Grafische Werkplaats moet Blijven!
This year marks the 50th anniversary of the founding of the Grafische Werkplaats Den Haag. In 1974, a group of artists squatted the building where the graphic workshop is still located. The Analog 74-24 festival celebrates this feat and looks to the future with an extensive program on activism and community. During the festival, Design Museum Dedel presents the exhibition Grafische Werkplaats Moet Blijven! with posters of the protest action (2012) against the cutbacks that threatened the workshop.
In 2012, the municipality came up with a drastic cutback plan for the arts sector, as a result of which the Grafische Werkplaats would have to close its doors. About fifty artists and designers took action against these disastrous plans. More than 1000 posters in 55 variations (all screen-printed in A2 format in the workshop) were distributed throughout the city, to make it clear that the Grafische Werkplaats is a crucial facility for visual artists and designers from South Holland. The posters could not only be seen in public spaces, but also in exhibitions at the Grafische Werkplaats and the Haagse Kunstkring. Autonomous works of the exhibitors were presented alongside their posters to emphasise the relationship between applied and free work. With these manifestations and exhibitions, the artists succeeded in convincing the municipality. The Grafische Werkplaats continued!
Design Museum Dedel is showing a selection of these posters, which have played such an important role in the recent history of the Grafische Werkplaats. The posters demonstrate how the activist spirit and sense of community among users of the workshop has always lived on since its foundation in 1974.
With posters by Zeloot, Weitenberg, Pat Andrea, Wendy Wenders, G.J. de Rook, Ilja Walraven, Ton Martens and many others