Rotterdam Cultural Histories #6: Video at the Lijnbaancentrum

Rotterdam Cultural Histories #6 highlights a lesser known aspect of the Lijnbaancentrum, namely its video studio. The Lijnbaancentrum (1970 – 1984), led by head of Exhibitions Felix Valk, was an exhibition space of the Rotterdam Arts Foundation (RKS) in the center of Rotterdam. Here various exhibitions were presented on art, image and mass culture, in order to appeal to a large and diverse audience. Moving image was seen as an indispensable medium to do this; therefore, since its launch the Lijnbaancentrum was equipped with a special studio, with modern video equipment for the recording and editing of both monochrome and recently introduced color video.

The video studio did not just offer quality video equipment and expertise freely to international and Dutch artists such as Vito Acconci, Joan Jonas, Nan Hoover, Wim Gijzen, and Jan van Munster for the production of new video works, but also created recordings of performances, educational videos and produced a number of reports on the exhibitions held at the Lijnbaancentrum. A major exhibition in 1973, Video, brought these different applications of the medium together. Besides an overview of video initiatives in the Netherlands, the exhibition presented various forms of the educational application of video, alongside the work of artists such as Dennis Oppenheim and Henk Tas.

Over the years the core of the Lijnbaancentrum video team was formed by Henk Elenga, Frédéric Kappelhof, Wink van Kempen and Erik van Dieren. Rotterdam Cultural Histories #6 gives an impression of their efforts and experiments with the medium of video, based on archival material, photographs and a selection of five videos, which were created in, and thanks to, the video studio of the Lijnbaancentrum.

Rotterdam Cultural Histories is a collaborative project between TENT and Witte de With Center for Contemporary Art that explores our common roots in Rotterdam and articulates meeting points between both of our programs. Rotterdam Cultural Histories is conceived by Defne Ayas (Director of Witte de With) and Mariette Dölle (Artistic Director, TENT).