At the end of a turbulent year, Nieuw Dakota celebrates its tenth anniversary. We look back and ahead with a special anniversary programme and collaboration with artists and partner BeamSystems/BeamLab. A selection of videos, installations and performances offer a poetic and stilled view of a tilting world.
Silent sounds sound near and far. Young men off the coast of a Filipino island keep themselves afloat. The water rises visibly, just as fast as it does here invisibly. Circles disturb the regularity. The other person’s face speaks in countless flavours. Are we familiar with the miniscule swerve that controls the mighty cogwheel of natural laws?
Nieuw Dakota moves walls, makes space, shifts mountains and engages people.
Through art we are able to explore ourselves, eachother and the world.
Starring: Martha Atienza, Vincent Boschma, Henk Schut, Sevilay Maria and Irina Birger
Martha Atienza 1981 / PH / NL: Equation of state Panangatan / Equation of State Tarong
In the video Equation of State, Martha Atienza examines the interaction between humans and the environment, documenting both their decline and resiliency. It is a tense relationship, expressed in the material and immaterial. In this new work, Atienza films the coastline of the Bantayan Island’s in an an attempt to make sense of warming oceanic temperatures and subsequent rising sea levels. We see an endless series of daily life that is now playing out on the edge of the water; how long before the ocean takes these homes?
In the triptych young fishermen are literally holding their heads above water.
Born to a Dutch mother and Filipino father, Martha Atienza (b. 1981, Manila, Philippines; lives and works in Bantayan Island, Philippines) has moved between the Netherlands and the Philippines throughout her life. Constantly oscillating between these two cultures has had a profound influence on Atienza’s focus as an artist.
Vincent Boschma 1976 / NL: The Opposite Ends of a Continuum
The installation “The Opposite Ends of a Continuum” is a high ‘table’ with a neon-lit landscape in which circular movements are the focus, shows a dualistic, polarising interplay between magnets and iron powder. In addition to the regular movement, two independent variable forces work together, representing a play between a single orderly path being overlapped by chaotic twists and turns. In De Rerum Natura, Lucretius describes the concept of clinamen principiorum, or the original deflection, as follows: ‘The atoms fall into a dead straight trajectory through the void, under the influence of their own weight. But at indefinite moments and indefinite places, they show a minimal quasi-deviation, which is just sufficient to speak of a change in the balance’. In this classical atomic theory, the formation of bodies from the primal atoms can only take place through an unforeseen and unpredictable disruption of the regularity. Anyone who examines the behaviour of the bodies and their movements will ultimately come up against extremely small but decisive swings, which give shape to the mighty machinery of natural laws that governs matter.
With his work (media and installation work, video and painting) Vincent Boschma questions external influences, chance and perception. In his installations and temporary interventions he provides a commentary on the perception of our environment and invites an opennes to other points of view.
Sevilay Maria 1984 / NL: #MYOWNGENDER
#MYOWNGENDER is a travelling art installation fusing photography with audio, video, and written word which portrays all nuances of the thematic spectrum. The installation is built up out of circle shaped metal constructions in which thirty-five models portray their story in a short interview. In my #MYOWNGENDER Sevilay Maria uses collodion wet plating, a photography technique from the 1850s, this technique captures the face in a way no other photography technique can, Sevilay says. The photo’s are not varnished so time will leave its mark on the installation in the form of natural oxidation. #MYOWNGENDER reflects the power of vulnerability. The power to rewrite the rules of society by being your most pure self.
Sevilay Maria is a photographer and specializes in the Collodion Wetplate technique. She creates here own chemistry with utmost precision and ensures that every hand poured plate is a work of art. Sevilay studied photography at the KABK and has been working independently for the past 10 years. She observes social matters and opens up taboos.
Henk Schut / NL: Constructed Silence
Silence after the storm. After the overwhelming sound of a heavy rain shower, lightning and thunder, the peace of silence follows. But as the silence lasts longer, you become aware of the smallest sounds, your hearing seems hightened. You hear your own breathing, a bird high in a tree, an airplane far away, a drop in a drainpipe nearby. Experiencing the silence is a rich and concentrated sound world. This installation is a reconstruction and possibility to relive the sudden silence of the city that we experienced during the intelligent lock down during the first weeks that COVID-19 moved through our country. In a three-meter-high globe, sounds from all over the world, recorded during the lock down, come together into one composition.
The globe can be entered by one person, inside you are surrounded by 24 speakers, all at exactly 1.5 metres distance. The speakers are controlled by specially created software and artificial intelligence, which collect sounds that come in from all over the world via open source and online stages.
Henk Schut is a multidisciplinary visual artist whose ideas derive from posing questions, looking into environments, communities, historical events and current affairs. With each project he looks for the most suitable form to express his ideas. His work often contains a certain playfulness that reinforces its explanatory power without trivializing the subject at hand. He has an integrative approach to the environment in which he presents his work.
DR. BIRGER BY APPOINTMENT
Dr.Birger by Appointment is a series of one-on-one conversations and drawing sessions in an installation setting. This time the dialogues with Dr. Birger will focus on isolation, connectivity, and interdependency. Dr. Birger will visualize the conversations with visitors, taking her own feelings and actions into account in the drawings she makes during the conversation.
Dr. Birger can be viewed as an installation during the opening hours of Nieuw Dakota. The one-on-one conversations take place every Saturday between 12.00 and 18.00 by appointment. Date and time can be booked via dr.birger@nieuwdakota.com. During the press opening, Dr. Birger will be present once on Wednesday. Each appointment has a duration of approximately 30 minutes.
Rio (2007) lounge chair by Elena Goray is part of the installation.
Dr. Birger’s outfit is made by Evita Ative and photographed by Marcel van der Vlugt.
Dr. Birger is an alter ego of artist Irina Birger.
