The artist Charlotte Posenenske (1930-1985) radically rejected the commercial art market. She offered her serial works against material costs. In 1968 Posenenske left the art world because she no longer believed that art could draw attention to social inequality. Writer Jorik Amit Galama interviewed Wiersma about her commission ‘Calling from the Periphery’ in relation to Posenenske’s political ideas and artistic legacy. (Graphics: Dongyoung Lee, Images: Yeb Wiersma)
The artist calls on the pedestrians of Avenida José Manuel Infante to perform one simple action. They are asked to jump while holding onto the wall. With these short ‘warming up’ exercises, written on the exterior wall of ‘Die Ecke’, she questions how we, these vulnerable bodies, can practice sensory strategies on how to be heard. Taking inspiration from the Chilean protest- and women’s movement learning from their tactics in which a vital role is reserved for music and rhythmic gestures like jumping. (Images: Yeb Wiersma + Exercise: Francisca Khamis) #cacerolazo#vitaactiva#removethewall.
Conversation between Zoe Blennerhassett and Yeb Wiersma about the act of walking during pandemic times and on the role of physical movement as part of one’s personal and political life. The transcript of this conversation is part of a series of interviews on walking and its relation to our surroundings, published by Zoe Blennerhassett, communication designer, Dublin. (Design: Dongyoung Lee)
Together with composer Kaveh Vares, artists Lotte Geeven and Yeb Wiersma invite you to dissect the meaning and use of manipulation in film music. Using a number of scenes from their recent film project Arise, they look at the mechanisms that lie behind the music’s (sub)conscious manipulation. What stylistic music tools and strategies ‘tweak’ reality? How do you play with the viewer’s emotions? What is the power and danger of ‘twisting’? What is your position when the boundary between ‘true’ and ‘false’ becomes increasingly blurred? (Film stills: Lotte Geeven & Yeb Wiersma, 2019)
Is it possible in today’s world to hide from the camera? With this question the artists Lotte Geeven and Yeb Wiersma travel to New Mexico (Land of Enchantment) in search of someone who has never been photographed. Their quest begins in the desert village of Los Lunas, home to the native community of Pueblo Isleta and to Facebook’s recent built datacenter. While Facebook is storing billions of digital portraits, it is prohibited in the Pueblo Isleta by law and tribal customs to take photographs. It is here within this charged territory, along Facebook’s fence line, where the artists witness the juxtaposed forces between the digital, physical and spiritual world. Their journey will result in a short film (2021) questioning and redefining our position as human beings under the watchful eye of technology. (Stills: Historic Land Map Department, UNM, Albuquerque.)
As a response to the works and writings of Charlotte Posenenske, and the artist’s desire to operate at the critical ‘edge’ of things, Yeb Wiersma created the soundscape Calling from the Periphery (2019). Within this audio work, Wiersma asks—what are we saying when we speak about the ‘centre’ or the ‘periphery’? What if the centre is nowhere and its features are dispersed? Taking Posenenske’s Square Tubes, as her point of departure, Wiersma created a rhythmic soundscape exploring systems of hierarchy, the traps and beauty of Art and Modernity, and the conditions that influence our lives today. (Graphic image: Dongyoung Lee)
The artists Lotte Geeven & Yeb Wiersma will present the results of an unusual experiment; ‘can you capture the (collective) emotions of one hundred people?’ Concluding in a video installation and a unique perfume; a turbulent concentrate holding the emotional dynamics of a fleeting crowd.
The extract will be partly vaporized in Salon Louis XVI prior to the launch. The historic exhibition space is now infused with the molecular aura that was produced one specific day in Rabot, during sex, sports, affection, euphoria, stress, fear and rage. (Image: Video still ‘Diffusion’, Lotte Geeven & Yeb Wiersma, 2019)
A series of photographs taken in the Maroon village of Botopasi, situated in the interior of Surinam. Part of a short film project in the making ‘Not our rhythm section’. The film will explore how today’s rhythms and rituals are related to migration, displacement, and the continued effects of colonization. Alongside the images the poet Ishion Hutchinson selected two poems from his book ‘Far District’ to create a wider poetics of migratory relations. (Image: Yeb Wiersma)
During Odorama’s upcoming edition Lotte Geeven & Yeb Wiersma will speak about their collaborative practice and field methodology in relation to their project ‘Diffusion de Rabot’; the making of a human essence. (Image: João Lona at work wearing the ‘Diffusion’ shirt collecting pheromones.)
As part of their ongoing series ‘Formations’, Lotte Geeven & Yeb Wiersma present three new works (Haze, Roar and Downtime) set in the public realm of the city of The Hague. For these public works the artists play upon the notion of ‘Downtime’: referring to the time during which a system is out of action or unavailable. (Image: Video still from ‘Haze’, camera Rik Komaromi)
Read the interview about ‘Downtime’ for Metropolis M here: http://www.metropolism.com/nl/features/34895?preview
