In 2020 a covid-19 pandemic started spreading across geographic boundaries. A worldwide call for homestay and physical distancing made existing privileges and social and economic inequalities (even more) apparent. TAAK, with myself as the project’s content and text editor, initiated the online project In Quarantine, together with artists Paulien Oltheten and Alina Lupu – discussing how collective (artistic) practices develop within a shared public domain with its shifting nature. 

In Stay Healthy, a series of short video portraits, Oltheten documented a range of examples of human contact, amidst the silence and sterility of the city. Lupu created a series of blog posts and audio files under the overarching title Our New Normal, addressing themes of labor, time, tourism, housing, capitalism, and institutional critique. In part two of Our New Normal we invited four authors to reply to Lupu’s questions, from their own practices and looking towards future possibilities: How is public space defined? Who does public space belong to? What systems sustain us? Are these visible to us at all times and if not, how do we make them visible? How to avoid exploitative systems? How to build new structures? How to work differently as artists? How to make space public again?

Together with: Paulien Oltheten, Alina Lupu, Friedrich von Borries, Carmen Salas, Liza Prins, Maisa Imamović, Theo Tegelaers, Annemieke Dannenberg

Site: online

Year: 2020-2021

Roles: editor, reflective dramaturge, conversation partner

Archive In Quarantine: https://www.taak.me/en/activity/in-quarantine-2/

As a research assistant and text editor, I contributed to an EU-level grant application initiated by Dr. Friederike Landau-Donnelly, interdisciplinary urban scholar at Radboud University. Drawing from memory studies, queer methodologies, feminist new materialisms and political theory an extensive proposal for a long-term research project including case studies was compiled, built on several core questions: “How do politics of absence and presence unfold conflicts about cultural memory and (re)presentation in public space? How to theorize these spatial politics of power, belonging, in-/exclusion, and access? How do conflicts in public space come to matter?” In addition, I worked on a follow-up grant application, again directed by Landau-Donnelly. 

Together with: Friederike Landau-Donnelly

Thanks to: Simon(e) van Saarloos, Liedeke Plate, László Munteán and others

Site: Radboud University, Nijmegen (NL)

Year: 2021

Roles: text editor, advisor, conversation partner

For Public Art Amsterdam I co-developed two routes in Amsterdam Southeast and Center, tracing several sites and stories related to art works and monuments. The routes, to follow on foot, by bicycle or from home, include conversations about memories, lesser-known histories and futures, queer and activist experiences, public art policy, communities and protest – in podcast episodes and text excerpts that were compiled in collaboration with artists, poets, writes, journalists, radio makers and passers-by. In the editing process, a polyphony of (local) voices and visions were carefully collected by all involved.

Together with: TAAK, Noraly Beyer, Jörgen Gario, Jesper Buursink, Sanne Pols, Charlotte Bijl, Theo Tegelaers, Public Art Amsterdam and others

Sites: Amsterdam Southeast and Center (NL)

Year: 2021

Roles: editor, writer

Archive: https://publicart.amsterdam/routes/kunstroute-zuidoost-helden-van-zuidoost/ and https://publicart.amsterdam/routes/kunstroute-centrum/

What does the garden of the 21st century look like, and how would you design it? For this book, published as part of the artistic research project The Non Urban Garden curated by Peter Sonderen and Joop Hoogeveen, I authored the articles about the work of the artists involved and co-edited the publication. The art works, by Birthe Leemeijer, Edward Clydesdale Thomson, Jeroen Kooijmans and Doris Denekamp & Jimini Hignett, are all situated in the public space of the town of Diepenheim in the east of the Netherlands. Whether more permanent or rather ephemeral, they bring to the fore topical matters such as ecology, power, ownership, agency and imagination – by engaging with wild tulips, (un)natural fences, the extinction of bees, and tree gardens. The book also includes several commissioned essays, by Ann Meskens, Saskia de Wit, Jorrit Noordhuizen and Erik de Jong, and an interview with garden and landscape designer Piet Oudolf.

