Drift Museum, a vast new experiential exhibition space, is coming to Amsterdam, and is set to open in 2025, in Van Gendt Hallen, a renovated listed building. Art duo Drift, composed of Lonneke Gordijn and Ralph Nauta, have collaborated with entrepreneur and owner of the building Eduard Zanen to create the museum.
Architecture firm Braaksma & Roos is at the helm of the new space, which will contain Drift’s performative and large-scale artworks. Since the success of Drift’s 2018 solo exhibition at the Stedelijk Museum, the pair have been keen to create their own space suited to the technologically advanced nature of their work – which spans hovering concrete blocks (Drifter, 2017) and flocking drones (Franchise Freedom saw hundreds of drones take flight over Miami, in 2017, and Rotterdam, in 2020).
Drift Museum founders, Ralph Nauta, Lonneke Gordijn and Eduard Zanen at the site, currently under renovation
‘The Drift Museum is the outcome of everything we have been working towards for the past 17 years,’ the duo say. ‘We hope it will be a place that generates wonder and emotional responses from our visitors and where they feel more connected to our planet and nature.’
The Van Gendt Hallen building is composed of five industrial halls in the centre of Amsterdam, originally designed by architect Dolf van Gendt in 1898. Says Zanen: ‘This listed building fortunately escaped demolition. I see it as my responsibility to preserve this building for the future and to use innovative restoration techniques to transform it into a future-proof, sustainable, and energy-neutral national monument. The Drift Museum, over 8,000 sq m, will be located in two of the halls. The other halls will house sports activities, restaurants, offices and start-ups that stand out in terms of sustainability. This will make it a place where art and technology will come together on over 25,000 sq m of floor space and where new forms of collaboration will emerge, such as this new museum with Drift.’
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