| Biography After graduating in Fine Arts at the Royal Academy of Art in The Hague in 1992, artist Annechien Meier (1970) successfully completed a Master of Education degree in Utrecht (1996). Communication between people in urban or rural environments plays a key role in Annechien Meier’s' work. The artist is involved in an ongoing exploration of such landscapes and cityscapes, using her installations to investigate how people live at these locations. By means of various project installations – often in the form of custom-made gardens and allotments – the artist strives to excite the viewer’s curiosity and to confront and encourage interaction, in order to enhance the viewer’s awareness of the site or larger area. Meier’s work often engages in a discussion of the publicly accessed green space arranged for within new environmental planning. Starting in 1999, the artist has taken part in a large number of exhibitions, Biennales and symposia in, among others, Belgium, Germany, France, Sweden, Estonia, Chile and South Korea. OpTrek Since 2002, Annechien Meier has collaborated with Sabrina Lindemann in the project organisation of Mobiel Projectbureau OpTrek, an artists’ organisation established in the multi-ethnic urban renewal neighbourhood of Transvaal in The Hague. Transvaal will undergo extensive restructuring in the years ahead. OpTrek invites artists to study these changes and to make them visible for a wider audience, as well as explore the underlying political policies. For more information, visit www.optrektransvaal.nl. Meier van Eijsinga Project Space in The Hague From 1999 to 2001, working in collaboration with Cora Roorda van Eijsinga, Annechien Meier ran the project space Meier van Eisinga in a vacant retail building on Stille Veerkade in The Hague. Artists were invited to show a specific project or working process in this space, with a strong focus on a multidisciplinary approach to art. Meier van Eijsinga was part of the Haagse Rondgang, a periodic tour of selected artists’ initiatives and galleries in The Hague. Participants in the tour collectively organised such affairs as the monthly openings and publicity. The Haagse Rondgang is currently known under the name Hoogtij. The STAND association In 1992, Annechien Meier joined a number of colleagues to found the STAND association, which concerns itself with the procurement of affordable studios for artists in The Hague. Working in consultation with the Municipality of The Hague, STAND sets up artists’ studios as an anti-squatting arrangement in vacant buildings, until parties had found a new destination for the premises. The Municipality has since allocated a building for the association, and STAND is active to this very day. |
