RUW! #5

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Cover RUW! #5

The artist magazine RUW! is an interesting initiative. Originally it started in Berlin because the Dutch editor, Hans Könings, lived in Berlin at the time. He asked a number of artists he knew to make an art-edition of 50 copies on A4 format and put those together in a cover especially designed for the issue at hand. The issue would be presented in an art-space with other work of contributing artists. Some years ago Könings moved back to Den Haag and he decided to start a Dutch edition of RUW! I have attended to three presentations of a new issue and I liked the idea. All the more, because I organised a similar project when studying in the US under the name Ysland – The Dutch American conspiracy.

Recently Hans asked me to contribute to RUW! #5 which already seemed very appealing to me. The theme would be Mud. So I agreed and used a performance I did in Berlin in 2014 and a text I wrote along with it as an inspiration for my page. The Text goes like this:

Ich grub in Berliner Boden

Im Antlitz spiegelt sich Berlin

Ich hab mich mit einer Staubmaske gesucht

Da fand ich ein Faden der zu mir führte

The presentation, which was scheduled on the 9th of January at HOK-gallery in Den Haag (NL), has unfortunately been postponed until further notice for obvious reasons. We’ll keep you posted.

edition on the studio floor
Kees Koomen: Da fand ich ein Faden der zu mir führte

Brief Encounters

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Twee pagina’s van mijn bijdrage

Gisteren lag de nieuwe editie van het DeFKa REsearch magazine in de bus, 2021#4. In dat magazine staan een aantal pagina’s uit mijn Corona dagboek uit het begin van dit jaar waarin ik aantekeningen en schetsen plaatste over mensen die ik tijdens corona-wandelingen tegen kwam. Er werd gevraagd om bijdragen met als thema Souvenir & Residu. Mijn dagboeken pasten daar naar mijn mening naadloos in .

De schetsen en teksten heb ik later gebruikt om een aantal schilderijen te maken onder de naam Brief Encounters, die nu bij Het Bouwhuis in Deventer te zien zijn. De daaraan voorafgaande serie Berliner Porträte die de inspiratie was voor deze werken, is daar ook te zien zoals Gryanne van Het Bouwhuis hierboven toont!

Het Bouwhuis

DeFKa Research

PAX International

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On November 12 Pim Palsgraaf and Lucius Pax opened an exhibition at Keile Contemporary in the old harbour area in Rotterdam. At this occasion Lucius Pax published the first magazine handling about theme’s in his work. This issue is about memories from his German past about Krimi’s (german detective series on television) and nude in the media.. The artist asked me to write something about his paintings which I did with pleasure. This text (in Dutch) can be read here and an account of the opening of the exhibition can be found here. PAX International can be ordered on the website of the artist

Les Idiolithes

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This past weekend the opening of ‘Les idiolithes’ took place in Paris. After the first performances with ‘Conversation with a Stone about Freud’s Correspondence about Stones’ executed by Forbes Morlock and ‘Sounding the Stone‘ by Yorgos Dimitriades the video’s ‘Les idiolithes’ by KRAATZ,  ‘Soma(2) – Moksha ‘by Sabine Bürger and ‘Stage Arousal‘ by EX MÊKH are shown for the first time on the sixteen screens on the front of the building.

Stage Arousal ( still)
For a report on the first day (in Dutch): click on the picture!

On the second day the ritual return of the stone is executed: the members of Kraatz pass the stone to the members of EX-MÊKH. After a break the performance ‘Sentiers d’été‘ is executed by Kees Koomen and after another break Ex-MÊKH’s Ellen Rodenberg gives a workshop.

Sentiers d’été
For a report on the second day (in Dutch): click on the picture!

Les Idiolithes

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in EP7 in Parijs van 3 september t/m 16 september
EP7, 133 avenue de France 75013 Paris

The exhibition on the facade of EP7 Paris (with invited artists Ex-Mêkh and Sabine Bürger) is accompanied by a weekend of performances, workshops, and an official curatorial ceremony around the opening.

According to a dictionary not yet written, an idiolith is a short—sometimes very short—film illustrating a compound word, phrase, or saying that includes a lithic element (such as, in English, “stone” or “rock”).

For EP7, artists’ collective KRAATZ has reimagined an anthology of its simple films as an architectural installation.

Two days of performances, workshops, and ceremonies has been organized around the opening of the exhibition on Friday September 3. For the full programme: scroll down.

KRAATZ is: Louise Crawford, Yorgos Dimitriadis, Stéphan Guéneau, Forbes Morlock, Isolde Nagel and Marian Wijnvoord. The members of KRAATZ share a desire to spur on their own work, to collaborate on each other’s work, and to engage in collective work.

