Heinrich Obst during the online preparation of his work for the 3rd Nieuwstraat Festival (google streetview):
“I consider this to be a work,
in the sense of Duchamp asserting that the fifth person /five minutes carrying whatever is an artwork.
This young woman walking down the Nieuwstraat reading the label of what I assume to be a flask of motor oil.
Anonymous conjecture to be sure, but a moment caught on disinterested camera for a reason still to be investigated”.
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 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.
“Thick heavy layers of grass lie like a blanket over the memories of the earth. The ground, full of memories waiting patiently to be awakened. I cover the grass, like you cover a child after a nice day. All the memories of the day under a warm blanket, so they are never forgotten. A blanket, to go to sleep safely under, to be awakened later.
By covering the grass I give all the vegetation present the chance to wake up again. When moving the metal triangles the grasses make room for the other vegetation present. This way I offer a chance for the memories hidden in the ground, to grow. Taking care of the earth, precisely by covering it,
closing it off for a moment and then waking it up again in its full glory”. Esther Hoogendijk
The artist placed five metal triangles on the field in front of the main house. These cover parts of the grass.
In the coming period these triangles will be moved three times, making a drawing in the grass.
As the metal triangles are moved, the grasses make way for the other vegetation present.
In this way the artist offers an opportunity to the memories hidden in the ground to grow.
Buitenplaats Doornburgh Diependaalsedijk 17 3601 GH Maarssen Netherlands
