern Europe, where the freedom of an entire people is at stake. We live in a new reality, but we can plan again, eat out, meet people. The world is turning again! Only: which way? Time for new bridges, new initiatives. To which this edition of MASTERS offers inspiration.
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