KB artist-in-residency 2021
Niews: 6 June 2021
Anne Geene, Risk Hazekamp and the collective gerlach en koop have been selected for an artist-in-residency of one month in the KB, the national library of the Netherlandsd. They were selected following an open call issued in March this year by the KB and Stroom Den Haag among artists in The Hague. Central theme for this pilot artist-in-residency is digitization. What does digitization and technology mean for the printed word and the tangible book? What perspectives do artists and the national library have to offer each other in the broadest sense of the word.
>> read about the outcome of the residencies
>> read about the outcome of the residencies
The KB was very impressed with the quality and rich variety of the submissions. The selection committee was surprised by the enthusiasm of the artists to work with the collections of the KB and by the potential and content of the 42 applications. This points to the importance to investigate other possibilities to work with artists in the future. The selection committee consisted of three employees of the KB, including the head of the Collection Preservation Department, who were assisted with practical and substantial advice by three employees of Stroom Den Haag. The definitive choice was made by the KB. We look forward to welcoming the first artist(s) in the summer of this year, depending on the measures regarding COVID-19.
About the selected artists:
Anne Geene examines, collects, makes inventories and archives her immediate surroundings in order to analyze and organize them, according to an apparent logic. In Anne's eyes this logic is apparent, because the interpretation of the collected data is of a personal nature and refers to the human urge to organize and acquire knowledge. She finds her inspiration mainly in nature. Anne Geene's submission stood out because she has experienced and understood the complexity of describing and unlocking data. It also appeals to us that she is interested in themes around data-ism. In her application she posed exactly the same questions that we are currently focusing on and struggling with.
http://www.annegeene.nl
Risk Hazekamp's work revolves around the complex and constantly changing relationship between body and image. Gender has long been the central element in their work, not only as a subject or theme, but also as a theoretical research framework. Since 2010, Risk has been working project-based on visual thought processes to change systems through a combination of personal activism, analog photography and intersectional thinking. It is the intersectional thinking in Risk's work that triggered us. Particularly in making audible the 'more-than-human voice', the search (figuratively) for living organisms, where they go beyond anthropocentric thinking. We were also very attracted to Risk's view of archiving and categorizing involving 'unlearning'.
https://riskhazekamp.nl
The collective gerlach en koop often works with duplicates. Existing, recognizable objects are connected or split up, moved, doubled, repeated or copied, so that the attention is automatically drawn to their inherent difference. The smaller the difference the more interesting, even - or perhaps especially - when the difference is almost imperceptible. They find the distinction between artist and curator artificial. How something is shown, why it is shown, in what context, and thinking about this all, is an essential aspect of their artistic practice. Books and libraries were previously important subjects in their work. We found gerlach and buy's interest in this residency - with the questions embedded in it - about the moment when a library transitions to a new system, interesting and timely. And we also considered their open attitude to be very appealing and refreshing, refusing to be pushed into one direction and being open to the material that is, as it were, waiting for them.
* Extra information accompanying the images of gerlach en koop:
gerlach en koop, As the Skin of the Skin, 2010, sdust jackets, shoe laces, two copies of the sixth Dutch translation of Moby Dick by Herman Melville, read with the dust jackets reversed.
Anne Geene, 'Herbariumboek', 2015-nu
photo: courtesy the artist
photo: courtesy the artist
Anne Geene, 'Mutatis Mutandis #2', 2020
photo: courtesy the artist
photo: courtesy the artist
Risk Hazekamp, 'Interdependency', 2020
photo: courtesy the artist
photo: courtesy the artist
Risk Hazekamp, 'Planetary Consciousness', 2021
photo: courtesy the artist
photo: courtesy the artist
gerlach en koop, 'As the Skin of the Skin', 2010
photo: courtesy the artists
photo: courtesy the artists
gerlach en koop, 'As the Skin of the Skin', 2010 (see info at bottom of the text column)
photo: courtesy the artists
photo: courtesy the artists
