Author: Rosa Sijben

Bewaard (Kept) is the outcome of a months-long, community-oriented commission by Kunstinstituut Melly in Rotterdam (NL). For this, Sijben Rosa collaborated with four people in The Netherlands whose sense of mortality is heightened due to ageing or illness. Through conversations they, together with Sijben, set out to identify meaningful objects from their personal surroundings. These ranged from a pinball machine and a BDSM knife, to a nettle leaf and a fur coat. However idiosyncratic, these objects encapsulate the lasting personal values identified by each.

Inspired by these objects as conversation pieces in themselves, Bewaard consists of an installation of biodegradable sculptures created by Sijben. Warped in both scale and form, the artist uses color as a means to further portray their collaborators. For example, charcoal-like tones echo the black ink of tattoos, and the reddish hues are borrowed from a cherished painting of Jesus Christ. For Sijben, a crucial component of these artworks is their respective afterlives – whether bequeathed to the collaborators’ close communities; incorporated into their own burials; held onto within their homes; or destined to disintegrate. Contingent in nature, objects may come and go over the course of the exhibition, in unison with the chosen bewaarder (in English, “keeper”).

Bewaard is on show at Kunstinstituut Melly from 8 December 2023 until 1 September 2024. On the 1 March, there was a FOCUS event, in which writer, and holistic death care worker Staci Bu Shea shone a light on the exhibition by giving their perspective on what it means to live intimately with death and grief, and how this is explored through art. To enable neurodiverse visitors to prevent overstimulation, there is a sensory map of the exhibition and neighbouring group show ‘My Oma’ available both on location and digitally via this link.

Participants: Afina, Kitty Hoedjes, Marion Vandermeulen, Zuster Henriëtte Wolters 

Curators: Rosa de Graaf, Sofia Hernández Chong Cuy

Producer: Pilar Mata Dupont 

Advisors: Dariya Trubina, Staci Bu Shea, Lucila Kenny

Assistance: Saki Nishisaka, Yara Buttner

Volunteers: Arwen Morsink, Beau Boer, Bernice Nauta, Caro de Valk, Charlie Sven Matse, Cynthia Blom, Dominique van Loosdrecht, Elisabeth Voros, ellis bartholomeus, Erik Gooskens, Eszter Szabó, Flip Zonne Zuijderland, Hans Vernooij, Harriet Smith, Helena Oostveen, Jaap Sijben, Josha Zwanenburg, Kate Delbeke, Kitty Hoedjes, Lily Dollner, Linn Morsink, Lisan Gunsing, Margo Matse, Maria Chiara Ziosi, Merit Koops, Michal Noy, Nina Ashley Bach, Romy Goedhart, Roos Janssen, Sam Lau Thieme, Samiah Sultana, Sanna Elon Vrij, Selma Beltifa, Stella Fijneman

Photographer: Kristien Daem

With special thanks to Charlie Sven Matse, Marianne Reij, de Westfriese Bibliotheken, Houk van Lier, Katharina Bauer, Maren Wehrle, Hans-Georg Eilenberger and all other participants in the ‘When We Get Older’ summer course at Erasmus University, Jerrold Saija, Sarah Boers, Sanne Pols en Ed de Meijer

Tentoonstellingsbespreking door Sifra Coulet in Mister Motley.

For Zelf in een Doosje (Self in a Small Box), six of the sculptures of Zelf were lent to elderly inhabitants of the Frisian villages Koarnjum and Jelsum. The film captures their first encounters with the objects as well as the connection they developed to them over time. What place did the objects take in their daily routines, amongst their other belongings? How did the objects gain meaning in the context of personal stories, both to the residents and to an audience watching the footage? Out of this collaborative research, a new artwork emerged: a film of 10 minutes, in which people and objects give meaning to each other.

Due to the Covid-19 regulations, this work premiered eight times, for each participant separately, on March 27, 2021, at theatre De Wier in Cornjum (NL). After that it was available for online viewing for five weeks. What you see here is the trailer.

