Bik Van der Pol / artist talk

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.

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.

The Kamov Residency Programme is supported by the City of Rijeka and Ministry of Culture and Media of the Republic Croatia.

Photo: Bik Van der Pol, TAKE PART – Is There Room For San Francisco In San Francisco?, 2018-2020. (SFMOMA/San Francisco Public Library, San Francisco)