In April of last year De Appel hosted the project ‘Radio Days’ in conclusion of the educational programme for young curators. The decision to leave almost the entire exhibition space on the Nieuwe Spiegelstraat empty and not show any art objects met with a certain amount of resistance. Space is meant to be used, this looks too much like institutional critique. Within the scheme of Radio Days it was a logical choice, however: the project offered a rich programme featuring artists, curators, programmers, DJs and musicians that took place entirely on the air and the web site of Radio Days (www.radiodays.org). With an often pleasantly improvised tone, the project investigated the discursive scope of contemporary art and created an open platform for research and the production and presentation of art.
The alternative radio culture in Amsterdam, with its pirate broadcasters such as Patapoe and De Vrije Keyser, has a limited number of platforms for radio experimentation and audio-art productions. Radio 100, Amsterdam's largest ‘free’ radio station, went off the air after all of the FM frequencies in the Netherlands were auctioned off to the highest bidder in February 2003. This put an end to a great number of experimental radio programmes. Nowadays Radio 100 is broadcasting through the (still democratic) Internet, which with the advent of WiFi and new telephone applications will reach an ever-growing audience – and thus gradually take the place of radio-over-the-airwaves.
Inspired by the quality and success of Radio Days and the gap in the Amsterdam ‘art radio’ scene, Roy Speetjens, a student at the Rietveld Academy, decided to start Radio Rietveld. As the name suggests, the station is based at the academy, where by now a broad range of radio programmes is being made and broadcast through its web site, www.radiorietveld.nl. Radio Rietveld operates on a small scale as yet; editorial and technical affairs are handled by Speetjens and a few staff members. The station currently transmits live programmes five days a week, some four hours a day; in addition, most programmes can be accessed through an online archive.
With its highly democratic programming and raw, subversive attitude, the station at present can be compared somewhat to the small pirate broadcasters existing in Amsterdam. Many of the programmes concentrate on the production of live audio work and music produced by Rietveld students and graduates, from Andre Avelãs’ gritty electronic noise to the guitar punk of Nee Niet Niels. Speetjens strives for a dynamic balance between ‘classic’ DJ sets, production-based programmes and programmes of a more reflective, informative nature that investigate the possibilities of radio as an exhibition and presentation medium within a more general framework of art.
Besides quality artistic output, the generation of community feeling is an important principle, beginning with the various departments at the art academy itself and extending to the local context of Amsterdam and further to the international artistic community. The more official art and media producers, such as Resonance FM in London and CAC TV in Vilnius, are obvious reference points in this respect. Although Speetjens has now graduated, he will stay at Radio Rietveld for a while to supervise its growth – the web site’s bandwidth is soon to be drastically increased and there are plans for forming a programme committee in collaboration with the School for Journalism in Utrecht.
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