The beginnings of OPAM (Open Air Museum Drecht Banks Sculpture Park)
date back to 1990.
In that year I met the Finnish minister of culture, Marja-Liisa
Kasurinen and discussed with her my intention to make an exhibition of
Finnish sculpture in Holland. During that same summer I met the sculptor
Kari Huhtamo in Helsinki. We elaborated on the idea. Upon my return home
I contacted various museum directors who might be interested in this
exhibition. But as is often the case with academics, such a venture did
not fit into their making of art history.
When in 1992 the Dutch Sculptors' Association asked me to manage its
secretarial business, I proposed that we organize a presentation of
Finnish art in Holland. It was in this same period that I asked the city
of Zwijndrecht about another idea - whether its water tower could be
used for accommodating a Sculpture Center. It will lose its present
function in the near future. The idea was also discussed with the Drecht
River Banks Project Team, which was working on a proposal for this area.
We talked about organizing exhibitions of sculpture, along the
riverbanks of the six cooperating cities. A permanent sculpture park
could evolve. The team incorporated such an aspect into the Drecht River
Banks Master Plan. The heart of the park would surround the juncture of
the three rivers between Dordrecht, Papendrecht and Zwijndrecht. The
Dutch Sculptors' Association decided to develop the first phase of the
sculpture park here. The association has two hundred members, a number
of them with large sculptures in stock. Also other Dutch sculptors were
invited to submit work for the selection. Queen Beatrix opened the park
in the spring of 1996. It is the beginning of a permanent exhibition of
sculpture that will have a total length of around thirty-five
kilometers. It is the only one of its kind that will be exploited and
owned by the artists themselves.
That, which initially started out to be an exhibition of Finnish art,
resulted in a permanent sculpture park. The first exhibition, therefore,
had to focus on Finland. In 1997 it took place in cooperation with the
Papendrecht Museum of Modern Art, where smaller sculptures as well as
paintings were presented. In 1997 the sculpture park's organization was
transformed into the Open Air Museum Drecht Banks Sculpture Park , in
short OPAM. In the summer of 1999 the OPAM realized a symposium and
exhibition of Bulgarian sculptors. This manifestation was opened by
Queen Beatrix of The Netherlands and the Bulgarian
King Simeon, who was living in Madrid at that time.
Lucien den Arend, initiator/coordinator
documents
web catalogue 1996 initiation of OPAM
web catalogue 1997 outside in
pdf leaflet
1997 outside in
poster 1997 outside in
pdf catalogue 1999 Black
Sea North Sea
design of the documentation
Hans Kentie
Design