Together with: Peter Sonderen, Joop Hoogeveen, Edward Clydesdale Thomson, Doris Denekamp & Jimini Hignett, Jeroen Kooijmans, Birthe Leemeijer, Piet Oudolf, Ann Meskens, Erik de Jong, Jorrit Noordhuizen, Saskia de Wit, ArtEZ University of the Arts, AFdH Publishers (Paul Abels and Martien Frijns), Kunstvereniging Diepenheim

Site: Diepenheim (NL)

Year: 2014

Roles: writer, text editor

In 2020 I wrote an essayistic piece on encounters, fluidity, writing, walking, love and the ability to start anew. The occasion was a self-published handbook by curator, educator and facilitator Lenn Cox, who gathered contributions by various practitioners from within her network. Inspired by a photo that I once took of Cox’ clothing, on which she collects references to thinkers that matter to her, she invited me to respond to a particular quote by Hannah Arendt. The text I wrote was meant to mirror some of the conversations Cox and I had in the months prior to the invitation. Bits and pieces surface from the sentences, that also contain (visual) traces of our exchange, a brief reflection on Arendt and a turn to bell hooks’ writings on connection and love.    

From the cover: “Collective Wandering, Hanging Out With Our Everyday Ecology, is not a manual in the traditional sense, with linear instructions or guidelines – rather, it is a hopefully engaging and activating collection of insights, moments and encounters.”

Together with: Lenn Cox and her network

Thanks to: Melanie Cora Bomans, Heike Renée de Wit

Site: various

Year: 2020

Roles: writer, conversation partner

As part of the MA in Cultural Memory at Radboud University Nijmegen, I studied and contextualized a sculptural work by artist Ellert Haitjema in relation to theoretical notions of art in public space, affect, interactivity, cultural memory and embodiment. This article, written as part of a research phase at the Professorship Art and Public Space at Gerrit Rietveld Academy Amsterdam, is the result of that intensive exchange. An edited version became a chapter in my thesis Space Thickens, Liquefies and Stirs. Installaties en de subjectieve ervaring.

Thanks to: Ellert Haitjema, Jeroen Boomgaard

Sites: Studio Ellert Haitjema, Professorship Art and Public Space at Gerrit Rietveld Academy, Westergasfabriek, Amsterdam (NL)

Year: 2007

Roles: researcher, writer

An essay in Dutch, one of several written in the context of an essay writing course at Schrijversvakschool Amsterdam. As I wanted to practice different forms of writing, I joined this class. Essays depart from personal fascinations, are fueled by questions and wonderings, and do not have to end in a conclusion. The meaning of essayer is to try, to attempt. This very exercise made me realize, once again, that embodied experience and literature are connected, fluid frames through which I encounter the world. 

Thanks to: Nicole Montagne

Sites: Schrijversvakschool, Amsterdam (NL) and dream worlds

Year: 2018

Roles: writer, dreamer

Somewhere in 2015, artist Isolde Venrooy and myself initiated Buro Ruimte Rondom. “Mapping landscapes artistically and philosophically through on-site encounters” became the focus of this experiment. We read and talked about relationality – between people, buildings, landscapes, borders and stories. We looked at memories, art works, city sites, river flows, vegetation and voids. We took walks. At some point, we felt the urge to open up and share our fragmented findings with others. To establish a moment in time by being present collectively, sensing (on whatever scale) and engaging in a dialogue about what could not be seen and known immediately in a space, context, situation or environment. Buro Ruimte Rondom developed research proposals and public programs for amongst others Architecture Centre Nijmegen, Jan van Eyck Academy, and ELIA Biennial: Resilient Cities.

Together with: Isolde Venrooy 

and amongst others Anne Vegter, Martin Drenthen, Esther Kokmeijer, Maïté Tjon A Hie, Deep End Film, Architecture Center Nijmegen, Jan Van Eyck Academy Maastricht, Radboud University Nijmegen, ELIA Rotterdam (NL)

Sites: scattered

Year: 2015-present

Roles: curator, writer, critical friend

For Public Art Amsterdam 2020, I conducted research into the notion of opacity and co-wrote and edited the manifestation’s initial curatorial text. 

Public Art Amsterdam, a collaboration of over ten art institutions, emerged from a shared interest in public space and matters of inclusivity and democracy. The 2020 edition of the biyearly manifestation of Public Art Amsterdam would focus on issues of (in)visibility, transparency, and opacity in the city. Why should we/they/one aim for (in)visibility to begin with? And what does it mean to do so from an institutional position? 

Connected to Transparency | Opacity is the long-term artistic research project Don’t Fence Me In (2020-2022) by Rotterdam-based artists Bik Van der Pol, which I am currently working on.

