Disteltuig!

In an area once known for its heavy industry of ship and airplane buidling, modern highrises now pop up like mushrooms to house the young professionals often working in tech and marketing. However, in the midst of this advancing city, hidden behind the trees there are 25 studios, filled with many more creative businesses. Together, they bring craftsmanship back to a rapidly growing residential neighborhood reinvigorating the craftsmanship and industry which once thrived there not too long ago.

The colorful 'free space' opened it's doors in 2015 and has since become a meeting place for creativity. At first glance, the area may seem messy, but upon closer inspection, you see the result of a vast amount of knowledge and skill. Wood is worked, metal forged and welded. Materials are collected and reused.

With this exhibition at PEXPO, artist and curator Rogier Bosschaart and photographer Anne van der Werf explore the Vliegtuin community who celebrates its seven-year anniversary and pays tribute to the inexhaustible expertise, endless possibilities, joy, creativity, and the many different people and opinions that give shape to this free space.

At the same time, De Vliegtuin and PEXPO raise the question of what role free spaces have in this rapidly densifying city. Is there still room for experimentation, fringes, and counterculture in Amsterdam? Or are these places doomed to disappear?