Dancing Through (Un)common Worlds
Curation of and site specific installation (68 meters of textile) for the exhibition "Dancing Through (Un)common Worlds".
For the opening night I created a performance together with Lola Schot and in collaboration with the performers Catharina Vergeer and Alexandra Loembé at De Vishal, Haarlem, 2023.
Participating artists:
Sanne Bax
Lola Bezemer
Britt Dorenbosch
Lenny van Gent
Paulina Mellado
Lola Schot
Ananda Serné
Hilla Spitzer
Catharina Vergeer and Alexandra Loembé. Photo by Can Oktik.
Soft Partition
In Soft Partition two performers carry a large pink and green coloured textile from location to location. The performers transform the textile from a revolving door to an enveloping cocoon; from a tightly stretched screen to a wavering cloth; and from a 12 meter long piece into a rolled up package. Sometimes the textile piece is in the middle of the road, moving next to the audience, and other times the work appears in the middle of the landscape. Through the movements of the textile separations between the audience, the performers and the landscape come to exist, continually changing the viewers perception.
Performers: Lola Bezemer and Catharina Vergeer.
Soft Partition was commissioned by Derde Wal and shown at Festival de Oversteek in Nijmegen, September 2022.
Photo by Frank Bezemer.
Who's Afraid? II
In Who’s Afraid? II, Lola Bezemer plays with access to and perception of space. A large textile screen is set in motion by a performer. The performer is continually rotating the screen while changing speed and direction. The movement of the textile limits access to the space, creates divisions between the audience and renders the space momentarily visible and invisible.
Performers: Lola Bezemer and Catharina Vergeer.
Performed at the opening of FLAM#9 at Arti et Amicitae, Amsterdam, May 2022.
Photo by Can Oktik.
Sculpture Tour
A 1,5 hour walking tour with 3 participants. Canvas tarpaulin, pvc-tubes, pvc connecting pieces.
In Sculpture Tour three participants together carry a 6 meter long “bag”, made of a yellow canvas tarpaulin and pvc-tubes. On the tour I bring the participants to several locations in the city center of Nijmegen where they transform the bag into temporary sculptures. The participants don’t know each other yet and collaborate together for the first time, this creates on the one hand some awkwardness, but on the other hand there’s also the freshness of a first encounter.
Presented at Social Aspects #9, Derde Wal, Nijmegen, the Netherlands, 2020.
Photo by Tycho van Dijk.
Colours of Badanga
series of 4 weavings and 7 collages made of found textiles
This series of weavings and collages was created during Sowing Seeds residency in a small village called Badanga near Udaipur in India. During walks through the village I found many tiny strips of textile. These textile strips were used by the villagers to tie things together (for example to close a fence). As time passes these strips loosen and continue to lay on the sides of the roads. I collected these dusty strips and washed them, after which the most beautiful colours appeared. I first wove some of the strips together into a multicolour piece and as I found more I started organising the pieces by colour and created green, blue and red weavings.
Presented at the end of my residency at Sowing Seeds, Badanga, Udaipur, India, 2020.
Photo by Can Oktik.
Pink
With a big pink wavering textile around me I am cycling over the dyke. Already from a great distance people can see me coming as a pink figure. Coming closer I look the oncoming cyclists and pedestrians in their eyes, using different facial expressions every time, such as: surprised, extreme smile or sticking out my tongue.
Presented at Festival de Oversteek, Nijmegen, 2019.
Commisioned by Derde Wal.
Photo by Can Oktik.
Temporary Entrance
Site-specific performance developed in collaboration with dancer and choreographer Maria Abrantes.
To enter the main entrance of the Culturgest building in Lisbon you can choose one of 7 doors that all lead to the same hallway with another 7 doors. While most people go in through the door in the middle and continue through to the door right behind that, in this performance we wanted to use the space in between these doors. The piece slows down the act of entering the building.
Concept: Maria Abrantes and Lola Bezemer
Sound design: Pedro Latas
Performers: Alice Giuliani, Ana Ester, Ana Catarina Santos, Lola Bezemer, Maria Abrantes
Culturgest, Lisbon, Portugal, 2019.
Photo by Alina Usurelu.
The Sun and The Moon
5 hour durational performance in public space. Light reflector, follow spot, dancers, light operator.
Dancers: Alice Gioria, Ashley Ho, Inna Kulazhenkova and Paula Niehoff.
Light operators: Freija van Dijk and Lola Bezemer.
