Framer Framed

Juergen Schmidt

Could you tell us about your background?

I was born in Germany 53 years ago, near the French-Swiss-German border, near Strasbourg. There I worked for a long time in Art, mostly with drift wood – the wood you find near the beach or in rivers. I lived beside the Rhine. I also lived abroad during several periods. I lived in Asia twice, mostly in India, Malaysia and Indonesia. After that I had a family period in Germany, with a wife and two children. After that, I lived in Spain – I like the South a lot – and then back in Asia. And since a year ago, I’ve been living in Amsterdam, which is for me the further North I’ve ever lived. My partner is Dutch, and that is why I moved here. For the past 5 years I haven’t been producing Art anymore because 10 years ago I started doing life coaching, which I am also doing here in Amsterdam.

When did you first become involved with Framer Framed and in what way are you involved?

I am hosting the exhibitions at the Tolhuistuin. The first one was called Embodied spaces, which started in June 2015.

Why did you decide to be part of Framer Framed?

When I moved to Amsterdam I thought that since I was expecting something out of this city, I also wanted to give something back. So I went to the Vrijwiligers Centrale, and together with the lady working there we went through several options and thought about what would be more suitable for me and that is how I came in contact with Framer Framed. So I went to the Tolhuistuin to see what it was like and I thought the exhibition space was very nice, that the exhibition on at that time was good and that the other people seemed nice. So that is how I ended up becoming a volunteer at Framer Framed.

Juergen Schmidt was interviewed by Sofia Lovegrove Pereira.