Together with: Charlotte Bijl, Theo Tegelaers, members of Public Art Amsterdam (CBK Zuidoost, De Appel, Framer Framed, GET LOST-art route, LAPS/Gerrit Rietveld Academie, Stichting NDSM-werf, Oude Kerk, Amsterdam Museum, Stedelijk Museum Amsterdam, Mediamatic, Zone2Source and TAAK)

Thanks to: Radna Rumping 

Site: TAAK, Amsterdam (NL)

Year: 2020

Roles: researcher, writer

Between 2008 and 2011, I was the coordinator of a series of exhibitions and research-in-residencies at BAK, basis voor actuele kunst – a contemporary space in Utrecht for art, theory, and politics and for “imagining otherwise”. In collaboration with artists, researchers, curators, interns and team I realized the exhibitions The Return of Religion and Other Myths (2008-2009), Mona Vatamanu & Florin Tudor: Surplus Value (2009), Lawrence Weiner: Dicht Bij (2010), Musée de la danse: expo zéro (2010), Vectors of the Possible ((2010), Call the Witness (2011), and the accompanying catalogues and events. I was also involved in the long-term research project Former West and related congresses in Utrecht (2009) and Istanbul (2010). 

Together with: Mona Vatamanu & Florin Tudor, Lawrence Weiner, Rod Dickinson, Michael Uwemedimo, Sharon Hayes, Freee, Elske Rosenfeld, Ultra-red, Jill Winder, Simon Sheikh, Boris Groys, Cosmin Costinas, Maria Hlavajova, Boyan Manchev, Vivian Rehberg, July Radul, Boris Charmatz, Matteo Lucchetti, Suzanne Tiemersma, Solmaz Shahbazi, Jesko Fezer, Flora Lysen, Suzana Milevska, Ann Goldstein, Arjan van Meeuwen, Ellen Philippen, Dorine Sneep, Marieke Kuik, La Biennale di Venezia, Lombard-Freid Projects, Centre for the Humanities, Utrecht University, Centraal Museum, Springdance, Kummer&Herrman, and many others 

Sites: BAK, basis voor actuele kunst, Utrecht (NL) and project locations such as Venice (IT), Istanbul (TR), Brussels (BE) and more

Year: 2008-2011

Roles: coordinator, editor, conversation partner

Archive BAK: https://www.bakonline.org

As assistant-curator and coordinator I contributed to Rethinking Robert Smithson, a one-day symposium about the legacy of the artist Robert Smithson (1938–1973), following the release of the publication Robert Smithson: Art in Continual Movement by Alauda Publications. The symposium aimed to open a discussion about current concerns in art and theory at the intersection of art historical debate, societal shifts, and contemporary art practice – drawing parallels between debates prevalent in the 1970s and today, such as the relation between art and ecology, the position of the artist within an information and media society, and the crisis of (neo)liberalism. How well do we actually know our immediate past and what can we learn from it? 

Together with: Ingrid Commandeur, Esther Krop, Anja Novak, Eric C.H. de Bruyn, Sven Lütticken, Ann Reynolds, Ian White, Sabeth Buchmann, T.J Demos, Nils Norman, Gail Whiteman, Maja and Reuben Fowkes, Alauda Publications, Leiden University Institute for Cultural Disciplines (LUICD), Department of Artists’ Theories and Artistic Practice at KABK, Professorship Art and Public Space at Gerrit Rietveld Academy

Site: KABK Royal Academy of Art, The Hague (NL)

Year: 2012

Roles: assistant-curator, text editor, coordinator

As a member of TAAK, and upon the invitation of the municipality of Amsterdam, I/we investigated the notion and (im)possibility of ‘vrije ruimte’, questioning how the arts can contribute to creating space for community and self-organization. For this project I conducted interviews and co-authored and edited the related volume, which reported about the findings in word and image.

In 2019 the city of Amsterdam was actively looking to revise its cultural policy in relation to ‘vrije ruimte’ [open space]. But what does ‘vrij’ mean in this context? Can such a thing even exist? And if so; where, how, and for whom? TAAK assembled an editorial board to realize the booklet Wat als we over ‘vrije ruimte’ spreken with various interviews, commissioned essays, documentation of art works, and recommendations for future projects and collaborations. 

