Artist Meet & Greet with PolakVanBekkum

Thu, May 29 - Thu, May 29  2014

Thursday May 29, 5.30-7.30pm the Art Department of Making + Doing presents a Artist Meet & Greet with Dutch artists Esther Polak and Ivar van Bekkum, artists in residency from Amsterdam. 

About the project

POLAKVANBEKKUM, artist duo from the Netherlands, has recently arrived in Philadelphia to begin their 6-month residency, called Art Along the Avenue of Technology, at the University City Science Center. The residency aims to explore the intersection of art, science, and technology on Market Street with the goal of enlivening the Science Center’s campus and engaging the surrounding communities. Polak and Van Bekkum are planning to produce a Google Earth film utilizing photography, GPS satellite imagery, and sound to document the lives and connections between people in Philadelphia in their project “250 Miles Crossing Philadelphia“. Art Along the Avenue of Technology is a collaboration between the Science Center, Wexford Science & Technology and Philadelphia’s Redevelopment Authority’s Percent for Art Program.

About the artists 

The Dutch artist couple Esther Polak and Ivar van Bekkum, operating under the name PolakVanBekkum, have a crunch for landscape and mobility (or motion or movement) and the experience of space. There are more ways to describe their work, but one that comes close to the essence is: Esther and Ivar make art that is about the poetry of mediation. In the words of philosopher, biologist and art critic Arjen Mulder: “If Esther and Ivar would have been sculptors they would always shown you the role of the hammer and chisel together with the sculpture.”

Although most of their projects are built around mobility patterns of other people or objects, every now and then they appear in their projects themselves. Still, they are always involved in their tests and studies.

In the picture Esther lies on the ground on the Gorsselse Heide while Ivar takes a photo with a camera mounted on a fishing rod.

The event is free, but space is limited. For more information or to RSVP, email: aaat@sciencecenter.org