Hot or Not
Agata Zwierzyñska
Opening hours:
10:00 - 20:00
Address:
Warmoesstraat 60
Casita Maria is a miniature model reliving the disappeared CASA MARIA, a warm, authentic Amsterdam family run café for every person. This freedom was also embraced by a mixed Caribbean and Mediterranean non-heterosexual crowd. In miniature, the artist reconstructs a space of freedom, humor, and desire, drawing on archival material, personal stories, and artistic interpretation.
Drunken Ballet is a video work that is a result of video observation of Hot or Not bar customers. Without a script, the camera registers the movements of visitors and staff - from sober to drunk, from restrained to high spirited. In the edit, these moments merge into a manipulated choreography: a physical portrait of presence, in which vulnerability, eroticism, and raw humanity come together.
Agata Zwierzynska is a performance artist and image maker who works with archives, fiction, and personal history. Born in Warsaw (1972) and now living in the Netherlands, in the heart of Amsterdam's Red Light District, collecting is at the heart of her practice. Images, sounds, and stories are obsessively documented and later reactivated.
She works intuitively with found and self-made material, which she translates into artist's books, objects, and photo and video installations. Her work moves between documentary and imagination, exploring psychological docu-fictions in a distinctly poetic visual language. Performance and publication are central to her work.
Trained at the Rietveld Academy and Goldsmiths College, Zwierzynska sees the archive not as an endpoint, but as a living system. Through reuse and editing, she reveals hidden connections and invites the viewer to move with her between the intimate and the public.
About Location
Hot Or Not on Warmoesstraat is a late-night sports bar with ten screens, where matches are broadcast day and night, and where smoking is allowed inside. It's an accessible spot where locals, tourists, and night workers gather for a drink, a game, or just to hang out, amidst the bustle of the Red Light District.
From 1972 to 2006, the same location housed Casa Maria, a mixed gay bar that was a key meeting place for primarily Caribbean and Mediterranean gay and transvestite crowds. Founded by Maria Muñoz and later run by her daughter Linda, Casa Maria was known as a place where freedom, humor, and desire converged. Today, Hot Or Not reflects a different phase of Warmoesstraat: less defined, more international, and more pragmatic, yet still a place where nightlife and socializing are central.