Willem de Ridder departed earth peacefully on December 29 as octogenarian. Born 1939 in the south of the Netherlands, de Ridder was curiosity incarnate, sharing his lifelong discoveries in a perpetual state of generosity.
The Mood Engineering Society (1962-1964) co-formed by de Ridder organised concerts that merged music and live art. Their petition to abolish the classical theatre model in favour of the black box space was groundbreaking for its time. The stage, stalls, orchestra pit replaced by moveable parts—architecture put in service of performance, and an audience freed from mere spectatorship to co-creators by improvisation and chance.
Central to early Fluxus were music festivals organised in Germany, the Netherlands, and France in the 1960s. De Ridder would facilitate first-time European performances by important Japanese avantgarde composers, Toshi Ichiyanagi, Takehisa Kosugi, and Fluxus kingpin, Nam June Paik in the Netherlands.
With the European Fluxshop and Mail-Order House, and Amstel47, Willem de Ridder extended the Fluxus New York operations of Maciunas, rendering art collecting as an open for all, by way of swaps, multiples and Xerox.
Perhaps de Ridder’s biggest impact was made through the mass medium of television. The public broadcaster VPRO aired three episodes of ‘Hoepla’, an explosive show produced with long-time collaborator, Wim T. Schippers, Hans Verhagen, Phil Bloom and Wim van der Linden. The show for teenagers (now, baby boomers) only survived three episodes before being axed on count of controversy. The show introduced counter-culture topics into the mainstream; vegetarianism, Zen Buddhism, post-colonial critique, and sexual taboo. Despite its short lifespan, ‘Hoepla’ loosened the television format and left its impression on the Dutch liberal values as we know of today. Thanks, Willem !
