‘Birthday expo’
For my birthday I wanted to bring various groups of friends and my family together, something that failed with past birthdays. I asked a couple of artists to create new works for the exhibition which were to be seen for one day in my hometown of Hilversum. Inspired by the typical way of celebrating birthdays in The Netherlands they came up with vibrant works displaying the rituals of making cakes, singing songs and inflating balloons.
Participating artist: Derk Müller, Aisi Rosa Schuur, Jakob van Klinken, Willem de Haan, Matthieu Reijnoudt and Xam van Kempen.
The artworks
Derk Müller let off multiple balloons, each carrying a card with one letter, which when combined would spell the word ‘gefeliciteerd’. The people that found the ballons could send their birthday wishes to me and in the end spell the entire word. 2 cards arrived. Müller also made an inflatable version fo myself which he installed in the garden.
Aisi Rosa Schuur found an image of a birthday party in her database of antique imagery. She wrapped the big print in wrapping paper and had me partly uncover it. Besides, she invited everyone present to sit on the birthday-chair so we could sing songs to them.
Jakob van Klinken constructed his own wooden version of a tablecloth, which was foldable as well. It showed various photographs of my face taken throughout the years. He also made three ceramic urns portraying imaginary characters.
Willem de Haan took care of the snacks, with which he invited the visitors to construct landmark buildings from across the globe. He made the letter ‘K’ in concrete as well, through the process of filling an inflatable letter with the material.
Matthieu Reijnoudt was tasked with making the cake, which resulted in a solid layer of glaze presented with candles in a cardboard box. Reijnoudt also made a one of a kind birthday poem, shown as a big booklet.
Xam van Kempen made multiple paintings depicting birthday scenes, which were presented in the garden, the living room and the toilet. Besides, he constructed his own version of the typical game' ‘Ezeltje Prik’, inviting people to stick a giant knife into a donkey. Xam also surprised the audience with a wonderful birthday song which we witnessed after following a route he laid out on the birthday flags.
Projects
‘Who’s to blame?’
For 5 days, the space of Expoplu (Now POST) was considered an office where the group of artists would work on their own practices and projects regarding ‘Who’s to Blame?’. Each artist presented their own work in the space. Visitors were invited to enter the workspace and engage in talks and conversations with the artists. On Tuesday, a board meeting was held in the space and broadcasted live. Artist and researcher Eef Veldkamp was invited to moderate the talk. Wednesday, the team of ‘Who’s to Blame’ invited people to come by for a job interview regarding the cleaning up of the exhibition. On Thursday two performances by Oscar Ekkelboom and Stan Gonera were to be seen in the space. Friday evening the team of ‘Who’s to Blame’ ended their week with some drinks.
For this project I wanted to focus on my job as a photographer and videographer. From Monday till Friday I documented every event and every object present in the room. Making a polaroid series, which consists of photographs showing elements of the space and its construction, but also reflections on itself, since the series was part of the project as well.
Besides I produced a short video work, which shows the video documentation of our process. The video was shown at the end of the week, you can watch it here.
In collaboration with Stan Gonera, Oscar Ekkelboom, Renee van Oploo and Kurina Sohn
‘De staat van verzorging’
Fascinated by the many ways in which green is placed, cared for and used in cities, we started our research searching for symptoms that show themselves in our daily connecting with greenery. Why are certain plants being hunted down and killed, while other plants are getting the care they need? What is the difference between a veteran tree in a park and the normal one in the streets? In what ways do we prefer to use our green? Is it a place for recreational purposes, is it a place to look at, is it a place to dump your garbage, or is it perfect to have your dog take a shit on it?
During the project I worked on making a diary. The diary is written by the very first ‘Veteran’ tree in The Netherlands, which is standing on the grounds of Clingendael in The Hague.
The idea behind this status comes from England, where a lot of old trees are still standing. This particular Linden is said to be around 300 years old. The idea is that the Linden can die a natural death. The municipality has put a fence around it, so people can’t come near the tree.
During my interviews I found out that there are two young neighbouring trees that eventually will outgrow the Linden. The council that takes care of maintaining the list of monumental trees in the city decided it would be best to cut these trees down, in order for the Linden to last longer.Which tree goes first?
collaboration with STROOM Den Haag.
With Mirjam Linschooten, Jack Engelbrecht, Jakob van Klinken & Constanze Schreiber.
In between Blue Waves and Green Corridors / 2017 -2019
Project by Hans van Houwelingen
Between Blue Waves and Green Corridor started in 2018 as a temporary workshop with art students from BEAR fine arts, the bachelor's program of ArtEZ, in which a research project was set up independently of the academy. This grew into a two-year study by an independently operating team of young artists, the ArteZTeam.
The film premièred during the Sonsbeek Force Times Distance On labour and its sonic ecologies. 2020-2024 exhibition in Arnhem.
with Hans van Houwelingen, Constanze Schreiber, Bram Kuypers, Jack Engelbrecht, Mirjam Linschooten, and Katrien Reist.
That Sunset Though / 2018
Willem de Haan and Matthieu Reijnoudt asked me to film a performance related to their project ‘That Sunset Though’, with which they travel to various cities in The Netherlands and present ratings of their sunsets. This version of ‘That Sunset Though’ took place at the opening of the show ‘Playhouse ‘71 - ‘17’ curated by Sjors Bindels at Museum van Bommel van Dam in Venlo.
The video shows their adventure through the exhibition and the process of coming up with a rating for the city of Venlo. The video work was later shown during the finissage of the exhibition and also at the event ‘Pillow Premiere’ at RUIS in Nijmegen.