Work — Jordi Ariza Gallego

PRODUCTION, ART DIRECTION AND HOSTING

UltraSexi
(2008 — 2023)

UltraSexi is a Dutch, Amsterdam based, cooperative, creative and production platform for—and with—young talent. It was founded in 2008 with the aim to match, encourage, inspire and support young creative people. Throughout its existence a significant network growth has taken place in all creative fields connected.
From music and visual arts to fashion and theatre, We instrumentalise nightlife to shed light upon our aims of living a more creative and free spirited society.

Nightlife

F*cking Pop Queers!
(2006 — 2023)

IT'S FUN! IT'S POP! AND SOOO GAY! FPQ started in Studio80 on a Wednesday night in 2006 and from 2009 it's every second Saturday of the month at Jimmy Woo until 2014. The party is a parody on the cliches of nightlife and its theme parties, celebrating and reacting on contemporary pop culture.

FPQ XL is the bigger sibling of FPQ in the famous Amsterdam pop temple, Paradiso. Multiple times a year we organise an over the top edition of fun and craziness with our biggest edition annually during Pride Amsterdam.

Studio80, Amsterdam 2006 - 2007
Jimmy Woo, Amsterdam 2009 - 2013
Comedy Theater, Amsterdam 2014
Paradiso, Amsterdam 2011 - present

M.U.L.T.I.S..E.X.I.
(2006 — 2011)

The monthly queer club night at Studio80, M.U.L.T.I.S.E.X.I., was extremely successful. Visited by the young artistic avant-garde and fashion scene of Amsterdam. This night was first organised on August 5th 2005 at Pride Amsterdam. Its aim was to give off a signal, indicating that there is more than the monocultures of the straight, gay and lesbian world. From the start the party has had healthy mix of people from various backgrounds and sexual orientations. The nights where always developed with an underlying theme, which is enlarged through satire. We love to see our guests as playful children and their artistic efforts are highly appreciated.

M.U.L.T.I.S.E.X.I. had his last night at the 4th of June 2011 with the theme: "M.U.L.T.I.S.E.X.I. FOREVER”. In 2017 we made a reappearance at the closing night of the discotheque. Shaking the club one last time to ground.

Studio80, Amsterdam 2006 - 2011
THT, Amsterdam 2018

Club nights

With much love and enthusiasm we curated many other nights such as:

U.L.T.R.A.S.E.X.I. - Paradiso, Amsterdam 2009 - 2018
XXX: Queer bardancing — ClubNL, Amsterdam 2017 - 2018
Pink King - Paradiso, Amsterdam 2015 - 2019
The Pirate Club - Tolhuistuin, Amsterdam 2015 - 2017
Xenomaniax - Sugarfactory, Amsterdam 2013
Het Toekomstige Genootschap / The Future Society - Brasserie Harkema, Amsterdam 2012
UltraViolet - Flexbar, Amsterdam 2008 - 2010

Festivals

Stages hosted:

Milkshake Festival 2013 - 2014 - 2015 - 2016 - 2017
Cocktailfest 2017
Valtifest 2016
Mode Bienalle Arhnem 2009
Homomonument Amsterdam 2008

Project — Europa

In the beginning

What is nightlife? It’s more than just a dance floor and disk jockey. It’s too trigger and inspire, creating temptation to participate. Dream and play while dancing and flirting. Discovering your own position in the world and investigate other peoples perspectives.

These are the lessons I’ve learn over the years. Organize events, building theatrical decorations, gathering artists and dancers for performances. Meeting likeminded souls, learning from the activist, the older generations and the bold youngsters around me. The richness of knowledge it gave me to develop my personal life was of great importance. Now my mission is to share this discovered love and passion with others. Giving them the same opportunity that where presented to me.

There is only one thing I’d change. — I wondered — can we escape the safety of the night and walk in day light? This is the start of the quest of building ‘Europa’².

In 2008 we — Dick Koopman and myself — started to work on a multifunctional, (trans)cultural sanctuary that would combine the fields of fashion, art, performance, music, debate, dance and nightlife. Lessons learn for Dick’s time as part of the first night mayors¹ where used to develop a mission.

¹ ‘De Nachtwacht’ 2003 - 2006 — The first night mayors of Amsterdam developed and wrote a vision of the future of night culture. In addition to Koopman, the Nachtwacht also included Anne Hemker, Kim Tuin, Puck Verdoes, Maz Weston, Joost van Bellen, Lex Breet and Felix van der Eerden.
² Europa, the Moon of the moons of Jupiter. — Europa, the continent — Europa, from the Greek mythology, the mother of King Minos of Crete.

Mission

Creating an independent day and night culture clubhouse in the city center of Amsterdam. A place for the underground movements. A meeting point for likeminded spirit, creative and critical thinkers. A community that stands in solidarity — supports in times of need — and celebrates the diversity of life.

Our community roots are with the gay and queer culture. This clubhouse will be a beacon of freedom, a safe harbor for self-expression and experimentation. A place for the queers, the artists, the birds of paradise and those who share our vision of love.