_{I’m so grateful for the patience and openness of participants Janny van der Mei, Pieter van der Werff, Janke Terpstra, Josephine Land-Cohen, Sjieuwke van Dijk, Tine Sinnema, Stien Beckers, and Anneke Schotanus-Hoitsma. Producing this film would not have been possible without the enthusiasm and help of Yvon Wolfslag and Pieter van der Werff, community organizers in Koarnjum and Jelsum. Shout out to Boetie Zijlstra, my super intern at the time. The double bass you hear in the film is played by Harm Wijntjes. Video editing expert Jasper van den Brink pulled me through the hardest parts of the editing phase, and the finishing touches of Jaap Sijben polished the sound to perfection. The translation was done by Rosie Haward. Special thanks to Tamara Schoppert, Jantien Koenders, and Lorenzo Schmidt for their valuable feedback, and Bob de Boer and Wieke de Haan for their help at theatre De Wier.} 

_{This work was made possible with the generous support of Over de Drempel and the Mondriaan Fund.}

Sasha Pevak (independant curator and artist) during a digital studio visit: ‘The monument becomes visible only when it is removed’.

Not Forever moved around the NDSM wharf for two months, always under the care of users of the space. Their presence provided a context for the work, as did the physical surroundings, which changed as the object moved around. The weight and proportions of the object, which was made from recycled materials, forced its caretakers to collaborate when moving it from one location to the next. Not Forever forms an attempt to make tangible their collective care and concern for the wharf, and to materialise this into something that could be cherished together, albeit temporarily. During the finnissage, the object was peeled bare by both the audience and the artist, after which a recycling company collected the skeleton and drove away.

Not Forever reflects on the questions Stichting NDSM-werf raised in their ‘(un)monumenting’ series: what could or should a monument be in our present time? For whom is a monument intended, and who gets to determine this? This performative and temporary monument (contradiction intended) is an ode to what the wharf was, is, and might not be much longer if we let gentrification and climate change continue to develop as they currently are.

You can find a longer interview with Sijben about this work here.

_{Yawen Fu and Daichi Fuwa were studio assistants during this project. It was curated by Ewa Scheifes and Petra Heck from Stichting NDSM-werf, with communication help from Robin van Dijk. The participation of Corine from Grafische Werkplaats Amsterdam, Tim Jongens from IJVER Amsterdam, David Roos from STRAAT Museum, Simone Hogendijk from Over het IJ festival, Sarah Payton from the Kunststad, Houk van Lier from Houkmaakthet, Robbert Jongkind and Justa from Treehouse NDSM, Marcel from NDSM Bikes and Erik from Eriks House were crucial in this project. Matthijs form I. Deegen & Zoon BV was a big help too. Big thanks to all of the above!}

_{The first picture was taken by Robbert Jongkind. This work was made possible with the generous support of Stichting NDSM-werf and the Mondriaan Fund.}

This is W.C. Reij, a retired professor and engineer, and also my grandfather. We’ve always been close. He was very important to my creative upbringing, taking me to museums, drawing together with me, and meticulously following my art career for as long as he was able to. 

During the last few years of his life he had to deal with aphasia, an impairment causing him to slowly lose his linguistic and other cognitive abilities. When he could barely speak any longer, Covid-19 robbed us of the only way of communication we had left: touch. 

That’s when I decided to make an art experience that was tailored to his specific condition; one that was to be experienced somewhat through sight, but predominantly through touch. The shape of Object voor Opa (Object for Grandpa) is based on movements I remembered him doing with my hands, on ways of touching and holding on that he seemed to enjoy. 

I shot this video during the first encounter he had with the object. It is a fragment of the approximately 40-minute duration of the experience of his hands discovering and rediscovering the object, him looking at me, back at the object, and discovering it again. He had been nearly constantly holding it during what turned out to be the last two months of his life. 

