Through examples of their projects, Bik Van der Pol will discuss the potential of encounters to allow for continuous reconfigurations of places, histories and publics, 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”).
Since 1995, Liesbeth Bik and Jos van der Pol have been working as Bik Van der Pol. They work and live in Rotterdam, the Netherlands. Through their practice, they aim to articulate how art can produce a public sphere and space for imagination through which ‘publicness’ is not only defined but also created. Setting up conditions for encounter, they develop a process of working that allows for reconfigurations of places, histories and publics. Site-specific and collaborative with dialogue as a mode of transfer, their work is both instigator and result of this method. For more information on their work, see bikvanderpol.net.
Image: Bik Van der Pol, Turning the Blind Eye, mixed media installation at Sao Paulo Biennale, 2014; dimensions variable. Courtesy of Bik Van der Pol.