A circular light moves slowly from one spot to another. A dancer with a reflector screen follows the light spot to catch and reflect the light to people on the street, putting them literally in the spotlight. This creates an interaction between the light, the dancer(s) and the street.
Performed during Arnhemse Uitnacht 2019.
Commissioned by Plaatsmaken, Arnhem.
Photo by Ton Toemen.
Reveal the Stage
2 hour performance. Dyed cotton (240x2500cm), pvc-tubes, 7 performers.
One long sheet of fabric, consisting of several pieces of textile connected with 7 tubes in the seams, is continuously moved by 7 dancers. They form wall partitions and different sculptural forms to reconfigure the space and call forth interaction with the audience.
See video.
2018: performed at Studio 17, Stavanger, Norway.
Performers: Šárka Benedová, Inês Duarte, Veslemøy Miranda Frengstad, Hana Gallinová, Dagny Ingebjørg Gimse, Zandee KM, Julianne Solli and Lenka Vořechovská.
2019: performed at Bradwolff Projects, Amsterdam.
Performers: Emilija Angelovska, Jill Chadwick, Jaklin Karnalova, Alexandra Loembé, Juliana Barros Maia, Maria Rose Myers and Catharina Vergeer.
Performance at Studio17, Stavanger, Norway.
Het Doek Gaat Op
Het Doek Gaat Op is the result of a one month residency at Concordia in Enschede in 2017. Concordia is a center for Visual Arts, Film and Theatre. The three different disciplines of Concordia are brought together by Lola Bezemer in a site-specific installation.
With the help of videographer Tanja Busking and theatre technician Sicco Kamphuis, Lola Bezemer created 5 short films in Concordia's theatre in which she explored the moment of the opening of the curtains and lights.
These videos came together in an installation in Concordia's exhibition space.
Who's Afraid?
300 x 300 x 400 cm
Wood, wall paint, dyed cotton, wheel. Performers: Lola Bezemer, Madelyn Bullard, Maya Ichikawa, Inna Kulazhenkova, Aurélien Lepetit and Julie Mauskop.
A large piece of fabric, dyed dark red is stretched over a wooden frame and hung with hinges to the edge of one of the three walls of a U-shaped art-fair booth. Acting like an enormous door, the canvas can turn both towards the inside of the U-shaped structure and outwards into the gallery space, creating a room enclosed on four sides or opening up to enlarge the space. The canvas is moved by continually present performers. The performers, who all come from different backgrounds, in their own way investigate their relation to the door; how the door moves; how they can move together with the door; how they as a performer can be visible or invisible and how they can direct the audience with the door.
Exhibition: Prospects & Concepts, Art Rotterdam 2017.
Volte-Face
dyed cotton, pvc-tubes, two dancers
Performers: Mami Kitagawa and Caroline Loiseau.
Volte-Face is a performative installation which consists of large pieces of fabric with flexible tubes in their seam. The dancers Mami Kitagawa and Caroline Loiseau install the textiles in different ways: hanging them from the walls, stretching them through the space or standing them up right in front of the audience, creating sometimes more decorative and other times more spatial installations. With intervals in between the performances, the dancers change the installations from one to another following a choreography of different set-ups. Through this movement with their bodies and the textiles, the dancers in Volte-Face research presence in space.
Performed during the final presentation of my residency at Superdeals in Brussels, Belgium, November 2016.
Photo by Can Oktik.
Moving Red Dots
Thirteen red dots in different sizes are placed in the exhibition space. Two persons in light blue comfortable clothing, with red dots silkscreened on it, are in charge of the composition of the red dots. Following a set of instructions, the movers change the arrangement of the dots to create an installation that is of temporary existence. Once the dots are installed, the performers take of their gloves and put them with the dots. When a new assignment is presented, the performers put on the gloves again and place the dots in a new position.
Dots: wood, red paint (sizes varying from 11x11x4cm till 240x240x4cm).
Clothes: dyed and silkscreened cotton, gloves and socks.
Performers: Eva Bjarnadóttir, Lenny van Gent, Alina Lupu, Maud Oonk, Jip van Steenis, Nora Tinholt.
In the photographs the work is presented during the exhibition Shifting Spaces at W139 in Amsterdam, March - May, 2016. An earlier version of the work was presented during Museumnight Amsterdam, 2015.
Photo by Winston Nanlohy. Performers: Alina Lupu and Jip van Steenis.
Choreography of Walls
Kilometre of Sculpture, Rakvere, Estonia, 2016.