In loving memory of Willem Cornelis Reij, 4 November 1923 – 3 September 2020

Objects are offered to guests to hold in their hands while they visit the rest of a group exhibition. The forms for these objects originate as abstractions of familiar things in everyday life. They can be thought of as tools for projection – things that produce associations and memories. Perhaps they can be an escape, a way for someone to pretend to be busy, to take away the awkwardness of a situation, like a cigarette or a pen might do. Or perhaps they can trigger playful interactions between guests that may otherwise not occur. The work offers a sense of security, so that if people feel awkward looking at contemporary art, at least they will have something to hold on to.

Gee Wesley, curator of the exhibition: ‘Something to hold on to, a collaborative project by Sijben Rosa and David Bernstein, prompts visitors to hold on to one of several amorphous objects designed and constructed by the pair. By welcoming visitors to navigate the exhibition with this object, Sijben and Bernstein invite a consideration of how haptic engagements with material affect and mediate our experience of space.’

Something to hold on to was presented at the InPractice – Other Objects exhibition at SculptureCenter in NYC, guest curated by Gee Wesley. It was supported by the Mondriaan Fonds and SculptureCenter. This work would have been impossible without the gracious way it was carried out by Meredith Friedman (visitor services coordinator) and Tracy Keenan (visitor services representative). Film editing assistance by Amanda Ramona. Floor Grootenhuis and Gerard Volel (visitors) thanks for your help in the documentation process. Photos by: Kyle Knodell and Sijben Rosa.

This piece is a solid wooden object that exactly fits the hand luggage requirements for European airlines, and could also be defined as an ongoing performance project. Flying with the object, Sijben offers an accidental art encounter to their fellow travelers and airline staff. In artist talks and conversations they share these traveling experiences and the insights that conversations along the way give to them, with a wider audience. 

In exchange for a report, the work is available to be your travel companion, too.

_{This work was made for the finals of the Live Performance Act Award 2016 at Centrale Fies in Dro (IT). Later that year it was re-shown at Stichting NDSM-werf Amsterdam. Carpenter José van Gelderen has been a great support in the production process of this work.} 

A MUST SEE suggested new frames for looking at the public space surrounding KW Institute for Contemporary Art, Berlin. I loosely directed the viewer’s attention by running and performing sports-like exercises in public space. The work suggested new frames for the neighbourhood, showing and using the ‘stages’ that were already present. Now and again the public became performers themselves, simply by being a group with an unusual focus and by literally being placed on stages in relation to passers-by and the audience of the next or previous tour.

Ellen Blumenstein, head curator at KW, Berlin: ‘I enjoyed looking at them in the way they made it bodily, physical but explicitly not-sexual and avoiding display of physical achievement. We were allowed to look in a specific way, not peeping or admiring, the set-up of the body in relation to the surroundings makes it an object in a way we are not accustomed to see it.’

A MUST SEE was shown at KW Berlin within the Performative Minute series, curated by Adela Yawitz.

This installation inside a small caravan hosts six different site specific theatre pieces and their small audience groups. Where traditionally a play would come first—or at least its concept or storyline—and the creation of the set would come second, this work sees the visual come first. A set is produced that precedes any plot, and is interpreted after its realisation by the performance makers.  

SUMMER SHORTS was initiated by Robin Linde Productions and produced in collaboration with IMMERGE, a series of events leading up to MERGE Festival, in association with Better Bankside, Borough Market, and Tate Modern. The installation was built with the help of a group of students from the preparatory course of the Gerrit Rietveld Academy, of which I owe the most to Felix Schiffman and Alice Ashton. 

The installation Zouden Zullen Zijn (Would (be) Will (be) Are), consists of a group of small, polyester volumes scattered through interior space. The objects appear in different locations, in various quantities and positions, gaining meaning through their setting. In the case of this iteration, Sijben’s objects are displayed around the Museum van Loon in Amsterdam. Their contemporary volumes disrupt the museum’s narrow version of historical events by reopening a narrative, and, like traffic cones, they suggest that a process is still under construction. 

