The building behind this artwork is De Pershal. It was built in 1931 as a printing works and editorial office for the national newspaper De Telegraaf.
Nieuwezijds Voorburgwal was the heart of Dutch journalism in the twentieth century. Major daily newspapers had their offices here, alongside printing houses, news agencies and renowned journalists’ cafés. From the 1960s onwards, newspapers gradually moved away from Amsterdam’s city centre.
For Old News, Ram Katzir drew inspiration from the area’s newspaper history and from the sculptures by Amsterdam sculptor Hildo Krop that crown the building’s tower. With their oversized hands, Krop’s four paperboys represent the dissemination of news.
Katzir’s paperboy sits more than five metres above street level, holding a newspaper with a reflective surface. The title Old News plays with the fleeting nature of current affairs: what makes the front page today is old news tomorrow.
Ram Katzir was born in Tel Aviv in 1969 and graduated from the Rietveld Academy in Amsterdam. His work encompasses sculpture, public art and drawing. A recurring theme in his work is the way perceptions, memories and meanings change over time and according to context.
Old News brings the paperboy back to the street where news was once made, with a reflection on the present.