CULTURE

I Art Amsterdam

By Giancarlo La Giorgia

The Dutch destination for debauchery morphs into a serious culture contender without forgetting its roots.

We all know Amsterdam’s reputation. Its laissez-faire attitudes toward pot and prostitution have put it on the world map – the official city flag even sports a triple-X – but things are about to change. A campaign is underway to clean up the red-light district, which will see the number of bordellos and cannabis cafés cut in half. Filling the void are boutiques, restaurants and an exhibition of Dutch fashion designers called Redlight Fashion District, which uses vacated brothel windows as displays. So while Amsterdam’s freewheeling spirit remains, the move is on to build a new kind of European culture capital, one that draws on the city’s, ahem, unique cachet to create an arts scene with a little edge.

Beyond the repurposed red lights, this city of barely 750,000 people boasts over 50 museums, featuring an incredible diversity of talent that rivals what many bigger European cities have to offer. The mainstream venues, from the Van Gogh Museum to the Anne Frank House, are well-established brands, but Amsterdam’s edge lies in its many museums that focus on offbeat subjects. Besides fine art and historic residences, there are museums on sex, drugs and celebrity as well as diamonds, bibles and even torture. Here are a few of our favorites:

FOAM_Fotografiemuseum Amsterdam
The more cutting-edge of Amsterdam’s two photography museums (the Huis Marseille is the other), FOAM exhibits collections by both famous and emerging still- image artists. The museum is housed in a 19th-century canal mansion, but the interior is mostly sparse and modern, allowing visitors to better contemplate its rotating photo and multimedia exhibits. Admission is €5.

Sexmuseum Amsterdam
Also known as the Venus Temple, this titillating museum offers a guilt-free taste of the city’s sinful side. Much of it is kitschy, like the animatronic flasher at the entrance, and the outdated decor has a deliberately cheap feel. That said, the collection includes artifacts, photos and other oddities from around the world and provides a fascinatingly comprehensive and historical look at human sexuality. Admission is €3 and photography is allowed.

Tassenmuseum Hendrikje
The Museum of Bags and Purses grew out of the personal collection (some would say fetish) of antique dealer Hendrikje Ivo. It features over 3,500 of her finest bags, purses, pouches and suitcases, from medieval handbags to objects of obsession by today’s top labels. The museum shop sells a large variety of bags by Dutch and international designers and is almost as popular as the museum itself. Admission is €6.50.

De Kattenkabinet
One of the stranger concepts for a museum, De Kattenkabinet is devoted entirely to art about cats. But the Cat Cabinet pulls it off, perhaps because the artwork, while playful, is presented with a totally straight face in true crazy cat person fashion. Also, the still-inhabited house, in which five felines wander around freely, is a historic monument in it own right, originally built in 1667 for a member of the aristocratic Van Loon family. Admission is €5.

(Giancarlo La Giorgia is a Montreal-based writer and bestselling author.)

TOP IMAGE: MYLOU OORD
STOREFRONT: REDLIGHT FASHION / MYLOU OORD
FOAM: FOAM FOTOGRAFIEMUSEUM AMSTERDAM / MAARTEN BRINKGREVE
TASSENMUSEUM: TASSENMUSEUM HENDRIKJE
KATTENKABINET: KATTENKABINET