• In Short
  • Photography
  • Spatial

Hans van Lunteren

‘nature also chooses its own spots’

Hans van Lunteren is a sculptor and conceptual artist. After studying at the academy in Den Bosch, he trained as a gardener. Since then greenery, trees, shrubs and the landscape line of sight, has been a recurring theme in his projects and spatial assignments.

Last year Hans van Lunteren, together with biologist Jessica van Essen and program maker Hans van Dijk, developed the exhibition Accidental Green; seedlings of the city for the Centraal Museum. Urban greenery consists primarily of landscaped gardens, parks, trees and public gardens. But nature itself chooses places in the city where it can show its own primal strength. Information about this project can be found in the bicycle shed in the parking lot.

Lecture by Hans van Lunteren
Saturday, September 10, 2022 at 2:30 p.m.
In the series of artist lectures on Sunday afternoons, Hans van Lunteren talks in detail about his projects and art commissions.

As a visual artist, what can you contribute to the development of a residential area if you feel that a sculpture on a pedestal is no longer sufficient? This question underlies the various art-green projects that Hans van Lunteren has realized over the years.

In his lecture he will discuss the creation of Sjanghaipark (1970-present) which can be seen as one of the first projects in the Netherlands in which artists, together with residents, took charge of the design of the living environment as a process in time itself. Sjanghaipark is located north of Steck on the other side of the ring road in the Overvecht district.

Hans also talks about his first seedling project that he realized in the prison in Vught (2005-2012), commissioned by the Government Buildings Agency. And about De Gesloten Tuin, municipality Oosterhout (2006-2008), De Verlaten Tuinen van Geesinkveld, Diepenheim (2017), Het ZaailingenPocketPark (2018-present) and the project Toevallig Groen, seedlings of the city in Utrecht (2021).

 

  • In Short
  • Installation art
  • Photography

Francine Claassen

‘blowhards, inners, wallflowers’

The plant as refuge. In the photographic work of Francine Claassen, greenery is sometimes the place to hide and withdraw from the human world. A woman finds something to hold on to with a houseplant. The scene takes place behind the net curtain.

Claassen’s work is about authenticity, indomitable inner forces, and the struggle to remain yourself in a world that constantly pushes and pulls and presses on points of pain. Nature sometimes offers solace, a place to hide.

In her collages, staged photography, installations and sculptural acts there are certain layers that together form a story. What she makes is temporary and fragmentary. She alters existing images. A collage can be created impulsively, sometimes even in 1 minute. She wants to keep that freedom.

All her work seems to refer to an endless and obstacle strewn human quest of blowhards, inners, wallflowers and callers for escape, freedom and happiness. Sometimes nature lends a hand.

 www.francineclaassen.com

  • In Short
  • Multi-media
  • Photography

Jeroen Kooijmans

‘attract and repel’

In the video Jeroen Kooijmans presents at Steck, you don’t know if the woman and the finger plant are entangled or lovingly entwined. A strange game of attract and repel unfolds. It is like a dance. The music, ’Take this waltz of Leonard Cohen, confirms that assumption. The audience can dance along with headphones in the silent disco in the video room.

Jeroen’s films and video installations have a crystal clear and poetic visual language. Current events and everyday life are interwoven with the mythical world of paintings, fairy tales and feature films. Recurring themes are the flow and cycle of time, utopia and religion. In his films, people are disguised as abstract, symbolic beings moving in a prominent and meaningful landscape: lakes, forests, the sea, meadows.

The fundamental character of Kooijmans’ work is optimistic, but the darker side of life is not ignored.

www.jeroenkooijmans.com

  • In Short
  • Photography

Raymond Dekker

‘razor sharp, without the human being itself to be seen’

Raymond Dekker presents a moving series of photographs. He puts his finger on how we treat the discarded Christmas tree. At the garbage, the bus stop or in the park it is put down or laid with some dignity. The hesitation with which man disposes of the still healthy tree comes into sharp focus, without the man himself being seen.

‘I find human behavior fascinating. We think we are incredibly smart and developed, yet we sometimes do things without thinking critically about it. With my photographs I prefer to tell stories with a serious theme that I package raw, honest and in a subtle form of humor.’

At Steck, the photographs are housed in the Christmas tree forest. A forest of purely artificial trees.

www.denkbeeldvormer.nl