Bernke Klein Zandvoort, curator: “What is it that makes me an art object? Why is my status confusing? Am I meant to be touched, or should one respectfully keep one’s distance? This is not a constructed theory that Sijben drapes onto their work, but is inherently enclosed in the objects themselves. They are playful, beautiful and confusing and have suspiciously much to do with the world outside of the museum.”

The work Zouden Zullen Zijn was created for Something Thrown in the Way of the Observer, a group show at Museum van Loon in Amsterdam in 2015. It was shown again in the group show Inhabited by Objects at CAB Brussels (BE) in 2016/2017. The blocks of Zouden Zullen Zijn have since then been for sale and have become part of many different private collections, further expanding possibilities for meaning in their interaction with different settings. 

Zouden Zullen Zijn is still for sale for 75 euros per block. Please write an email to mail@sijbenrosa.nl in case you’re interested in purchasing your own.

Photography by Gert Jan van Rooij.

Fittest as in survival of the fittest means best fitted, which is not necessarily the most fit in terms of physical health. Fittest was a performance circuit, shown repetitively over the course of a Sunday afternoon at Museum Abteiberg in Mönchengladbach, Germany. In all four parts, titled These Beuys, Dance Hall, Roof Ropes and Polke Pilates, I worked with a mix of local semi-professional and professional practitioners in different fields of sports. I studied and reconstructed their exercise routines and selected, adjusted, and positioned the sportspeople inside and outside the museum, amongst the works of the permanent collection. Their activity began to activate the stationery works around them. 

Fittest was shown in Museum Abteiberg in Mönchengladbach. It formed episode #6 in THINGS ARE HAPPENING, a series of performances, interventions, and situations in and around Mönchengladbach during my time as Atelier Stipendiat der Stad Mönchengladbach.

_{Performers These Beuys:
Nikola Arsic, Jerry Oversberg, Christos Kazaltzis, Danny Scardina, Stevica Blazeski, Dominic Schiffer, Julian Haag, Lothar Panitz.}

_{Performers Dance Hall:
Becky Fetsch, Nuria Mages, Bibiana Leufgen.}

_{Performers Roof Ropes:
Mario Mai, Filippo Chiaradia.}

_{Performers Polke Pilates:
Robin Steegman, Silke Palme, Sonia Clemente Guerreiro, Ewa Riedel, Miriam Spancken, Steffi Genenger.}

_{Director: Sijben Rosa
Assistant director: Robin Steegman
Photos: Vesko Gösel
Camera: Nikolas Steiner, Laura Maréchal
Editing: Laura Maréchal, Sijben Rosa}

_{Reviews 1 and 2 in Reinische Post
Image rights of the works belonging to the collection of Museum Abteiberg: François Morellet, “Sphère-trame”, 1962 and Sigmar Polke, 6-piece “Biennale- Zyklus”, 1986 © VG Bild-Kunst, Bonn 2014.}

When this work is on show, the staff members of the exhibition venue are not just passive guards. When you ask them about Pocket Work, they will reveal it to you. For the entire duration of the exhibition, each member of staff has their own edition of the work on their person at all times. Even when at home, at a cinema, at a sports club; everywhere. The audience is informed about this via a poster in the exhibition space.

This work was first shown in the solo exhibition Things You Know at Kunstverein für die Rheinlande und Westfalen, Düsseldorf (DE) in 2014, curated by Hans-Jürgen Hafner. All Together Now then showed it in Rotterdam in 2015 in a group show called To Get There. In 2017 it was shown at Gallery Rianne Groen in Rotterdam in a group show titled Chinese Whispers. Rianne also took it with her on several trips and to her show at Art Rotterdam 2017. In 2018, the work was part of Bureau of Unspecified Services at Salt Galata in Istanbul (TR), curated by Sohrab Mohebbi. 

Photo’s by Katja Illner.