Solo exhibition at Factor IJ, sponsored by Gemeente Amsterdam Stadsdeel Oost. Public programme with workshop with children, lecture evening, and a parade & performance with Queer Choir Amsterdam and Laurence Gaudreau on cello. Photos © Cecilie Fang.
During the beginning of spring, Factor IJ presents the exhibition Factor IJ Curated by: Anouk Hoogendoorn, in which change and proximity are central. Anouk Hoogendoorn is an artist and writer who shows the exhibition Bijna Lente, Een Lied (Almost Spring, A Song) with a combination of own work and works from the Factor IJ collection.
The etymology of the word lullaby combines ‘to lull’ with ‘bye’, or ‘nearby’. During a lullaby one acknowledges a transition while guiding someone through it. It does not matter whether the monster under the bed is real, what matters is to ask how this can approached together; how change and exchange come about as a collective notion.
During the exhibition, a song will be created to welcome spring. ‘Bijna’ (almost) here is literally the arrival of spring, even as typical seasonal changes are disrupted by climate collapse. But ‘bijna’ (almost) is also the tending to an encounter. This continues Anouk’s PhD research into changes and exchanges based in the materiality of language.
The text(ile) works that Anouk makes deal with language in a sensory and moving way, and thus play with the idea that the exchange of an experience does not simply take place as a transaction between person A and person B. A lullaby, as opposed to a hierarchical exchange of information, does not teach a child about language, but reminds the child what they already know about language: intonation, repetition, resonance. This makes it not a didactic tool, but rather a shared moment that humbly produces a change and accompanies someone in a transition from waking to sleeping. This aims to guide us towards the conditions of other types of transitions, those that can only take place as a collective endeavour: such as the movement to climate justice. How does this song go? Which voices are heard? How can we assist someone or a process in transition?
Side programme:
* Workshops for children
Feb 28th by Anouk and March 6th by Jeanneke Hoppenbrouwers (art therapist & teacher)
* Lecture
March 15th 8:00 PM with Gulzaar Barn (philosopher), Cecilie Fang (artist & writer), Miriam van Rijsingen (art theorist), and Brian Trinanda K. Adi (cultural practitioner)
* Beginning of spring, and finissage
March 20th 6:45 PM (sunset) with a performance by Queer Choir Amsterdam accompanied by Laurence Gaudreau (cellist)
Supported by: Gemeente Amsterdam Stadsdeel Oost