On May 14th the site of Platforms Project Net will go online. EX-MÊKH, the platform with which I will participate, will show in booth 41 which you can visit here

Notes on an artist and his world
On May 14th the site of Platforms Project Net will go online. EX-MÊKH, the platform with which I will participate, will show in booth 41 which you can visit here
In the mean time we are in the middle of the Corona-crisis and most cultural activities have been cancelled. For me personally it was a great disappointment Platforms Project 2020 is not happening in Athens this year but the director, Artemis Potamianou, and the board decided to organize it all on the internet. EX-MÊKH was going to do a participation project but now that our booth is goïng to be shown in digital 3D simulation we decided to make a video about trial and error. We went to the Malieveld and shot a video with performances. More news soon, but for now some material to chew on:
Following the performances on December 7th EX-MÊKH would install the exhibition PROBE on December 8. Installing the exhibition was presented as a performance in itself after which the opening would take place. My work, Sensitory Selfportrait was prepared in the studio, so all I had to do was to communicate with my colleagues about the location, which appeared to deliver little discussion. After three hours the exhibition looked like it needed nothing more, so it would stay in the Haus der Statistik the whole month of December.
For the Selfportrait I teared black painted paper to imagine my senses: Sight, Hearing, Taste, Smell, Feeling. I glued seasalt to it and wrote down on the paper what they were and what it does to the creative process.
I put two little canvasses on the ears on which I wrote words made out of plastic strap: I bended the straps into words and taped it together with narrow yellow tape: Haste, Anger, Inertia, Negligence, Unfocused (A collection of sentiments to avoid) en Ambition, Recognition, Perfection, Fear, Awareness (A collection of attitudes to dose)
A-Trans in Berlin invited EX-MÊKH for a weekend of performances. This would take place December 6, 7 and 8, 2019 in the Haus der Statistik in Berlin, near Alexanderplatz. For the occasion Yorgos Dimitriades and me decided to join forces: Yorgos played an improvisation on percussion and electronics and I would write the sounds he made. Here you can see a brief impression, shot by Marian Wijnvoord:
Haus der Statistik, Berlin (D), December 8 until December 31, 2019
The exhibition and weekend of performances are featured by A TRANS at the Haus Statistik as part of the ‚Pioneer Uses‘ program organized by The Network of the independent Berlin Project Spaces and Initiatives in collaboration with Haus der Statistik.
In this exhibition EX-MÊKH will show their inspiration and working method, the themes that have always been important to the collective. The preceding acts together with the collective of KRAATZ during the performance weekend will be used as fertilizer for the process that will eventually result in an exhibition about the creating of an exhibition.
Saturday December 6
16.00 h- KRAATZ (Marian Wijnvoord and Forbes Morlock): Writing on Art
17.00 h – Kees Koomen: Tssssss K-BAM
In the context of writing The Diaries and writing down what enters my senses I will now try to visualize the sounds that I hear. Working together with improvising musician Yorgos Dimitriades who will improvise on percussion I will try to translate this sound into images.
17:30 Ellen Rodenberg and Yorgos Dimitriadis: Feed
In this “In between time”- space of the Haus der Statistiek I want to do a performance in which I will show a working attitude. It originates from a barrel full of experiences in my studio, daily life and education which I feel to be socially and constructively useful in my functioning as a human being.
18.00 h – Saturday December 6 – Maarten Schepers: Stelle
Can we live in any place on Earth and call it Home? What is home? Is it the stuff that keeps us warm? Is it our past we recognize in our surroundings? Is it in the place we act to keep on living? Schepers will try to elaborate on this question in the performance he proposes.
18:30 Yorgos Dimitriadis DUO: Das Sahnehäubchen
Sunday December 7 – EX-MÊKH: The Act
EX-MÊKH was invited to make an exhibition in the space on the invitation of A-Trans which will be shown during the month of December. We came together as a collective that wants to think about the nature and process of making exhibitions. For this occasion the opening of the exhibition will be a theatrical performance about our practice. We will start a process in front of the public culminating in an exhibition.
In this exhibition EX-MÊKH will show their inspiration and working method, the themes that have always been important to the collective. The preceding acts during the performance weekend will be used as fertilizer for the process that will eventually result in an exhibition about the creating of an exhibition.
I am proud of the installation I did with my diary-texts over the period EX-MÊKH had the MÊKH-web exhibition at Quartair. Every day I would write the appropriate text on the wall with a high or low of the day with wool and push buddies. During opening days I would do this live for the public. Here you can see the final result, and here you can see the phases it went through.
Foto’s van de opening van de EX-MÊKH tentoonstelling MÊKH-web. Ik heb wat leentjebuur gespeeld met permissie…
We are busy arranging the exhibition which works out fine until now!
The shortest connection between two points is a straight line. When there are more points, a web will connect. Some connections will be used intensively, others find themselves on the edge of the web. In the exhibition MÊKH-web, Ellen Rodenberg, Kees Koomen and Maarten Schepers, will chart the network it has been developing in thirteen years.
MÊKH-web will take place from September 20 until October 6, 2019
The opening takes place September 20 from 19.00 until 23.00 h
Opening hours: September 21 and 23: 13-17h, September 27,28 and 29: 13-17 h, October 4,5, and 6 oktober 13-17 h
Venue: Quartair Contemporary Art Initiatives
Toussaintkade 55, Den Haag, Netherlands
During Hoogtij #58 on September 27 the tracks of MÊKH-web can be followed from 19.00 until 23.00 h
The members of EX-MÊKH, Maarten Schepers, Ellen Rodenberg and Kees Koomen, have invited artists that had an influence on them. These artists are Marian Wijnvoord (Berlin), Frans van Lent (Dordrecht) and Niels Post (Rotterdam)
Live-web
During the last weekend, October 4,5 and 6, EX-MÊKH will organize a Live-web with a lot more artists from our network. No week will be the same, interweaving will take place by additions and shifts. The public and artists that have been following EX-MÊKH for some time now will know that it is advisable to keep an eye on social media all three weekends. Developments will be announced there.
EX-MÊKH is on Facebook, Kees en Ellen are on Instagram
Met dank aan Stroom, Den Haag
Ontwerp Affiche: Ben Faydherbe
Van 16 t/m 19 mei heeft EX-MÊKH ook dit jaar deelgenomen aan de onafhankelijke beurs voor kunstenaarsplatforms in Athene. We maakten een grote installatie met werk van de drie leden van EX-MÊKH: Ellen Rodenberg, Maarten Schepers en Kees Koomen. Bij deze een foto en een link naar de EX-MÊKH site waarop de installatie en onze activiteiten uitgebreid worden getoond Verslagen over de beurs kunt u vinden op chmkoome’s blog bij de genoemde data.