[spectre] Alex Adriaansens (1953-2018)

[yukiko shikata]

*A*lex was open, warm, and experimental in mind and attitude,
*L*et me be  independent and collaborative.
*E*ncouraged and inspired me a lot.
*X*xx...my deepest condolences...

Yukiko Shikata



> On 31/12/2018 07:13, Andreas Broeckmann wrote:
> > Alex Adriaansens, artist, curator and long-time director of the
> > Rotterdam-based V2_Organisation, V2_ Lab for the Unstable Media, passed
> > away yesterday, 30 December 2018, after several years of struggling with
> > cancer. For over thirty-five years, Alex was active in the field of art
> > and technology, as an initiator, an organiser, and as an advisor. His
> > influence on many of us was enormous. He projected an amazing,
> > passionate engagement with art and with the ways in which new
> > technologies impact society. Perhaps even more importantly, he was one
> > of the most gentle, friendly and optimistic people I can think of. This
> > optimism, coupled with a clear vision and a strong sense of urgency for
> > what needs to be done, fuelled his work and put the V2_ Organisation,
> > and many of the projects that Alex was involved in, among the most
> > influential initiatives in new media art since the 1980s. Now he leaves
> > behind his wife, Angelica, and will be missed immensely by many others,
> > as a friend and colleague, mentor, and as one of the guiding spirits of
> > a whole international scene.
> >
> > Alex Adriaansens was born in 1953 (on Valentine's Day) and studied at
> > the art academy in Den Bosch from 1972 to 1976. In 1981, he, together
> > with Joke Brouwer and a whole group of artists and activists, set up the
> > artist collective "V2" which became, in 1986, the V2_Organisation,
> > Institute for the Unstable Media. The organisation grew and moved to
> > Rotterdam in 1994, developing a regular program of exhibition,
> > performance, festival, workshop and publication activities, which it
> > continues after Alex, due to his declining health, passed on the
> > directorship to Michel van Dartel last summer.
> >
> > In the course of more than three decades, many of the now hotly debated
> > topics of digital culture – from interactivity and virtual reality, to
> > social media and artificial intelligence – were pioneered in
> > exhibitions, conferences and book publications by V2_, under the
> > directorship of Alex Adriaansens and Joke Brouwer. Alex was not an
> > egocentric leader, but a deeply social, collaborative animal who, rather
> > than insisting on this or that, stimulated things to evolve and to
> > happen. This turned all the projects he was involved in into permeable
> > platforms in which he would collaborate to achieve the best possible
> > results, piloting ideas and concepts which would often reach the
> > mainstream media and art circles only years later. The 1987 "Manifesto
> > for the Unstable Media" remains a crucial document of the critical
> > avantgarde spirit that infused the early years, insisting on the
> > necessity to engage the new electronic and digital technologies both
> > aesthetically and politically.
> >
> > For Alex, whatever the situation was, there was no other way than to go
> > on, to imagine the next step, to push ahead. In this moment of loss and
> > sadness, there is nothing better to do in his spirit. Pause, mourn, and
> > press on.
> >
> > Andreas Broeckmann
> >
> >
> > (There will probably be a funerary service on 7 January 2019 at 11:00
> > hrs in Rotterdam.)
> > ______________________________________________
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>
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