Get inspired by the boundless creativity of Hip Hop. Hip Hop Is shows how Hip Hop culture has influenced the visual arts over the past forty years. Expect familiar and new work by makers from the Netherlands and abroad, including Martha Cooper, Arthur Jafa, Iris Kensmil, Mick La Rock, Dana Lixenberg, Rammellzee and many more.
Hip Hop is multifaceted, groundbreaking and constantly evolving. It is undeniably one of the most influential cultural movements of the 20th and 21st centuries. Hip Hop is loud, tough and expressive, and a source of cultural richness and creative resistance, born of a need to demand one's own place, challenge inequality and expose injustice – to speak truth to power.
You may associate Hip Hop mainly with music and fashion, but Hip Hop Is turns its focus to visual art. The artworks in this exhibition, which range from photography, painting and sculpture to graffiti, demonstrate how Hip Hop has influenced and enriched visual art everywhere from the streets to the museums.
Groningen, the Netherlands and the world
Groningen holds a unique position in Dutch Hip Hop history – not least because the Groninger Museum director Frans Haks took an interest in the genre beginning in the early 1980s. The museum staged multiple exhibitions and events devoted to graffiti art, often accompanied by rap and breakdance performances. A lively local graffiti scene sprang up in their wake. From the late 1980s, the city attracted musical attention thanks to the Hip Hop crew Zombi Squad, which toured across Europe from its early years. Exhibition advisors Sherlock Telgt and Dennis Kok take you on a tour of the highlights of Groningen Hip Hop history, relating these to key moments elsewhere in the world – with the help of the Dutch Hip Hop Archive’s one-of-a-kind collection, which contains nearly every Hip Hop album and single ever released in the Netherlands.
Rammellzee
One room in the exhibition will be devoted to the work of Rammellzee, the visual artist who made Hip Hop avant-garde. The internationally esteemed artist was the subject of a retrospective exhibition in Paris earlier this year – and, back in 1987, one at the Groninger Museum. Hip Hop Is brings the artist’s work back into the museum context and showcases unique loans, iconic outfits, and film footage from the 1980s.
New work
Several artists have been commissioned to create new work for Hip Hop Is. Iris Kensmil is building an installation focusing on portraits of female rappers. Boris Tellegen (Delta) is developing a mural based on a 30-year-old wall sculpture. And Niels Meulman (Shoe) will introduce visitors to his inimitable caligraffiti technique with a new wall painting over 13 metres in length.
Participating artists
A-one, Aileen Middel (alias Mick la Rock, alias Mickey), Airich, Alex and the City Crew, Angel, Arthur Jafa, Blade, Boris Tellegen (alias Delta), Dana Lixenberg, Dondi White, Duvel & Ferry van Zijderveld, Dutch Graffiti Library, Dutch Hip Hop Archive, Erik van Lieshout, Futura 2000, Hamilton Chango Harris, Henry Chalfant, Ilja Meefout, Iris Kensmil, Isis Vaandrager & Navin Thakoer, Jamel Shabazz, Janette Beckman, Jenny Holzer & Lady Pink, Lee Quiñones, Lisa Kahane, Phase 2, Martha Cooper, Mode 2, Niels ‘Shoe’ Meulman, Quik, Rammellzee, The Arbitrator Koor (alias Kool Koor), Tripl a.k.a Furious, Umar Rashid, and others.
Hip Hop Is Program
Special activities are taking place inside and outside the museum during Hip Hop Is. Compete in breakdancing battles, watch a documentary on Hip Hop, or take part in the young people’s studio programme in the museum’s Hip Hop caravan.
