Bik Van der Pol | Artists in Residence | Kamov Residency

Photo: Bik Van der Pol, TAKE PART – Is There Room For San Francisco In San Francisco?, 2018-2020

• Biography
• The Project
• Organized by

• Bik Van der Pol

  → https://www.bikvanderpol.net

  Since 1995, Liesbeth Bik and Jos van der Pol work as Bik Van der Pol. They work and live in Rotterdam (NL).

  Through their practice Bik Van der Pol aim to articulate and understand how art can produce a public sphere and space for speculation and imagination. This includes forms of mediation through which publicness is not only defined but also created. Their work follows from research of how to activate situations as to create a platform for various kinds of communicative activities. Bik Van der Pol’s mode of working consists of setting up the conditions for encounter, where they develop a process of working that allows for continuous reconfigurations of places, histories and publics. Their practice is site-specific and collaborative, with dialogue as a mode of transfer; a “passing through”, understood in its etymological meaning of “a speech across or between two or more people, out of which may emerge new understandings”. In fact, they consider the element of “passing through” as vital. It is temporal, and implies action and the development of new forms of discourse. Their practice is both instigator and result of this method.

  Current and upcoming projects
  - Don’t Fence me In, project, TAAK, and the DNB (The Netherlands Bank), Amsterdam (2020-2022)
  - project, Volt, https://v-o-l-t.no/site/about/om-volt, Bergen (No) (2021, 2022)

  -School of Casablanca (2020-2024), research residency (2021), workshops and exhibtion in Tate St. Ives, Casablanca IFA, Kunstwerke Berlin, and Sharjah foundation (2023, 2024)

  - dissolving matter and value (alchemical setup) at Lothringer 13 Halle, Munich (Oct 2021)

  - research residency Museum of Modern and Contemporary Art in Rijeka, Croatia (Sept 2021)

  Selected exhibitions and projects, 2020-2014

  2021 Garden State, Garage, Rotterdam; Now What? A Living Newspaper, Fieldwork International Summerschool, development of program, Hospitalfield,

  2020 Now What? Fieldwork International Summerschool, development of program of online sessions and Summerschool, Hospitalfield, Arbroath, Scotland
  2019 Far too many stories to fit into so small a box - CCA Zamek Ujazdowski, Warsaw; Take Part - SFMOMA and Public Libraries, San Francisco (2019-2020); Whole Life Academy, HKW/Archive der Avantgarde, Dresden; Czigane – Not the whole story, Royal Albert Memorial Museum (RAMM), Exeter; Learning for the Future, Pistoletto Foundation, Biella
  2018 Mama, was ist eigentlich Natur? Kunstmuseen Krefeld, Krefeld; Verschwindende Vermächtnisse: Die Welt als Wald - Zentralmagazin Naturwissenschaftliche Sammlungen, Halle, and Tieranatomische Teater, Berlin; Dismantling the Scaffold -Tai Kwun Contemporary, JC Contemporary, Hong Kong; Syndrome of the Present, seminar, Yeni Camii, Thessaloniki

  2017 Verschwindende Vermächtnisse: Die Welt als Wald - Zoological Museum of CeNak, University of Hamburg, Hamburg; Offshore: artists explore the sea, Ferens Art Gallery, Hull; Greater Together, ACCA, Melbourne; Young Academy THE CITY & THE CITY, Academie der Kunste der Welt, Cologne; Future Climates, Athens

  2016: WERE IT AS IF, Witte de With, Centre of Contemporary Art, Rotterdam; SEMA, Media City Biennale, Seoul; The Eighth Climate (What Does Art Do?), 11th GwangJu Biennale, GwangJu

  2015: The Power Plant, Toronto; PAMM (Perez Art Museum) Miami; Jakarta Biennale; Mauritius Pavillion, Venice Bienal; Future Light, MAK, Vienna; Decolonized Skies, ADNPlatform, Barcelona; Lodgers 4, School of Missing Studies at MUHKA and AIR; Are you talking to me? Wilhelm-Hack- Museum, Ludwigshafen am Rhein

  2014: Etwas Rotes, Public art project in collaboration with local fire-brigades, Sounds for Silence, Ternitz (Austria); 31st Sao Paulo Bienale, Sao Paulo; Museum of Arte Util, Van Abbe Museum, Eindhoven; The Crime Was Almost Perfect*, Witte de With Centre for Contemporary Art, Rotterdam; Apex Art, Decolonised Skies, NYC; CAFA Art Museum, The Missing Stories, Beijng; Moderations, The Part In The Story, Witte de With Centre for Contemporary Art, Rotterdam; Rotterdam Cultural Histories 2, Witte de With, Centre for Contemporary Art and TENT, Rotterdam; The Crime was almost Perfect, PAC Padiglione d'Arte Contemporanea. Milano

  Publications (selection)

  Speechless. Some notes about birds, in: These Birds of Temptation, intercalations 6, (text contribution), K-Verlag, Berlin (2021); TAKE PART: MODELING THE CITY, edited by Bik Van der Pol, Stella Lochman (SFMOMA) Publisher K.verlag, Berlin (2022); WERE IT AS IF, Beyond An Institution That Is, published by Witte de With, Center for Contemporary Art, Rotterdam (2017); School of Missing Studies, Sandberg series No. 1, published by Sternberg Press/Sandberg Institute (2017); Public Space? Lost and Found, produced by ACT and distributed by MIT Press (2017); UNGLOSSARY, in cooperation with Stadtrevue, Academie der Kunste der Welt:, Cologne (2017) , What if the moon were just a jump away? Published by Bik Van der Pol and Labin Imprint/Jan van Eyck Academie (2013), As Above, So Below (2011), published by Bik Van der Pol, It isn’t what it used to be and will never be again (2009), published by CCA Glasgow, Istanbul, 59 Locations, published by Bik van der Pol, in collaboration with Istanbul Biennale (2007), Public Arena, published by Bik Van der Pol/Context3, Dublin (2009), Catching Some Air (2002), published by Henry Moore Institute, With Love From The Kitchen (2005), 010 publishers, Past Imperfect (2005, 2007), published by CascoProjects, Fly Me To The Moon (2006), published by Sternberg Press, The Lost Moment (2007), Published by Bik Van der Pol

