Amsterdammer

Amsterdammer is a proposal for an artwork to be given to the employees of the Amsterdam Municipal Tax Office, made for Amsterdam 750 through CBK Zuidoost. The proposal was not selected in the end, but I would like to share the idea and the research behind it. Its starting point is the Toll Privilege granted by Count Floris V in 1275: the document in which Amsterdam is named for the first time.

The settlement most likely already existed, but only once someone else named it did it gain a right to exist. This work is about being named and being known. Identity is fluid: just as single drops together form the current of the Amstel, people together form Amsterdam.