The fundament of the culture clubhouse is a program that reflects on the current times. Organically responding to the current culture. Content that focussing on experimental works and concepts. From modern dance to fashion shows, a pop-up gallery to theatre show, ballroom contest to lecture presentations. Europa will be a day and night culture clubhouse. Questioning, playing, debating, educating and celebrating. Always looking forwards into the future.

The moodboard images are partly our own past projects mixed with potentail new collaborations.

Development

After a long journey³ we finally landed near Rembrandtsplein. Together with our partners, projectmanager Michiel Kleiss⁴ and financial director Peter Bosman, we started the development of Halvemaansteeg 4-6 in 2014.

In recent years we have designed a dream building together with the architects of XML, completely contemporary and ready for the future. It more than meets all requirements regarding durability and safety. The result is a very high-quality sound-insulated bunker, an energy-efficient colossus in the center of Amsterdam, visually perfectly integrated into the cityscape.

To discribe the layout of the venue in short: Cafe, foyer at the beginning of the building serving as meeting point of the community. The theater hall is based on the ground-level, a large stage and balcony make it this space ideal for shows and performances. Two floors bellow is the second hall(studio) perfect for small concerts or intimate dance floor. Connecting this floor to the theater room is is the multifunctional service floor. Except for the permanent areas, all public areas can be flexibly arranged. This is to use the space as multi-functional as possible.

³ Previous locations:
2008 - 2009, Rokin57
2009 - 2010, Ruijterkade ‘onder de brug’
2010 - 2013, Nes 74, Theater de Engelenbak
⁴ M. Kleiss, Former financial directory of the discotheque RoXY, Lowlands festival and interim director of Paradiso, Amsterdam.

Current situation (2020)
Over the years we’ve worked together with the center city hall towards a building permit. The first permit application was submitted in 2016. Due to the size of the project this procedure takes quite a while. The development team and XML will continue working together towards the day the permit is issued.

The construction of the building will take more then a year to be completed. Hopefully if all goes to plan, the doors will open at the end of 2023/2024. More information will follow in the months to come.

PROJECT EUROPA — Halvemaansteeg 4-6:
Creative-directors: Dick Koopman — Jordi Ariza Gallego
Financial director: Peter Bosman
Projectmanager: Michiel Kleiss
Architect: XML
Architect renovations: Bouwadviesbureau Schiering | Constructor: Strackee | Geohydrological advice: Crux | Acoustic consultant: Event Acoustics | Installations: DHG | Fire Safety Consultant: Bureau Bouwkunde | Consultant building physics and engineering: ABT

Graphic design

Niederländische Botschaft in Deutschland (Berlin)
CSD bus design. (2018)

The Dutch embassy in Berlin participates in the yearly pride parade, referred to as 'Christoffer street day". In 2018 the Embassy has asked for a new design showing the colors and diversity of the dutch capitol. Dus promoting Amsterdam and linking it to the Dutch pride parade. The end result was a collage of the city with many local (nightlife)heroes and artists.

Hangover Information Center (Amsterdam)
Product design. (2015)

Working together with the architectures of XML, I provided the graphic design for the white vitamin store. The store sold the vitamine supplement Reset, after drink.

Exhebition "Zwart Amsterdam" Amsterdam Museum (Amsterdam)
Exhibition (2016)

The Amsterdam Museum called upon the people of Amsterdam to nominate black role models: writers, politicians, rappers, or even their next door neighbor. Guest curator Imara Limon worked together with the museum to make a selection from all those nominated. After the items, photgraphes and artworks we're selected we created a graphic line throught the exhibition.

From 7 October to 13 November the museum is hosting a range of activities on themes such as representation and the question: ‘What is black?’ The program for this year's Museum Night on 5 November is also on the theme ‘Black Amsterdam’.

Poster design
Event designs

Here are a couple of examples of event posters I have designed.

Computer Graphic

Studies
Surreal dreams (2021)

Two dreams (animations): Floating fabrics & a homage to Laurie Anderson.

Recreation (2020)

Recreating and transforming some of my favorite installations of the Stedelijk Museum collection.

Animations (2021)

Combining experiments of recreating objects with procedural materials.

Material (2020)

A series of experiments with procedural materials.

Animated posters
Grauzone Festival (2021)

A collection of moving posters for the online edition of the undeground performance, art festival Grauzone.

Other works

Photography
collages and photos

Part of my private work is a documentation of the Amsterdam Queer scene. Capturing the magic of the local superstars of the city.

Private dates
hosting

As a pride special I organized a serie of exclusive dating experience at the Oude Kerk. You, your date and me, locked in an empty church with the installation 'Poems for Earthlings’ by Adrián Villar Rojas. An hour to wander around alone.

Food provided by Robin van Otterloo

DJ
Sant Jordi (2016 - present)

Sant Jordi, better know as on of the captains of UltraSexi. Filling the dancefloor with love fibes. Mixing homo-eclectic tracks, seaminglingy flying between genres and eras.