  Curatorial projects

  Mama, was ist eigentlich Natur? Kunstmuseen Krefeld, Krefeld (2018); Married by Powers (Seoul), DEMA Biennale, Seoul (2016); Deze sokken niet wit, Van Abbemuseum (2012); Too late, too little, (and how) to fail gracefully, Kunstfort Asperen, ww.kunstfortasperen.nl (2011), Plug In #28, Act 1, 2, and 3: collection Van Abbe Museum, Eindhoven (2007-2009), I’ve got something in my eye, collection Marie Louise Hessel Museum/CCS Bard (2008), Teasing Minds, Kunstverein Munich (2004), Cordially Invited, BAK, Utrecht, participation with project curated for Nomads & Residents (2004), Married By Powers, TENT/collection Frac Nord Pas Calais, Dunkerque (2002)

  Residencies/grants (selection):

  Research residency at Ujazdowski Castle, Centre for Contemporary Art, Warsaw (2019)
  Headlands Center for the Arts (2018)
  Air Berlin Alexanderplatz, Berlin (2016)
  Pérez Art Museum Miami Research Residency (2014)
  CAPACETE entretenimentos ROAD/BOAT 3.1.8, Rio de Janeiro (2013) (supported by Fonds BKVB, Amsterdam)
  Artists in Residence at CCS Bard College (2011)
  Platform Garanti, Istanbul (2007)
  Research grant In Context 3 South Dublin Arts Council, Dublin (2006-2009)
  Projectstudio, Berlin (2002)
  Residency IASPIS Stockholm, Sweden (2001)
  Henry Moore Institute Fellowship, Leeds (2000)
  PS1 International Studio Program New York (1999)

  Professional and / or volunteer activities

  Bik Van der Pol directed the temporary Master program The School of Missing Studies at Sandberg Institute, Amsterdam (2013-2015). They taught at M.I.T., Boston (2016). They are advisors at the Jan van Eijck Academy in Maastricht. They regularly give talks at universities, art institutions and musea, and are mentor for Mondriaan foundation. Liesbeth Bik was advisor at The Appel ICP (Amsterdam) until 2016; she is a core-tutor at Piet Zwart Institute (Rotterdam), and a member, and current chair, of Akademie van Kunsten/Academy of Arts (KNAW).

• Research residency

  18.-28.09.2021.

  From 18 to 28 September, art duo Bik Van der Pol will be joining a research-based artist-in-residence program, as part of the Kamov Residency program. During their stay in Rijeka, the art duo will focus on the background of the Museum’s work and collection, as well as on the Museum’s immediate neighborhood – the emerging Benčić Art District. The duo is also interested in the public space of the city, which they plan to explore in the context of its vision for the future.

  Liesbeth Bik and Jos van der Pol work as an art duo Bik Van der Pol since 1995. They live and work in Rotterdam (NL). Bik Van der Pol’s art practice is based on site-specific and collaborative projects that encompass publishing, writing, curatorial concepts, etc. The duo’s numerous projects, carried out in collaboration with institutions, organisations and audiences around the world, include different collections and archives (Far Too Many Stories to Fit Into so Small a Box, Warsaw, 2019; Married by Powers, Seoul, 2016), works in public space and with the local community (Public Sculpture – sous les pavés, la plage, Lyon, 2009; Public Arena, Dublin, 2007), participatory installations and discursive platforms. The opening of physical spaces and spaces of knowledge exchange is at the core of their activity.

  On Wednesday, 22 September, at 19:00, the artists will be participating in an artist talk at the Museum of Modern and Contemporary Art in Rijeka. The duo will be discussing their artistic practice and impressions of Rijeka in English.

• Museum of modern and contemporary art

  → www.mmsu.hr

  Museum for Modern and Contemporary Art, Rijeka (HR) - MMSU

   

  MMSU in Rijeka founded in 1948, in its long tradition offers a committed support to innovative ways of approaching, producing and presenting art. From its very beginning the Museum has been building reputation of one of the most prominent visual art institutions in Croatia, entrusted with presentation of Croatian artists at prestigious international art events such as: Venice Biennial 1962, 1997, 2007, 2010, Sao Paolo Biennial 1967, 2004 etc. 

  The Museum rounds its programming around visual art education, parallel to different modes of exhibition concepts that address new discursive possibilities and transform it into a place of inspiration, idea exchange and active participation. Under the motto openness, creativity & engagement, together with artistic, cultural and community organizations, Museum furthers visual arts research, collaboration and exchange within the region and internationally, while aspiring to reach increasingly diverse audiences and to work in a close relationship with the community.

  Museum’s collection offers a diverse range of artistic visions with over 8,000 artworks dated from the end of the 19^th century to the present day. From 2017 Museum is located at new address, Krešimirova 26c, in ex-industrial complex Rikard Benčić. Since then, some important exhibitions were organized at MMSU in the framework of the pre-program and program of Rijeka 2020 - European Capital of Culture, i.e. Tomislav Gotovac: Crisis Anticipator - Don't Ask Where We're Going (2017), Vlado Martek: Exhibition with Many Titles and Goran Petercol: Don't Worry About Poetics, They Will Arrive on Their Own in 2019 and David Maljković: With the Collection in 2020..