Everything Is One, Saskia Janssen and George Korsmit /Ellen de Bruijne PROJECTS 09/07/2016–03/09/2016
Saskia Janssen and George Korsmit are presenting three projects on which they have worked as individuals and as a team, as well as two new publications.
Everything is One. Janssen produced an LP on which she combined the chants of pilgrims from Tibet with the chants of demonstrators against police brutality from New York. The chanting of mantras in the public space is not everywhere tolerated throughout Tibet, and it therefore becomes a deed of political activism. They could hardly be more different, and it is highly improbable that the two groups will ever meet one another, but their chants share similar objectives such as justice and equality. Janssen unites the chants on transparent vinyl, like a blind date of kindred spirits: pilgrims become demonstrators and demonstrators become pilgrims. A photo of New York’s skyline serves as a backdrop for the LP, a skyline with a ‘shadow skyline’ of found objects: ‘everything and nothing’ in a single image, even though both are made of the same elements.
Welcome Stranger. During a residency in New York, Janssen and Korsmit worked in close collaboration with the residents of Peekskill, a small town to the north of New York City. Based on the Afro-American history of Peekskill and against the backdrop of the current political climate in the USA, the Black Lives Matter movement and the rise of Donald Trump, they created a work in the public space and five wall paintings in the apartments of Bohlmann Towers in collaboration with the tenants. A publication that documents the time they spent working in Peekskill is being released to coincide with the exhibition.
Flowers from the Cardboard Hotel- Rainbow Soulclub 2005-2015. The Rainbow Soulclub is an initiative of Saskia Janssen and George Korsmit. Since 2005 they have worked as volunteers at De Regenboog Groep – an Amsterdam-based organization that is committed to helping the homeless and drug addicts, as well as more broadly tackling poverty. At the Rainbow Soulclub they orchestrate encounters between artists, art students and De Regenboog’s clients. Their publication Flowers from the Cardboard Hotel – Rainbow Soulclub 2005–2015 presents a selection from their archives.