Artist in Residence in the Pastoe building: ‘A new role within the school’

16 september 2021

Artist duo Sander Breure and Witte van Hulzen take up the challenge. From September they will be working in the studios of the Pastoe building as artist in residence, within the new collaboration between Fine Art and the Keep An Eye Foundation. “We do not assess, it is a new role. It's really about the exchange."

Breure and Van Hulzen will work in the Pastoe building three days a week for seven months. Students can talk to them about their own projects and see the artists working. Breure and Van Hulzen don’t limit themselves to one form of expression. Performance, sculptures, installations, video, drawings, photography, theatre: they do it all. Breure: 'I don't know exactly what we're going to do yet, but most likely sculpture will be part of it. At HKU we work on the ground floor, and our studio in Amsterdam is on the fourth floor.' Laughing: 'That saves a lot of carrying.'

The duo will also work on an exhibition and publication that will conclude the project after seven months. Despite the multitude of media that Breure and Van Hulzen use, a general theme can be discovered in their work. “In theater we worked together for the first time and you can still see that. The idea of fulfilling a role is important. We also see our sculptures as a sort of actors who play a part. The body as a way of communication, that's what it's all about for us.'

'We like working together'

Their collaboration in the theater was such a success that the artists continued as a tandem. ‘A division of roles? We do not have that. It's a continuous conversation, and that can be quite tough. You have to want to challenge all of your ideas. But we also support each other of course. We do everything together and we also work with actors and other performers. So we like working together, and that's why I think this this project suits us.’

Breure and Van Hulzen did not have to think twice when they were invited for the Artist in Residence project. ‘We give guest lectures sometimes, also at HKU, but this is very different. I think it's an interesting experiment.' It’s all about the presence of the artists, there is no 'teaching program'. A good thing, Breure believes. “What we are going to do is not pedagogical. There is no teaching material, we do not assess the students. It's about the exchange. Almost like you could have with your neighbors.”

Experiment

“There are not a lot of rules or frameworks. I think it's very brave of both HKU and Keep An Eye to shape the project this way. It can be very valuable. This creates a new role in the academy.' Experimenting with such a 'new role' naturally suits Breure and Van Hulzen very well, although they do not yet know what to expect. ‘I hope that there will be an open connection with at least a number of students. That we’ll be able to talk about things as 'colleagues’.

The Keep An Eye Foundation supports talented artists, designers, musicians and other artistic people by offering them a stage and visibility for the general public, together with leading and color-defining schools and festivals in the Netherlands and abroad.