I was thinking about how doing is inherent to our hands.
We handle things. We make, break, manipulate, caress.
We reach out, let our hands travel trough free space
until we encounter a border; an object, a body.
When we shake the hand of another human being,
we minimize the free space between us, to be able to perform a joint action.
A handshake is something we do together.
I did a ritualistic performance during a groupshow by Mondag (mondag.org) at Vrijpaleis Amsterdam.
I asked participants to capture in clay that minimal free space in a handshake.
The Nieuwstraat is an ordinary street in the centre of Dordrecht, the Netherlands. In this street you will find trees, houses, shops, terraces, a cinema and a weekly market.
On an unannounced Saturday in July 2025, between dawn and midnight, the 3rd Nieuwstraat Festival will take place. On this day, volunteers will perform unannounced – and often unnoticed – using instructions or ‘scores’ provided by international artists. Passers-by will observe the works, but, outside of a distinct artistic context, may not recognise them as art performances. The unusual will hide in the ordinary.
We are looking for performance scores by artists who feel an affinity with the theme and its principles. There are no restrictions as to where they live, age and background.
Keep in mind that the works will be performed by often inexperienced, volunteers, so please write the scores in clear and accessible language, more-or-less as a manual. If relevant, do not forget to mention the desired time of day (in connection with the opening and closing of shops, terraces, the fruit/vegetable market).
As documentation, performers will be asked to write down their experiences afterwards. Together with the drafts, these reports will be published on UnnoticedArtFestival.com.
Creative Living refers to a methodological practice of using ‘performance’ to explore alternative ways of engaging with the world. Open Performance Academy (OPA) and International Body of the Arts (IBA) are looking for performance, artists, theorists, and writers and cultural workers to submit work in response to the theme Creative Living.
Creative Living is the process of actively and creatively considering different possibilities for any given action, activity, relation, or acquisition, hence pushing your self-manifestation further than its learnt behaviour. How might your self perform differently if you permitted it with different rules? How easily can seemingly fundamental laws be disrupted with simple changes to a lifestyle?
Set to be published in an experimental publication, the theme aims to explore the methodological practice of using ‘Performance’ to explore alternative ways of engaging with the world. You can submit written entries such as essays, prose, poetry and experimental literature that engages with the theme. For questions coming from entries in the Netherlands, please contact ronald@o-p.academy and for the UK, please email april@iba.art for relevant inquiries.
The Nieuwstraat is an average street in the city center of Dordrecht, the Netherlands. The festival will take place in this street on an unannounced Saturday in June 2025, between sunrise and midnight. From the received submissions, a varied program will be compiled. The performances will be carried out by volunteers, unannounced and with no explanation. Taking place in everyday settings, the performances involve hiding the unusual within the usual. Passersby may perceive these actions, but not recognize them as performance art.
The Open Call: Please describe your concept in a clear and accessible language, more or less as a manual. The performances will be carried out by (often unexperienced) volunteers. Don’t forget to mention the preferred time of the day (in relation to the opening and closing of shops, outdoor cafes, the fruit/vegetable-market). We can only accept your submission if you include links to a website or page with some information about your practice.
Please send your submission to mail@unnoticedart.com. Deadline: Monday, 31 March 2025, 23:59 (CET). https://unnoticedartfestival.com
But it was three months ago that I started an intense dialogue with the second material: the painting of one of the walls that was collapsing due to moisture and beginning to crumble. Some small fragments fell to the ground.
Cleaned up the debris right away and noticed larger blocks of paint coming off the sandy concrete showing cracks from which required action and speed.
I patiently stripped bits of paint off and gently rearranged them on a damp surface of scalyola bandage. I was moving them and experiencing the joy of that new arrangement and that new bracket.
And so I made new wall fragments, this time, more crazy, cheerful and invigorating. I could feel that from his interstitions I heard the words of a text that, at times, I could understand.
Dear friends,I spent some time in Spring and early Summer bird watching at dusk as a part of a study to account for a rare bird. I didn’t see or hear the bird, which has a distinctive call. It made me think about recording something that is absent, or recording absence. I reached out to other bird watchers around the world who were listening at the same time as I, and here attached is a recording made in Missouri of the same, absent bird.(Thanks to Valerie Heemstra for the recording)Sarah
One-Time View is about the perception of a work.
After opening the envelope, the contents will begin to disintegrate until nothing remains.
Opening the envelope is a private, non-repeatable experience.
An optimal experience is created by strictly following the instructions.
Het Hof, Dordrecht
Sunday March 26 2023
13:00 – 14:00
Equinox – same but different is an international event for public action for freedom for all people. Every year on the Equinox (around 20 March and 21 September), the duration of day and night is roughly equal around the world. In the spirit of cosmic equality, the event is a global connection for people performing together in public space.
This sharing of time and space brings us closer together, as a temporary (global) community to encourage, through performance art, non-violent expressions for locally specific conditions.
Equinox – same but different takes place at the Hof in Dordrecht.
Everyone is welcome to participate with openness and in solidarity, embracing and embodying diversity while acknowledging each other’s individual circumstances, difficulties and conflicts.
There will be no programme of consecutive performances but everything takes place simultaneously, collaborations can arise spontaneously.
Participants: ieke Trinks, Peter Baren, Ienke Kastelein, Yvette Teeuwen, Lotte Werkema, Kirsten Heshusius, Kamila Wolszczak, Geerten Ten Bosch, Yvo van der Vat, Kathrin Wolkowicz, Gerwin Luijendijk, Anne Kolbe, Topp & Dubio, Ellen Rodenberg, Maarten Schepers, Jolanda Jansen, Liesje van den Berk, Marita Bullmann, Martine Viale, Philemon Mukarno, Nico Parlevliet and Frans van Lent.
