ROBIN KID : The Future Is Old - Solo Show MOCO Museum Amsterdam, NL & Barcelona, Spain
MOCO Museum - Museum Of COntemporary art of Amsterdam, The Netherlands and of Barcelona, Spain
Barcelona Spain from Feb 8, 2024 till May 25, 2025 - Amsterdam Netherlands from Nov 18, 2020 till Aug 28, 2023
MOCO Museum premieres the first solo exhibition in The Netherlands and in Spain of contemporary artist ROBIN KID (aka THE KID).
Where contemporary art enlightens humanism in the social crisis and democratic decay of our 21st century!
An exhibition that pushes boundaries, wakes up humanity and shakes up the Museum Square of Amsterdam and then the Museum District of Barcelona. MOCO Museum spotlights International contemporary artist ROBIN KID for a one-of-a-kind thought-provoking solo exhibition, successively in Amsterdam from November 18, 2020 and in Barcelona from February 8, 2024. MOCO and ROBIN KID co-curate the artist’s first solo show in the Netherlands and then Spain – The Future is Old, which has been prolonged three times in Amsterdam until August 28, 2023 and two times in Barcelona until May 25, 2025 given the exhibition’s huge success with the International audience and striking resonance with our most troubled times.
“ROBIN KID : The Future is Old”
Mass shooting / Individualistic indifference / Institutionalized racism / Social determinism / Inequality of Opportunity / Ever-threatened civil rights (…) Does the current state of the broken American dream exemplify where too many of our democracies are heading for today and many more in the very near future? Is history repeating itself? Will youth stand up and say no to a future that looks already old?
Youthful portraits attract visitors with beauty and the perception of a bright future. However, on close examination, cuts and bruises reveal a darker side of reality. ROBIN KID uses art as a means to make us question the notions of power and privilege and more generally the current evolution of humanism in our democratic societies.
ROBIN KID’s hyper-realistic bigger-than-life portraits and life-size sculptures confront the audience with deeply personal stories that expose the injustice in America and beyond in many democracies around the world today and make us question the current evolution of mankind’s History. The socially critical exhibition intends to open up our minds – ultimately, enlightening a more compassionate, understanding world.
ROBIN KID started to work on his series of oil paintings and life-size sculptures The Future Is Old as of the end of the year 2017. This series of artworks was sparked by the strong impression made on ROBIN KID by the Summer 2017 events in Charlottesville-USA where civil right counter-protesters were violently attacked by American nationalists and white supremacists opposing the project of the municipality to take down the equestrian statue of General Robert E Lee, a leading figure of the Confederates and an historical defender of slavery.
ROBIN KID questions how the recent and current social and political history seems to repeat itself in too many countries and the stance today’s youth will decide to take, inspired by Martin Luther King and the words of his wife and famous civil rights activist Coretta Scott King: “Freedom is never really won, you earn it and win it in every generation“.
“ROBIN KID: The Future is Old” is why MOCO Museum believes art can do more. The realistic appearances of gripping details of violence – bloody noses, busted lips, scars and scratches, gang tattoos, wounds, and other graphic images and historical role models – summon crucial social subject matters catching our attention and asking for immediate action from each one of us.
About contemporary artist ROBIN KID
Already internationally recognized for his thought-provoking and socially committed body of artworks, ROBIN KID is a natural-born citizen of the world and a self-educated multidisciplinary contemporary artist, who hijacks traditional technics of the old European Masters -drawing, painting, and sculpture- to question the social issues facing contemporary youth today and even more tomorrow in our polarized world of the 21st century, such as the social determinism, the ever-threatened civil rights, the inequality of opportunity or the thin frontier between innocence and corruption for today’s youth. When asked about his work ROBIN KID likes to underline his exceptional body of works with the famous words of the great 20th century Master Picasso: “Art is not made to decorate apartments, it is an offensive and defensive weapon of war against the enemy”.
About MOCO Museum (MOdern & COntemporary Art)
We Are Moco : The Moco Museum focuses on proven artists with a unique vision.
The Moco Museums in Amsterdam, Barcelona and London are Museums with a wide range of inspiring modern and contemporary art. With artists like ROBIN KID, Banksy, Jean-Michel Basquiat, JR, KAWS, Keith Haring, Jeff Koons, Yayoi Kusama, Andy Warhol, Rothko and more, we offer visitors an unparalleled collection of subversive art in which irony and humor are used to reflect on modern society. A one-of-a-kind experience aimed at a wide audience, a visit to Moco is a true eye-opener.
Banksy. A mysterious British artist known for his humorous and political street art. The Banksy exhibition at Moco contains several of his infamous street pieces, as well a large number of his indoor works, including work on canvas. One of these is his giant ‘Beanfield’ painting, a beautiful piece that is displayed on the ground floor. An impossible-to-miss eye-catcher as you enter the Banksy exhibition. Other highlights include ‘Girl with Balloon’, ‘Laugh Now’ and ‘Keep It Real’. The Banksy collection at Moco Museum: come check it out!
The MOdern & COntemporary (MOCO) Museum has made its home in Villa Alsberg, a unique and luxurious townhouse overlooking Museumplein in the heart of Amsterdam. The building was designed in 1904 by Eduard Cuypers, nephew of the renowned Pierre Cuypers who designed Amsterdam’s Central Station and the Rijksmuseum, which is at the opposite end of the square.
