Guided Tour of the REC-A Building at the Amsterdam Law School

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1 Guided Tour of the REC-A Building at the Amsterdam Law School 1. Start your tour from the individual study places on the ground floor and then take the grand staircase up one flight. Proceed past the photo wall, via the balcony, to the Learning Space on the first floor. 2. Head on to A0.01, the largest lecture hall in the building. The hall seats 450 and takes up two storeys. 3. Take the grand staircase up one flight to the second floor where you will find A2.11, a specially-designed semi-circular lecture hall. 4. Continue on to the third floor. This is where Barbara Broekman's artwork Recht en Onrecht (Justice and Injustice) begins. Background Recht en Onrecht (Justice and Injustice) This artwork measuring 30 by 4.5 metres is composed of approximately three hundred images. Barbara Broekman was inspired by historical, mythological and biblical depictions of good and evil in Western Art, for example Botticelli's portrait of Thomas Aquinas, who was the first to draw a distinction between divine and man-made law, and a painting by Tiepolo which depicts the Judgment of Solomon. The images were printed on a colour copier, then trimmed and assembled. The collage was then photographed in high resolution and printed digitally on canvas. The stark outlines were a conscious choice; the artist wishes to emphasise the labour involved in creating the works of art on display.

2 5. Continue tot the Moot Court and the Seminar Room. Great views of the city can be had from the roof terrace. 6. Then on to the Law Library on the fourth floor. Workstations: there are 70 individual and 32 collaborative workstations. The Law Library has 750 meters of books and 300+ meters of periodicals on its shelves. In addition to the Law Library s own collection, requests from University Library s (warehoused) legal collection are transported to the Law Library several times a day. Free access for all. University of Amsterdam Alumni Association AUV membership includes a complimentary library card. Lawyers from outside the faculty are also welcome. To the right of the front desk is a cabinet custom-made to house the Schuurman & Jordens Edition of Dutch Legislation. 7. Continue to the seventh floor for the Faculty Boardroom (A7.23) and the carpet designed by the artist Barbara Broekman. Portraits of former deans grace the walls. Pagina 2

3 Background Carpet version of Justice and Injustice The carpet portrays a pixelated fragment of the artwork Justice and Injustice in black and white. The image is perceptible from a distance, but from close by it seems to be entirely abstract. The fragment of the original work was blown up in black and white on a computer and then printed on cloth and carpet. 8. Take the elevator down to the ground floor and have a look at Barbara Broekman's Lady Justice (Vrouwe Justitia). Pagina 3

4 Background Lady Justice (Vrouwe Justitia) For this work, Barbara Broekman made use of 250 art and popular culture images of Lady Justice, that iconic embodiment of the law. The images were taken from a wide range of sources: sculptures, paintings, photography, drawings, cartoons, films and theatre scenery. The images were printed on an ordinary colour copier, trimmed and assembled into a carefully crafted composition resulting in the collage in its definitive form. The collage was then photographed in high resolution and printed digitally on cloth and carpet. 9. Walk past the elevators to the main hall and pause before the statue of Minerva. Background Minerva This sculpture of Minerva was moved from the Oudemanhuispoort to REC-A in February The newly-cast floor had to be thoroughly tested to see if it could bear the weight of the statue and its plinth. The plinth alone weighs two thousand kilos, and the statue another sixteen hundred. The history of Minerva at the UvA dates back to the late nineteenth century. The UvA took up residence in the Oudemanhuispoort in The financier Baron George Rosenthal, a member of the Amsterdam University Association (Amsterdamse Universiteits-Vereniging), donated Minerva, and F.K.A.C. Leenhoff designed the sculpture. In 1960, the aula was relocated to the Lutheran Church on the Singel; the nineteenth-century buildings of the Oudemanhuispoort were replaced Pagina 4

5 with new structures, and Minerva was given a prominent place in the main entry. By the nineties, the Goddess had lost her spear and instead could be seen grasping a curtain rod. She was quietly mouldering away and had developed a fracture in her left arm. In 1995, Sophie Josephus Jitta, lecturer in Italian and a descendant of George Rosenthal, devoted herself to the statue s restoration and provided Minerva with a replica of her original spear. Background 10. Finish your tour in the main hall of REC A Roeterseiland and REC-A The UvA campus on the Roeterseiland was designed by Simon Allford of Allford Hall Monaghan Morris (AHMM), proceeding from Norbert Gawronski's original - and at the time only partially realised - design dating from the early 1960s. The design strengthens the architectural unity of the campus and emphasises its connection with the city. The architects adhered to the inside-out principle: the building s transparency ensures that it is literally and figuratively the shop window of the UvA. The building will encourage interaction with the city of Amsterdam and its government.video showcasing the building: Facts & figures 60 workstations on each floor /19 lecture halls of varying size / parking for 1650 bicycles / 670 study places. Pagina 5

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