Streetart Frankey

Few people will recognise the name Henri Pronker, but his nickname is a household name among many Amsterdammers: de skater met de reetveter (the skater with the thong), the man who attracted a great deal of attention as he skated through Amsterdam wearing nothing but a T-shirt and a thong. When he passed away in 2023, street artist Streetart Frankey decided to commemorate him with a small, humorous statue which he placed somewhere on Eerste Constantijn Huygensstraat.

It is characteristic of the work of Streetart Frankey (pseudonym of Frank de Ruwe), the man who tries to lift the mood in the city with his urban interventions. But that is not all; the artist essentially explores how to remain light-hearted in a world where freedom and democracy are coming under increasing pressure.

Filmmaker Peter Wingender, who previously made the documentary Ruigoord – Een kosmisch lek, follows Frankey from Amsterdam to New York and shows how, with flair, humour and youthful exuberance, he seeks a place between the street and the museum, between joke and statement.