small museum presents Sounds of the Night

Bogomir Doringer (Serbia, 1983) studied visual arts at the Gerrit Rietveld Academy. He continued his studies at the Dutch Film Academy where he completed his master's in film. Currently he works as an artistic research Ph.D'er at the University for Applied Arts in Vienna in which he continues his research in club and dance culture. He specialises in the socio-politics of collective movement in night culture and clubbing - as a lens through which to observe social phenomena manifested through people and the body. Post-9/11, a key point of departure became the emerging masking ritual in response to high surveillance. Through his ongoing artistic research project, “I Dance Alone”, club-goers are observed from a bird's-eye view - their movements becoming a mirror to or microcosm of broader social and political changes.

I Dance Alone
This captivating visual study delves into the heart of nightclub culture, where Doringer, from a bird's eye perspective, skillfully documents flows of energetic dance floors worldwide. By suspending cameras above these vibrant dance spaces, he observes and captures the unique expressions of those who revel in the music and movement. In I Dance Alone, Doringer zooms in on the individual bodies that make up these collective dance floors. The editing of the captured dancers, executed by Doringer's longtime creative partner Rafael Kozdron, brings the viewer closer to the movements of each dancer and creates an intimate close-up to these individuals on the dance floor. Doringer asks us to think of the intentions behind these movements: What stories are being conveyed through these dances, and by whom? Ultimately, he compels us to reflect upon the nature of our own dances.

The work in the small museum was made possible by Mondriaanfonds, AFK, Stadsarchief Amsterdam en Paradiso.

Gabey Tjon a Tham is an installation artist working and living in the Hague, The Netherlands. Gabey explores the complex systems found in both nature and our digital world and how they influence each other through ever-evolving sequences. In her current practice, she focuses on working with site-specific experiences to reflect on environments in which natural and digital agents operate, each with its own time cycles and behaviour: influencing a living system in the making.

vec4(red,green,blue,alpha)
The work vec4(red,green,blue,alpha) (2023-2024) is a generative virtual environment based on the urban space around Paradiso that is influenced in real time by weather conditions and the day and night rhythms of physical reality. This environment is characterised as Amsterdam's busiest square that is constantly in motion, where different players appear, interact, disappear and make way for others again. Within these urban dynamics, the work integrates the digital dimension that is an inseparable part of our daily lives in many visible and invisible ways. By showing elements that relate to how the computer perceives, draws and interweaves this virtual location with aspects of the physical environment, the work creates a possible new nature of which digital artefacts are a part.

​Heleen Blanken is a visual artist who lives and works in Amsterdam. She levitates across the fields of installation art, new media, cinematography, scenography, and sculpture. She holds a degree in Fine Arts from the Gerrit Rietveld Academy. Influenced by the complex exchange between humanity and the natural environment, her artistic practice explores the different layers of our aesthetic perception of the natural world while defining traditional artistic dichotomies like the organic vs. artificial and analog vs. digital. In her work, she raises questions on how we contemplate ideas of nature.

Frame of Reference
The work 'Frame of Reference' of Heleen Blanken aims to manipulate the perspective of the viewer. Inspired by quantum physics and the superposition principle, the work plays with the scientific idea that tiny particles like atoms and electrons can be in more than one state (and place) at the same time, as long as they are not being observed. 'Frame of Reference' plays and reflects upon these concepts, casting doubt on the location of an object with changes in light and without giving a definitive place. It intriguies visitors with its mysterious nature, and thereby raising questions about the objectivity of our perception of reality.

If dance floors were underwater, Oceanic would be a modern-day siren. As both a DJ and a producer - often releasing tracks on family label Nous'klaer - he creates immersive and shape- shifting environments in which boundaries dissolve. Like tides, the musical experiences Oceanic creates feel driven forces bigger than the sum of their parts, pushing towards new and unknown frontiers. Oceanic’s focus is on bringing people together to foster collective energy and experience joy together.

In 2023 he released his critically acclaimed debut album Choral Feeling, a body of work that almost exclusively is built up of the voices of 30+ friends.

The small museum is a tiny museum, visible only at night, housed in one of the announcement cabinets on the facade of Paradiso. Almost invisible to the public eye, amidst the busy daily life of Amsterdam and commuters racing by on the Weteringschans, the small museum sits and waits quietly for the sun to set. After sundown, city life changes gears, and Amsterdam’s vibrant nightlife comes to life. This is when the museum shines its light.

Open only from dusk till dawn, the small museum zooms in on smaller, less prominent topics and asks us to slow down in our busy, sometimes hectic lives.

small museum is an initiative by Paradiso