Gerald Van Der Kaap

Gerald Van Der Kaap

Portrait of Gerald Van Der Kaap

Gerald Van Der Kaap is regarded as one of the true pioneers of the use of new media in art. An unclassifiable artist who participated in the key moments of post-70s art without ever fully pausing for very long in any one of them. He uses photography to access the entire field of media in the era of its digital reproducibility: (digital) photography, video, television, books, parties, electronic music, internet, mobile phones, and now film.

In 1979 he co-founded the art magazine ZIEN (editor and publisher). Its name was later changed to BLIND.From 1987 until 1988 he was the producer/director/editor for Rabotnik TV, a former pirate TV station broadcasting on Amsterdam cable, run by artists. The primary aim was not to inform or entertain, but to generate autonomous works of art on TV. These broadcasts have been acquired by the Stedelijk Museum Amsterdam.

In 1993 he created a dadaïst CD-ROM, BlindRom v.0.9, which was the first of its kind and very influential because of its wayward interface design and code. It won him first prize at the VideoFest: “an anarchic intervention into interactive technology, a kaleidoscopic and fragmentary work in which the personal and social combine”.

Under the moniker VJ 00-Kaap  he played a major role in developing VJ-ing during the 1990s,

Kaap’s have been the subject of numerous exhibitions including two solo shows at the Stedelijk Museum Amsterdam; Museum Folkwang, Essen; Artlab 2, Tokyo; Kunsthaus Graz; Centre Georges Pompidou, Paris; Palau de la Virreina, Barcelona; Art Institute of Chicago; Guangdong Museum of Art.

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