Walking through Time: Exploring Past, Present and Future Perspectives in Amsterdam

We all do it; out of necessity because your bike is broken, to calm down, to get some fresh air, because you don't want the earth to get warmer, or simply to move your body while calling that one friend abroad. During the pandemic, we started embracing it even more because it was one of the few things we were allowed to safely do at the time. To walk. For many people, it remains an everyday activity that isn’t given much thought. 

We, the student program makers of VOX-POP, wanted to delve deeper into the subject for our first CLOSE-UP– ‘Walking through Time: Exploring Past, Present and Future Perspectives in Amsterdam’. During the evening programme, we want to talk more specifically about walking in Amsterdam. We will walk through time, from the past to the future, and of course we will pause for a moment in the present. 

The program will consist of academics from the UvA and speakers with a more practical relationship to walking and its power to reshape the world around us. We end the evening with Tom, better known as Ommetje met Tom. He knows a lot of fun facts about walking through the capital and you can test your own knowledge through a pub quiz. Would you like to learn more about walking and exploring the city with a different perspective? Come along to this CLOSE-UP evening, December 7 at 19:00 hr in VOX-POP!

Practical information

The program will take place on Thursday, December 7, at VOX-POP, Binnengasthuistraat 9, 1012 ZA Amsterdam. The program will be in both English and Dutch. Walk-in from 19:00, the program will last from 19:30-21:00. Entrance is free, registration is required. Register via the link below!

Contributors

Alice Twemlow

Alice Twemlow was appointed Lector Design at the Royal Academy of Art (KABK) in The Hague in 2017. A design critic, curator and educator, Twemlow is particularly interested in design’s complex interrelations with time and the environment. Her current research focuses on the material manifestations and the meanings of design when it is disposed of and becomes trash. Twemlow has a PhD from the History of Design program run by the Victoria & Albert Museum and Royal College of Art in London, and recently published Sifting the Trash: A History of Design Criticism (MIT Press, 2017).

Gijs & Floor

During the first 2020 lockdown, Gijs and Floor began walking through Amsterdam: the city they’ve lived, worked and partied in for years. Their walks were documented in a weekly Het Parool column, across social media, and in their latest book ‘Amsterdam door! Gijs & Floor’. Both Amsterdammers and art & culture enthusiasts, Gijs is an art historian and organizer of Salon and Queer Currents, and Floor is a historian, heritage consultant and director of Bureau Europa. Lately, their walking projects have taken a particular focus on promoting awareness and dialogue about Amsterdam’s colonial past.

Ommetjemettom

Along the way, I (Tom) always tell my children about the sights of the city. My daughter Josephine asked me, "How am I supposed to remember all this?" I replied, "Write it down!" And so the Instagram account, Ommetjemettom, was born. Why? Our main goal is to teach people to look at all the beauty the city has to offer. In these busy times, we are often too focused on ourselves and our phones and forget to look around us. After all, it becomes a lot more fun to live somewhere when you know what you are actually all a part of.

Esther Mulders

Esther Mulders studied Art History and Archeology at the University of Amsterdam, where she also obtained her PhD. Since 2003, she has been a lecturer in Art History of the Middle Ages at the university. In September 2020, she became a Boekwetenschap (Book Science) fellow at UvA, supported by Stichting Art, Books & Collections.

Our student program makers

Every year, a group of talented students join their forces together at VOX-POP. Through a talent development program, they gain experience as cultural program makers. They learn to curate and produce a program, from editing to production. The 2023-2024 program team consists of Fern, Tessel, Miles, Sara and Pati! Through the link below you will find an overview of the highlights of the student programmakers from past years.