Krijn de Koning - Church warden

With a spectacular installation of work by the Dutch artist Krijn de Koning (born in 1963) from 27 August to 24 October, De Nieuwe Kerk is acquiring an extra storey and a new dimension. As the first ‘church warden’(*) of De Nieuwe Kerk, De Koning was asked to produce a temporary artwork for the museum. He drew his inspiration from the building itself and the church’s history, and erected a gigantic installation that takes up much of the interior. The most important section is a floor measuring 800 square metres in the middle of the church, at a height of 4.5 metres, which visitors can walk across. The public is actively involved in the reality surrounding the artwork: people can walk around at the height of the stained-glass windows, which places the architecture and ornamentation in a totally new perspective. In the middle of the floor is ‘an artwork within an artwork’, a sunken area with small rooms into which the visitor can descend and focus on himself and the space.

Krijn de Koning comments: ‘The Nieuwe Kerk is an extraordinary, unique building. Not only is it a ‘house of God’, which injects special ceremonial and historic significance into its formal features, but for the past thirty years it has been used as a venue for exhibitions, with offices, storage, and a restaurant. First and foremost, however − and this aspect is timeless − it is a public meeting-place. All these aspects can be seen, and make themselves felt, in its interior. To place within it an artwork that will have its own autonomous impact on the experience of the space and add something tangible to the location is an interesting challenge, to put it mildly.’

Krijn de Koning’s work revolves around the experience of space and the relationship between people and space. He uses architecture, function and colour in close interaction with the surroundings to build accessible artworks, structures that visitors can enter and explore. His work is included in numerous national and international collections, and he is commissioned to produce artworks for diverse buildings both in the Netherlands and elsewhere.

Permanent changes have been introduced to the programming of De Nieuwe Kerk in 2010 to mark the building’s 600th anniversary. Activities will be held at diverse set times throughout the year for the benefit of visitors from home and abroad.

Krijn de Koning is the first person to be appointed ‘church warden’ of De Nieuwe Kerk in Amsterdam.

(*)The church warden was once an official with day-to-day responsibility for the use and upkeep of the church. No such position exists any longer in De Nieuwe Kerk, but as from August 2010, a new ‘church warden’ will be appointed annually: each autumn, De Nieuwe Kerk will turn the building over to a well-known Dutch or international figure − an architect or fashion designer, a dramatist or artist − who will become the ‘church warden’ of De Nieuwe Kerk for some two months. Each appointee will present a personal vision, as inspired by the building and the church’s history.

Krijn de Koning
Church warden