MaMA 

Highbrow, Lowbrow, Nobrow – MOUSSE! is an exhibition of contemporary Mousse Art produced by MAMA in collaboration with Harlan Levey, Editor in Chief of Modart Europe.

Moussism refers to process as much as movement. It discusses taste, legacy and the line between art and activism to explore creativity and social wellbeing.

Modart was launched in 1999 to document the attitudes and showcase the actions, of emerging artists and their relationship to a language of rebellion. As the last century came to a close, in every cultural sector, civil disobedience was on the rise. Often vandalistic applications of creativity and innovation were evident in the use of technology (hi and lo fi) that saw simultaneous rises in open source platforms, file sharing programs like napster, mobilization of protest groups in the battle for Seattle or the grassroots way in which a new generation of street artists challenged the aesthetics of public space and re-appropriating social architecture.

Modart was not interested in ‘art’ in any professional sense, but rather in art as something that was lived. As a magazine Modart consistently communicated a plea for increased artistic amateurism and participation. Maturing during the same years and with a consistent overlap of artists who would become staples in an international ‘street art scene’, Modart and Showroom MAMA are very natural partners. It was not surprising, that the first critical mention of Mousse Art came in response to the Showroom Mama exhibition, The Adventures of the Great Abnerio, when Time Out Amsterdam quoted Abner Preis to declare that Mousse Art might look like shit, but tastes sweet. Like any sort of shit, Moussism is a movement that speaks of an entire process and eventually of health.