Current project: 'SAVE OUR HARING'. In collaboration with Gallery Vroom&Varossieau, BallastNedam, the KeithHaring Foundation and Stedelijk Museum Mick La Rock is trying to preserve the 1986 Keith Haring mural in Amsterdam.

(Read more below).

Mick La Rock: "In 2014 I wondered whatever happened to the huge mural Keith Haring painted in 1986 on the former depot of the Stedelijk Museum and Amsterdam Museum. After research at the Stedelijk Museum's library, I found out the mural was still intact, but covered with cladding. In 2015, during my time as guest curator for the exhibition 'Graffiti. New York meets The Dam' at the Amsterdam Museum, I received an email from Julia Gruen, the director of the Keith Haring Foundation, with a question about the status of the mural. I am a huge fan of Keith's work since I was a kid. This was for me the sign that I really had to further make this 'my' project after I finished my work at the Amsterdam Museum. There are only a handful of original Haring-murals left in the world: if only I could make it possible to bring the Amsterdam painting back to the Amsterdam people to enjoy!
In 2016 I found out the Food Center, where the Haring is located, was going to be redeveloped and it was threatend with demolition. I got into contact with Olivier Varossieau of gallery Vroom & Varossieau, because I knew he had contact in the real estate world and knows their language. I asked him if he would be my team mate in this quest to save the Amsterdam Haring.
He gladly joined me and we got in contact with Ballast-Nedam, the developer of the Food Center.

Since that moment we have been in a positive and constructive dialogue with Ballast-Nedam.

In 2017 our contact with the Keith Haring Foundation and their restorer intensified. The KFH became our everlasting source of positive energy and inspiration. We visited and celebrated the revelation of the beautifully restored Keith Haring mural in Paris. A project similar to ours that took 8 years of preparations. In the same period the Stedelijk Museum Amsterdam revealed the famous Velum by Keith Haring. From that moment on the Stedelijk Museum offered their mental support.

The project is not as easy as it seems, due to formerly made agreements and technical difficulties concerning redevelopment of the building and its surroundings, but everybody is hopeful. Together we are focussed to preserve the mural. "

11 October 2017: NPO Radio1 interview with Tracy Metz about Keith Haring in Amsterdam: the restored Velum at Stedelijk Museum and , at (2:46) the hidden Keith Haring mural in Amsterdam West. (Dutch spoken.)

More press/media: