page_title: Alex Vermeulen
section_title: Biography
hierarchical_section_title: Alex Vermeulen / Biography
caption_attribution_description: English: The last of the series of "Eggy" Sculptures, Alex Vermeulen, 2007-2012 height 12 mtr.
context_page_description: Alex Vermeulen, also recognised as SOH Alex Vermeulen, is a Dutch artist known for his multimedia projects, films and film books.
context_section_description: Alex Vermeulen is an award-winning contemporary Dutch multi-media artist who has worked under his own name as well as SOH-States of Humanity and Syndicaat Alex Vermeulen. Since 2015 he exclusively works under the name SOH Alex Vermeulen.
  His work includes film-books, films, performances, sculpture and installations. A longtime resident of Amsterdam, in the last years Vermeulen has divided his time between Amsterdam, the island of Bali and Brooklyn, New York. In May 2016 Alex Vermeulen planned to open a multimedia studio in Greenpoint, New York. The studio would facilitate a complete audio and video editing set up. The space would also be used to present new projects and readings. During the process he changed his original plan and decided to set up a mobile studio which facilities fits in 1 suitcase and functions as a nomadic workstation / experimental laboratory which can be set up anywhere. He collaborates with artists, musicians, composers, designers online or invites them to his workspace or to join the “temporary” studio.
  Born in the southern city of Eindhoven, the Netherlands, on December 9, 1954, Vermeulen is largely an autodidact, although he did study psychology, philosophy, architecture and design at the Design Academy Eindhoven before launching off on his own career in his mid-twenties. His primary early influences were film makers such as the Nouvelle Vague director Claude Chabrol and he got inspired by the obscure movie ""J'irai comme un cheval fou" (1973)  by Fernando Arrabal, the absurdist movie Themroc (1973) by Claude Faraldo, the theatrical movie 'Querelle" (1982) by Rainer Werner Fassbinder and the cinematographic fantasy world of Georges Méliès (1862–1938). Vermeulen’s fascination with films would inspire him to put a new spin on an old form – film books. Usually produced to document an existing film, Vermeulen’s versions documented imaginary films in such a way that readers often assumed they were. His visual scripts thus played with the space between reality and imagination a theme seen throughout his work. This film book projects consisting a publication containing the film story with film-stills; on these stills Vermeulen's sculptures function as props.
  Vermeulen would first achieve recognition in 1984, when the curators of the Van Abbemuseum, South Netherlands' most prestigious modern and contemporary art museum began a long period of collaboration with the artist that would last for more than a decade. This would lead to exhibitions and purchases for their prestigious permanent collection.
  In 1993 Vermeulen moved to Amsterdam and founded in 1995 "SOH-States of Humanity" and the Syndicaat foundation. A year later he presented his final film-book, as part of a large installation, Fuga Futuri, at Amsterdam's Stedelijk Museum (1996). The chief character introduced in this show for the first time was the stylized humanoid "Eggy", named after his egg-like shape. In the following fifteen years, sculptures of various forms of the enigmatic Eggy would appear in a number of projects mounted in public places around the world including New York (1996) where Vermeulen asked those who passed to select their favorite Eggy and relate it to their personal life. These interviews were edited into a 43-minute documentary film, States of Humanity. Vermeulen's intention was to collect a numerous of "New York" stories and turn them into a screenplay for a feature film. Vermeulen used a small hi8 video camera to shoot the interviews and visuals of street life NYC. Despite his intention, Vermeulen edited the footage. "These talking heads speak for them self." Since the film "States of Humanity" introduced the first six "Eggy" sculptures seen through the eyes of fifty-five New Yorkers, this documentary would become a key work in Vermeulen's career. The premier was at the International Film Festival Rotterdam in 1997.
  In the following years SOH and Syndicaat Alex Vermeulen produced more than 29 multi-media events including SOH3, the Mental Urban Labyrinth, with curator Jan Debbaut, at the Van Abbemuseum and SOH1, the Arch
caption: Last Eggy Sculpture
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