Theun Mosk

Theun Mosk was born and raised in the north of Friesland. The Wadden landscape has shaped him and is part of who he is. In 2003, he was one of the young artists who followed a workshop at The Watermill Center. As a recent graduate of the Rietveld Academy, he became acquainted with the working methods of Robert Wilson. Mosk is known for his theatre productions and the design of exhibitions. He also works as an independent artist. In 2008, at the invitation of then Oerol director Joop Mulder, he created the aforementioned performance Walking, with Robert Wilson and theatre maker Boukje Schweigman. With Walking as inspiration, Mosk is now once again working with Wilson to create a route that strengthens the sensory perception of the landscape. “I like working with Theun because we think alike’, Wilson says about Mosk. “We come from a theatre background with a strong interest in architecture and design. Most visual people in theatre are decorators. Theun is not; he thinks in a completely different way. His work is architectural.”

Nienke Brokke

The visual work of artist Nienke Brokke always has a narrative element. The study of theatre design at the Rietveld Academy has contributed to this. As in the theatre there is always a ‘gesamtkunstwerk’, Nienke likes to work with multiple art disciplines that together form a whole. Because of this narrative side, Nienke Brokke designs not only land art and theatre decors but also educational projects. Here she is good at connecting content with an art discipline. The land art project ‘Dijk van een Wijf’ was her graduation project at the Rietveld Academy in 1997.

Bruno Doedens

Bruno Doedens (1959) studied at the Academy of Architecture in Amsterdam, specializing in Landscape Architecture. In 1990 he won the basic prize Prix de Rome – Landscape Architecture. In 1993 he founded the DS agency together with Maike van Stiphout, which won the international competition for two parks on the Potsdamer Platz in Berlin. Both were realized. In 2005 Doedens continued independently, and since 2007 as initiator and artistic director of Slem. In all his projects, in addition to expertise and craftsmanship, imagination is the central element. The fascination to ‘make the impossible possible’, or ‘to turn water into wine’, and the attention to the long term and social and cultural values, predominate. Doedens investigates the mutual relationship between art and landscape. How visual art, film, music and literature can enrich and transform landscapes and their natural laws, and processes that are always in motion. His new, temporary landscapes amaze, surprise and astonish. The public is participant and spectator at the same time, nature is a co-artist. And it is always big and a lot, like the landscape itself.
For more information Bruno Doedens

Henk Rusman

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Henk Rusman (1950) was born in Hillegom and studied in Maastricht at the Stadsacademie and the Jan van Eijck academy. He has lived in ‘t Bildt for decades where he won the Bildtse Kultuurprijs  in 1993. He is known nationally and internationally for his monumental works of art.

Frank Stella

Broken Jug is one of the many works by the famous American artist Frank Stella, known for his minimalist paintings and three-dimensional works. In 2009, Stella received the National Medal of Arts from then-president Barack Obama. In 2019, the artist was a great supporter of the idea of ​​placing his work in Harlingen. “It is so well-situated at the edge of the sea”, Stella stated during the opening two years later. The fact that the famous work of art was actually placed in Harlingen is thanks to Joop Mulder, former mayor Roel Sluiter and former alderman Hein Kuiken of Harlingen. “Joop took the idea of Broken Jug with him to every meeting  he went”, Sluiter told Omrop Fryslân. After a long wait, Broken Jug has finally been given a well-deserved place.

Joop’s dream has come true.

Observatorium

Observatorium is a Dutch artists’ collective, specialized in conceptual art, environmental art and architecture. The collective was founded in 1997 and is based in Rotterdam, from where they work on projects at home and abroad.

The collective is formed by the sculptors and installation artists Geert van de Camp and André Dekker, the painter Ruud Reutelingsperger and the interior architect Lieven Poutsma. On a project basis they regularly collaborate with specialists and other stakeholders.

In the mid-nineties Observatorium started to jointly design residential structures, abstract spaces in which artists and other interested parties were invited to observe and reflect for a short period of time. The first spaces were realized in galleries in Düsseldorf (1994), Groningen (1995), Rotterdam (1995) and The Hague, 1996. In 1997 the first residential structure for outside was realized on Staten Island in New York. The abstract building was based on specific dimensions by the architect Dom Hans van der Laan. This structure was resurrected a year later, in 1998, in the middle of a meadow in the Hoeksche Waard.

Since the beginning of the new millennium, Observatorium has also designed permanent sculptures in public spaces, such as the Observatory Nieuw-Terbregge in 2001, the Zandwacht on the Tweede Maasvlakte in 2015 and the Terp fan de Takomst in Blije. The collective is also involved in studies, competitions, lectures and other publications. They have received various awards.

Jan Ketelaar

Jan Ketelaar is an artist from Friesland. In 2002 he graduated from the Academie Minerva, interdisciplinary sculpting. Under the name ‘Potzenmakerij Ketelaar’ he makes so-called potzen: serious jokes.

Jan Ketelaar exhibited in Portugal, Bremen and New York, among others. He toured the Netherlands several times (by forklift) with his meter-high sculptures, “the state of the Netherlands”. In 2014, his royal fence, in the form of a bench made of lime leaves, was placed around the first royal lime tree in the Netherlands in Leeuwarden. He is primarily a sculptor, but also writes and publishes poems. In 2008 and 2012, he was in the finals of the NK Poetry Slam. In 2014, his first collection was published: ‘Van een man die denk, ik wil niet meer denken’ (From a man who thought, I don’t want to think anymore). In addition, as a potter, he organizes literary and cultural gatherings.