Kunstverein is a domestic franchise (Amsterdam, New York, Milan) and functioning curatorial office that offers presentations, lectures, screenings and independent publishing. By creating a critical pool and exploring public-private relationships, Kunstverein reflects upon the manner in which cultural practices are traditionally administered.
Due to its unconventional make-up it allows alternative methods to be considered in terms of presentation, hosting and exhibition making. Significantly and ultimately, Kunstverein aims to contribute in a novel fashion to the cultural scene in Amsterdam, the Netherlands and abroad.
Maxine Kopsa – director of Kunstverein – had her education at the University of Toronto, Canada – cultural studies – and completed a master’s degree at the University of Amsterdam in art history/theory. In the past she worked for ‘Archis, magazine for architecture, city and visual culture’ and as a project and grant advisor for the Dutch Foundation for visual arts, design and archi tecture. From 1999 until 2003 she founded and curated ‘Playstation’, Galerie Fons Welters, Amsterdam.
She has been a guest curator of several exhibitions and projects such as ‘Militant Bourgeois’ at Galerie Juliette Jongma, Amsterdam (with Chris Evans), ‘Jim, Jonathan, Kenny, Frances & Sol’ at the Stedelijk Museum Bureau Amsterdam, ‘In this Colony’ at Fort Vijfhuizen and more recently, ‘Just In Time’ at the Stedelijk Museum, Amsterdam.
She regularly gives lectures and is a guest tutor at different institutes including the Frank Mohr institute in Groningen and De Ateliers in Amsterdam. Her essays are published in arts magazines such as ‘Metropolis M’ and ‘Frieze’ and she has written on various artists for exhibition catalogues. She is associate editor for ‘Metropolis M’, a Dutch arts magazine. Since 2003 she has a theory position at the Werkplaats Typografie.
This interview was made on October the 5th in Amsterdam.
In this video Maxine introduces herself and answer these questions:
How do you develop an editorial project?
Can you tell me about your teaching experience?
In this video:
How do you see the future for the traditional paper book?
What do you think about new devices for reading?
What do you think about open source culture?
Are the boundaries between professions now blurring?
In this video Maxine show some of Kunstverein’s books:
Ginger&Piss #2, Gay
Ray Johnson & Bill Wilson, A Book About A Book About Death