July 14, 15 and 16, 2017: Haringrock. A music event that has been organized in Katwijk since the 1980s. Heart of this event is Ton Frissen, who first asked me in 2013 to show my bike at 'his' event. Now finally was the time.

Friday morning, looking out of my workroom over river Waal, it seemed to be a beautiful day for riding a bike.

Unfortunately the weather forecast was merciless: no escaping the showers moving west to east.

Around 13:00h, at Tiel, we met: heavy rainfall, thunderstorms. The weather was too bad to take a picture, but you'll find enough of these on this site. ;)

After the showers there were those beautiful Dutch skies.

Like previous years a nice mix of bike and art. First heading to the new and already famous museum Voorlinden, at Wassenaar.

I had to put the bike at the unattended parking lot; my request to place it closer to the museum was not granted. A dubious unicum: never before this was denied in the Netherlands.

On the huge estate you see the impressive house (English country style; see the large chimneys), owned by Joop van Caldenborgh, collector of art and the founder of this museum.

Van Caldenborgh shows the largest private art collection of the Netherlands in a beautiful building by architect Dirk Jan Postel.

I put my clothes and camping gear in the lockers ...

... and entered the world of Canadian artist Rodney Graham, called 'That's not me'. Huge light boxes with razorsharp images of relatively common situations.

More than the settings I was fascinated by the huge detail of the pictures. Here you can see a close-up of the book that the man in the previous picture is holding. Due to the huge depth of field, you know that it would take hours to view all the details in the picture.

Graham is a promotor for the city of Vancouver. This seemingly everyday scene explodes in detailing and very rich colors.

The overwhelming effect Andreas Gursky achieves with his photography of architecture and landscapes, matches with Graham interiors and portraits.

He also tried painting; that could not charm him though. And me neither.

Monumental, big and grand are core concepts for this museum. See this huge work of Richard Serra called 'Open Ended': 13 feet high, 59 feet tall, 23 feet wide ... weighing 216,000 kilos.

''Swimming Pool', specially designed for Voorlinden by Leandro Erlich. At first sight an ordinary swimming pool ...

... until you look into it and see people move.

This 'swimming pool' is an optical illusion with only a few centimeters of water on a translucent plate. Here seen from below.

Another optical illusion: 'untitled', by Maurizio Cattelan.

Two closed elevators ...

... a well known "pling!", and one elevator door opens.

The scale however is not what she seems. exciting, funny, but a bit creepy too.

Nice catalog text: "Untitled is reminiscent of imaginative fables in which alternate Lilliputian realities exist just under the fabric of earthly life,"

Another strong alienation: 'Couple under an Umbrella', by Ron Mueck. The title says it all: it's just a couple under a parasol.

Although ...

... they are a bit bigger than an everage couple.

A hyperrealistic sculpture with breathtaking details: every hair, ripple and crotch is perfect in this endearing setting.

Chilling in James Turrell's 'Skyspace'. Through the hole in the roof you look to the sky. And it was sunny again, as you see.

Striking in this museum is that there is so much glass that daylight suffices to fill the large rooms (and thus the artwork). Impressive architecture.

After visiting the museum I rode to Katwijk, to campsite de Zuidduinen. Beautiful site in the dunes, I was welcome, but the bike was not allowed to be placed next to the tent. And that's not an option for me.

So I headed for Noordwijkerhout, to campsite De Carlton. Totally boring place but I didn't mind: I enjoyed the quietness.

Enjoyed a nice meal at the local restaurant Zonneweelde. A nice beer, a nice bookl, andhere is a cup of coffee, a nice booklet, and won't even know I'm here.

But before the rain, the clouds brought the campsite to life. At least, they tried. ;)

In fact, you do not need a book either.

Saturday 15 July: heading for Katwijk, heading for Haringrock.

But first cleaning the bike a bit. No showroom condition, just a litte TLC.

Haringrock is run entirely by volunteers and sponsors, and they even subsidize a charity each year. This year it was Huntington's disease.

The CBX was not the only motorized attraction: a dozen American trucks ...

... and Dogde RAM's were present.

Ton Frissen raced from A to B to C on his scooter, to fix all kinds of issues.

Rock-chick Dilana liked my bike.

She was Haringrock's main act on Friday night.

Quite a good match.

Erwin pointed me to her Facebook message.

Click the photo to enlarge it.

There was more going on in Katwijk than music and bikes: stands everywhere and, thanks to the nice weather, it was well crowded.

My favorite stand: the one with the butterfat eel. Delicious.

Ton brought his custom Haringrock Harley ...

... with Dilana on its fender ...

... and we placed both bikes behind fences.

That was not a big success though: safe for the bikes but not inviting for the audience. So we removed them.

To protect the screen against the sun and against visitors, I'd made a stainless steel cap. Worked just fine.

Lots of viewers, all day long. Some guys I knew came along, and met many new people.

The specs sheets worked well; I didn't have to answer the same questions over and over again.

I took my time to enjoy the picturesque clouds above the skyline of Katwijk.

A special show: the Nautilus one man band of musician/artist Arthur van Poppel. An extreme steampunk-style vehicle annex instrument with a lot of attention to detail. And a man on top performing fine covers.

Two very cool and véry seventies soulmen, with ghettoblaster, entertained the crowd.

At about 6 o'clock I was a bit fed up with the bustle. Very nice to have a quiet beach one hundred meters away.

Once again a delicious meal at Zonneweelde.

Breakfast buffet at a nearby camping restaurant with this friendly sign. I did behave...

Rode to Amsterdam, to the Stedelijk Museum. I parked the bike in front of it.

Once inside, I saw that some youngsters approached my bike a bit too familiar. Unfortunately, I I was too late to tell them kindly but clearly that this is not really the way to go.

So put the bike right in front of the museum, for the giant steel artwok of Richard Serra (his second, this weekend).

I put a note on the swimg arm stating 'DO NOT TOUCH!'
"And you think that helps, here in Amsterdam?", the desk clerk of the museum asked me.

I sometimes have a little trouble with Amsterdam...

What I actually came for: the retrospective exhibition of Rineke Dijkstra, one of my favorite Dutch photographers. Her work has so much impact.

The following four pictures are from her 12-minute video 'I See a Woman Crying (Weeping Woman)', from 2009. Schoolchildren from Liverpool analyze Picasso's painting 'Weeping Woman': first formal aspects, followed by more personal.

Je ziet aan het gezicht van dit jongetje dat het dodelijke ernst is.

You can read from this boy's face that it's deadly seriousness.

And what a tragedy in their stories. Of course, their stories are just partly about the paining and far more about their own lives. The beauty of assocation.

This video, also from 2009, is called 'Ruth drawing Picasso'. Six and a half minutes you're looking at a girl drawing, without the "reward" of the result. You see only the activity, the concentration. It's not about the goal but about the road towards it.

Also beautiful: her series 'Olivier'. Dijkstra followed a 17-year-old for three years in his growth towards being a soldier in the French Foreign Legion.

Actually all her work is worth showing.. But I end with the video 'Marianna (The Fairy Doll)' in which she follows a young dancer from the Russian Ballet during a training session. Filmed in a powder-pink room, dressed as a princess, she passes the hard-hitting training with varying emotions: fun, concentration, disappointment and frustration alternate. Enchanting and tough at the same time. Come and see!

Beside Rineke there was more to see in the museum, like this light box skin structure by Seth Price ...

... and the 'indicment art' of visual activist Zanele Muholi.

Well. They could not impress me.

Not their fault.
It's Rineke's. ;)