MaMA 

With a typical copy-‘n-paste technique they ‘verraggen’ (a neologism partly suggesting the idea of tearing up) and manipulate contemporary media and all other expressions they can find. Nothing is spared for the reader. Themes such as impotence, violence (pointless or not), documentaries about dark times, adverts for pimple or hair loss medications are combined with drawings or anticipatory comments. The meaning of the original material is completely removed from context. The reader is continually put on a wrong footing. It is easy to dismiss Antistrot’s work as pubescent collages. Antistrot is better seen at in-your-face satire.

The makers jeer at the patronising tone of the ruling regime and the mass media use identify their antimedia with the absurdity of life itself. Antistrot consists of 5 members.

Robbie Coenen & Antonio Consilvio – Virtuele Prostitute
Hot on the heels of the first virtual newsreader, Ananova, who was first seen in October 2000, multimedia artists Robbie Coenen and Antonio Consilvio, present the first virtual prostitute, Floortje. It seems that the times when Witte de With was a red-light district have returned. Those incidentally passing Showroom MAMA will be signaled by Floortje knocking on the window (the way in which sex workers indicate that they are free for ‘business’ in the legalised sex work areas in the Netherlands) After which she gives a price for her digital wares. The question is whether pixels and bytes are better than flesh and blood. But one thing is certain: the world’s oldest profession is fully up to date.

Jiří Černický
Jiří Černický (b. Usti nad Labem, 1966) is a successful Czech artist from the north of the country. He received the prestigious Chalupecky Award in 1998. Although he lives and works in Prague, the sphere of the desolate and environmentally damaged area that he comes from is visible in his work. In his oeuvre, the possible transformations of humans in the nearby future are central. According to Černický, the pollution of flora and fauna could just as implicitly follow through with the physical and spiritual development for humankind itself.
During the Hard Pop exhibition, Černický showed works representing an image of the possible mutations of humanity in the near future under the title, ‘We Had Better Worry if Some of Our Ideas of Progress are Actually Realised’. With the absurd and ironic humour of his famous compatriot Kafka and with the help of digital maniopulation, he has created three macabre, kitschy images with a high ‘n funky Sci Fi flavour.

Snotnose – Customised Skateboards
The artists collective, Snotnose, have shown that skateculture is one of the most creative youth cultures. Under this name, artist Andy Metscher and a team of 10 creative streetrats gathered around him wanted to bring change to the current situation within skate culture.

Snotnose is also then a Rotterdam reaction against competition skating and the ills of the skate industry that makes millions each year. The commercial businesses do concern themselves with skate boarding as an individual expression; only the dollar counts. Competition skating is part of their marketing strategy to rake in the cash. According to Snotnose, this threatens to drive the soul out of skating. Companies that wish to stay true to the essence of skating need to be set up and run by the skaters themselves and not businessmen.

The professional competition skater who can carry out lots of tricks during a fixed time can rely on the support of skate companies. Money, clothing, boards; talent is sponsored to the hilt. Nothing is left out. Now that the clamour is being made to ‘promote’ skating to an Olympic sport, Snotnose holds firm in its position: skating is no competition it’s about expressing yourself freely.

Skating is certainly common denominator, but Snotnose is more than that. After three years of construction, a 400m2 underground skate park has been completed at Katshoek (under the Rotterdam- The Hague rail tracks).

Following on from that is a product line of customised skateboards has been started. Under the motto, ‘Crappy as$ Fuck’ Snotnose place a unique design on the underside of each board. Not two boards are the same. As with graffiti, these boards are a form of Urban art, underground art on the streets and in public spaces. Snotnose stimulates everyone who wants wants a positive life experience through skating through sport and art.

To give extra power to the statement of Snotnose, a skate ramp was built, half inside and half outside the showroom. Sports equipment as a functionless object.

M.C. de Waal: Global Citizen Project: From Elvis to Christ
Director and artist, Martin C. de Waal tests the limits of his own personality in his work. With plastic surgery and the latest date digital manipulation techniques, he transforms his face into a universal face, a quest for the face of the global citizen. ‘Global Citizen’ is thus the twenty-first century version of the Dűrer quotation that says that perfection in form and beauty is the sum of what lies locked in all people. In earlier projects her enlarged his lips with collagen injections and had his forehead stretched free of wrinkles. In the future he plans to have his eyes altered manga-style and is toying with the idea of having hundreds of freckles tattooed onto his face.

As a photographic model he is fascinated by the communication possibilities of his outward appearance. He places the changes to his own body ( for example the collagen injections into his lips) into images –before and after- and turns these into photos and video. These are shown on his website and in galleries. His work which exists in balances between actually and artifice, in the border regions between fashion and photography, art and hype, raises questions and confusion.

During the Hard Pop exhibition, MAMA showed four photo installations from the Global Citizen project. The video installation, ‘The Future of Karel’ was also shown, a reworking on an interview by Karel van der Graaf in which Martin dubbed over the soundtrack with a Japanese translation of the conversation.