EX-MÊKH is Ellen Rodenberg, Maarten Schepers and Kees Koomen. These artists all have their individual professional practices as an artist but next to that they show their works in their mutual contexts and they try to develop a relationship with the spaces in which exhibitions are held.

KRAATZ: www.kraatzonline.wordpress.com
About Idioliths: https://kraatzonline.wordpress.com/episode-3-idioliths-2/
EP7: www.ep7.paris
KRAATZ invites: Dutch artist collective Ex Mêkh: http://www.ex-mekh.nl
and visual artist Sabine Bürger: http://www.sabine-buerger.de

Program Opening Weekend

Friday September 3rd

19H                  Conversation with a Stone about Freud’s Correspondence about Stones

University professor Forbes Morlock discusses Freud’s journeys to the Dolomites, the Harz Mountains, Rome and Athens with the star of Les Idiolithes

1930H              Sounding the Stone

Experimental musician Yorgos Dimitriadis uses percussion, microphones and electronics to find the stone’s groove

20H                  Opening

Projections by the KRAATZ Collective and invited guests start on the facade of EP7

Saturday September 4th

16-17H &          Workshops

1715-1815H      A chance to work in small groups with members of KRAATZ to produce your own “idiolith.” The short films made in these workshops will appear on the big screens of EP7 later in the exhibition.

Maximum 10 people per workshop. Participants should bring a sense of play and, if possible, a smartphone, and clothes in solid dark colours (ideally black).

1930H              Cérémonie de la remise officielle du monolithe

The formal return by KRAATZ of the stone at the centre of the Les Idiolithes installation to the Dutch artists’ group EX-MÊKH.

to be followed by

20H                  Arousal—the Workshop

An interactive performance by EX-MÊKH’s Ellen Rodenberg, introducing the group’s intervention @ EP7

&  The Weight and Brief Encounters

Two performances by EX-MÊKH’s Kees Koomen, the first with the newly returned stone and the second mixing the myth of Sisyphus with the artist’s experiences in France this summer.

KRAATZ: www.kraatzonline.wordpress.com
About Idioliths: https://kraatzonline.wordpress.com/episode-3-idioliths-2/
EP7: www.ep7.paris
Ex Mêkh: http://www.ex-mekh.nl
Sabine Bürger: http://www.sabine-buerger.de

Het Bouwhuis

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Something has happened that shouldn’t have – 2021
Oilpaint & oilstick on Canvas – 65×50 cm

Vanaf deze week zullen nieuwe schilderijen van mij te zien zijn in Deventer in het Bouwhuis. Het betreft de series ‘Berliner Porträte’ en een aantal portretten uit de serie ‘Brief Encounters’. Er worden wisselende groepstentoonstellingen gehouden en met enige regelmaat worden focusevents georganiseerd. Ik houd u op de hoogte!

Het Bouwhuis

Stage Arousal

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For Platforms Project NET 2021 EX-MÊKH decided to make a video of the making of an installation. In it one could follow the decisions of each member on enriching the whole. Maarten Schepers built a booth like the ones we usually show our work in Athens in. During a cold week in February we came together daily to add to the installation. We decided the booth could also be seen as a stage on which performance could take place, so a number of actions were executed. We didn’t talk to each other about what each of us would do so we went through a series of surprises. My personal input was based on works of artists that inspired me. Here you can see my additions to the Stage Arousal as the video was called. I leave it to you to recognise the inspiration for the work!

Farewell

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On the 28th of may Jane Huldman retired from her work at STROOM in Den Haag. Everybody in the art-scene in Den Haag knows and loves her and her colleagues at STROOM asked all of us to send a memory or a thought about Jane. It resulted in a digital Liber Amicorum. In spite of a late start, it was a pleasure to make a personal portrait of Jane in the way I am working on my Brief Encounters series. You can see the result below!

Platforms Project NET 2021

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This year also EX-MÊKH participates in the on-line Platforms Project again , it’s the art-fair in Athens for independent art-platforms all over the world. This time we decided to collaborate with the international Artist Collective KRAATZ and with the Berlin based independent art platform A TRANS, both of which we have worked with before.
KRAATZ shows the video Idioliths which I interpret as an inspired contemplation on elements in our exhibition FEMALER in Berlin last fall. We also collaborate with the independent Berlin based art-platform A-TRANS that compiled its activities in video. EX-MÊKH produced a video in which their working method is shown: Stage Arousal ! It shows how we have a place to exhibit and build up a show. We decided to include performance, because video is time-based, as is performance. Please click under the picture underneath to visit the EX-MÊKH page. Video’s can be seen from May 27!

EX-MÊKH – Stage Arousal