Together with: Maria Barnas, Roel Griffioen, Radna Rumping, Lara Staal, Theo Tegelaers, Bik Van der Pol, Matthijs de Bruijne, Tina Carlisi, Alina Lupu, Eva Olthof, Rainbow Soulclub, Pauline Le Pape and many others

Sites: TAAK, Amsterdam and throughout the city

Year: 2019

Roles: researcher, writer, editor, conversation partner

The Honours Programme Theory and Research, a track at ArtEZ University of the Arts with an emphasis on critical thinking and dialogue, aims to collectively engage in encounters with the arts and sciences. Playfully serious and seriously playful, bachelor students of various artistic disciplines exchange ideas, concepts, musings, propositions, dreams, matters, moves and movements. Dancers, theatre makers, writers, musicians, architects, visual artists, designers and so on collaborate in a multidisciplinary environment to examine what doing research is about. During tutorials, lectures, workshops, field trips and reading groups they engage in dialogue with each other, with international authors and with guest lecturers to expand knowledge(s) and practices. Is there a certain communality of concepts and views? Do they/we speak the same language? 

For several years I was affiliated with the Honours Programmme run by the Professorship of Theory in the Arts, and responsible for the curriculum design of the multidisciplinary courses SPEAK and ENCOUNTER, teaching and mentorship, publications, student applications, assessments, communication, and general coordination. I also occasionally contributed to ArtEZ Studium Generale – hosting a workshop for De Grote Geheugen Show, co-developing the Kitchen Table Conversations on home and belonging, and moderating a blog for the project #diversitystories.

Together with: Marijn de Langen, Peter Sonderen, Dalila Sehovic, Iris van de Kamp, team ArtEZ Studium Generale, students, bachelor departments and guest lecturers such as Robin Lakes, Sanja Mitrovic, Charl Landvreugd, Masha Ru, Dick Swaab, Dries Verhoeven, Laura van Grinsven, Zeynep Gündüz, Reza Abedini, Joao da Silva, Jochem Naafs and many others

Sites: ArtEZ University of the Arts, Arnhem/Deventer/Enschede/Zwolle (NL), field research locations such as Antwerp (BE), Ruhr area (DE), Glasgow, London (UK) and more

Year: 2011-2019

Roles: curriculum designer, tutor, coordinator, editor

On several occasions, Radboud University invited me to work with them on their projects and educational programs – in particular Martijn Stevens, who is currently the university’s Culture Coordinator and a lecturer at the Radboud Honours Academy. 

For the interdisciplinary Honourslab Science meets Art, I participated as a ‘critical friend’ in a series of workshops at cultural venues, by critically reflecting on the content. The lab, attended by students from a variety of scientific courses, aimed to actively engage in embodied ways of learning and possible relations between artistic and theoretical domains. I decided to share my role with artist Isolde Venrooy, to be able to question our own position as critical friends too. We functioned as curriculum advisors and conversation partners, proposing several interventions and curating a closing event with a performative walk and a discussion for the Honourslab community.

More recently, I collaborated with Martijn Stevens on the design of a vision for a future cultural programming built on connections between academic research and artistic practices. In conversations with Radboud’s academics we investigated notions of togetherness, collectivity, (un)supporting infrastructures, (not)knowing, (in)equity, emancipation, mobility and other matters that will be incorporated in a long-term trajectory, extending beyond the context of campus and into the city. 

Together with: Martijn Stevens, Isolde Venrooy, students, artists and researchers such as Adriaan Luteijn, Maartje Nevejan, Jeroen van Loon, Lieke Wouters and others

Sites: Radboud University, Introdans, InScience Film Festival, Museum Het Valkhof, Oddstream, De Nieuwe Oost/Wintertuin, Art Moves, Nijmegen and Arnhem (NL)

Year: 2020-2021

Roles: critical friend, researcher, advisor

As assistant-curator I co-realized Parallel Spaces, an exhibition on possible relations between physical and virtual spaces. The works on display presented and evoked playful encounters with the virtual in video, sound, games, and mapping. The exhibition was part of the multifaceted project Straalstroom, curated by art space Paraplufabriek Nijmegen, currently called POST.

At the time, I was co-teaching the course Digital Art and Culture at the Faculty of Humanities at Radboud University.

Together with: Martijn Stevens, Dennis de Bel, Michael van Schaik, Art van Triest, Sil van der Woerd, Lieke Wouters, Jozzy Rubenski, and others

Site: Paraplufabriek, Nijmegen (NL)

Year: 2008

Roles: assistant-curator, coordinator

Within the scope of the exhibition Mind Your Step at Zone2Source in Amsterdam, I invited artist Tao G. Vrhovec Sambolec, whose work often entails situated interventions related to sound and the step, for a public walking conversation. I call these self-curated encounters, which are part of a growing body of work, Walking-as-Research.

