FLATLAND - Amsterdam
Fiona van Schendel, Director
Fiona van Schendel (Guildford, 1968) is a Dutch gallerist, author and curator. She grew up in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, after which she attended secondary school in The Hague. She received her master's degree in Social and Economic History from the University of Amsterdam. She pursued her study at the International Institute of Social History (IISH) in Amsterdam by working on her PhD in history on labour relations during late-colonial period in Indonesia. Her book Djolotigo, a case-study of a plantation economy was published by the Netherlands Economic History Archive (NEHA). Prior to joining FLATLAND - one of the main galleries in The Netherlands - she wrote articles on the topic of art and photography as a journalist for newspapers and magazines. As director of FLATLAND social issues remain her core interest, such as the exhibition 'State of Being' by Anoek Steketee in conjunction with the Rijksmuseum or 'The voice of cameramen and women', that included Martin Usborne's disconcerting documentary 'Where Hunting Dogs Rests' on abandoned and killed dogs in rural Spain. Interested in understanding the functions, causes, development, and evolution of animal behaviour she has committed herself - besides her work to FLATLAND - to studies on behavioural ecology and animal behaviour at the University of Wageningen and Oxford University.