Walking-as-Research focuses on walking as artistic and performative research practice, in relation to topical issues and movements. While walking we reflect on the relationship between a moving and sensing body, its surroundings, and other bodies. Notions that pass by are: walking as (situated) research; walking as not-knowing; which or what bodies walk?; what or who sounds or listens?; walking and memory; voids, disruptions, detours, interactions; walking as relational and sensorial; walking as protest; how to document walking-as-research? 

The walk with Tao G. Vrhovec Sambolec in the Amstelpark (the former grounds of the international horticultural exhibition Floriade in 1972) involved on-site readings and writings and could be attended with headphones, in order for all walkers to keep covid-proof distance from one another. Over the course of the exhibition Mind Your Step, I also designed and taught a walking workshop for students of ArtEZ University of the Arts. 

Together with: Tao G. Vrhovec Sambolec

Thanks to: Elena Biserna, Isolde Venrooy, Alice Smits, Zone2Source

Site: Amstelpark, Amsterdam (NL)

Year: 2020

Roles: curator, conversation partner, walker, tutor

When I was a curriculum designer and tutor at ArtEZ University of the Arts I took part in the seminar series Let’s Talk About (Artistic) Research, which challenged ArtEZ lecturers to discuss their personal research and teaching practice collectively. Within this context, I chose to further develop the concept of ENCOUNTER. In the course ENCOUNTER of the ArtEZ Honours Programme Theory and Research, artists and scientists were invited by me to meet with the students and to situate themselves and their work – in relation to their respective disciplines and/or the world. To examine this notion of situating research, I initiated walks with researchers to talk about the ‘where’ of their practice. The walk with theatre and performance scholar Liesbeth Groot Nibbelink became part of my presentation during the closing conference of Let’s Talk About (Artistic) Research. Through edited fragments of the recorded conversation, the audience could walk along.

Thanks to: Liesbeth Groot Nibbelink, ArtEZ Professorship of Theory in the Arts, fellow teachers and researchers at ArtEZ

Site: ArtEZ University of the Arts, Arnhem and the streets of Utrecht (NL)

Year: 2016

Roles: researcher, lecturer, walker

On multiple occasions and in various contexts, I have collaborated with artist Isolde Venrooy: as a co-curator in our shared venture Buro Ruimte Rondom, as a text writer (for publications, website, social media and funding applications), as a critical friend and as a fellow walker. 

For Venrooy’s work TRACK (2019), an objects-as-walking-route developed within the context of Seelenwanderung | Biennale Gelderland, I was a ‘voor-loper’. Establishing connections on-site with local communities, citizens and entrepreneurs, I contributed to the production of the work while reflecting on the artistic process with Venrooy as we went along. In an essay I’m currently writing (forthcoming, 2022) TRACK will be discussed and, again, become a moment of reflection in our ongoing dialogue.

Together with: Isolde Venrooy and the people of Arnhem

Site: Arnhem (NL)

Year: 2019

Roles: voor-loper, walker

Archive TRACK: https://isoldevenrooy.com/finearts/track/

Starting in the summer of 2021, a four-month self-initiated residency in London provided me with time and space to learn, read and write. I completed the course Understanding the City at Birkbeck University, worked remotely on ongoing projects in The Netherlands, attended dance classes, wrote a text for a publication, built this online archive, and started new conversations that turned out to be the beginnings of future collaborations.  

While living somewhere on the border of Islington and Hoxton, but definitely not defined by a geographical notion of place, there were encounters with many things and people: residents, canals, parks, exhibitions, book shops, dance classes, a swimming pool, overgrounds, foxes, food, sensory experiences, artist walks, lectures, texts, skype meetings, supportive advisors, and old and new friends – some of them named below – who were so generous to share parts of their world and work. 

Thanks to: Annelene Damen, Bahareh Heravi, Richard Grossman, Olivia Sheringham, Aya Mitsuishi, Daniel Foulds, Rosemary Stott, Katharina Tarmann, Lucy van de Wiel, Clare Qualmann, Annabel Dunston, Stefan Heiler, Cathrien van Hak, Mara Nogueira, Joel McKim, and others

Site: Greater London, Brighton, Sussex Coastal Path, North Yorkshire (UK)

Year: 2021

Roles: temporary dweller, researcher, walker, dancer