Das Leben am Haverkamp

Christa
van der Meer

For Christa van der Meer there is a clear connection with how we experience the world and how we consume the world. She creates objects, sculptures and performances that are often anthropomorphic, take place in the grey space between object and subject, and reflect on the quirky reality of everyday life.

Oh Henry!

“It is assumed that objects are dead, but would like to claim the opposite. They are autonomous beings and have a say and partly determine how we (humans) feel, through the world moves, makes decisions. Only if something as simple as a traffic light makes you stop, clothing gives you a sense of who you are in society, tools determine what you can make. I transform – by doing, by playing – with form and material. Calling on man to rediscover his modesty.”

Candy Canes/ photography Janne van Gilst

She graduated from the Royal Academy of Art (NL) in 2013. Since then her work has been commissioned for Salone del Mobile, Milan (IT), Boom City in Chengdu (CHN), Royal Palace Soestdijk (NL), Nederlandse Dansdagen (NL) among others. This went along an exhibition in Kunstmuseum Den Haag where her work was included in one of the permanent shows. Van der Meer’s work is applauded by Lidewij Edelkoort on Trendtablet.com.

Creamy Dream/ photography Verena Blok

hello@christavandermeer.com
www.christavandermeer.com

Dewi
Bekker

The work of Dewi Bekker revolves around the extent in which visual identity can be shaped. She is doing research into this by making use of the human body, objects and fashion related to identity and as a collective system of unwritten rules.

photography: Presstigieux model: Jip Loots

“In particular the alter ego is an important theme within my practice. Our appearance determines the identity that we reveal to the other and this may be subject to change. The changeable nature of the presented ‘I’ and our tendency to constantly refine it and even wipe it completely off the table, fascinate me.”

In het projects she is searching for the tipping point from ‘human being’ to ‘thing’. She is driven by the following questions: How can the transformation in visual identity be as big as possible without anonymizing someone? How can someone be unrecognizable but not anonymous? And is the physical body needed to display a visual alter ego or can it be represented by a sculpture as well? Exploring these questions results in playful and colourful installations, which examines material in relation to the human body.

photography: Janne van Gilst

During her studies Dewi Bekker gained international experience by doing internships at Bernhard Willhelm(FR) and Hannes Kettritz (DE). After her graduation in 2013 from the Royal Academy of Art in the Hague her works have been on shown at Amsterdam Fashion Week (NL), Modebelofte at the Dutch Design Week (NL), Boomcity in Chengdu (CHN) and Paris Fashion Week (FR).

photography: Iris van der Zee model: Jip Loots

dewi@daslebenamhaverkamp.com
www.dewibekker.com

Anouk
van Klaveren

Anouk van Klaveren explores objects as physical translations of collective belief systems. She is fascinated about how garments and objects embody cultural norms and values. By intertwining fiction and non-fiction, her work playfully analyses the driving forces of fashion’s seductive nature.

photography: Imke Ligthart

Trained as a fashion designer at the Royal Academy of Arts in The Hague, fashion and its normative structures became a theme in a more and more interdisciplinary practice, instead of a medium of expression. She started experimenting with performance, interviews, site-specific interventions and sculpture, which she sees as a tool to portray and question systems of value creation.

Her work has been shown at Centraal Museum (Utrecht NL), Salone del Mobile (Milan IT) and was representing the Netherlands during the International Fashion Showcase (London UK).

Currently she is enrolled in a unique interdisciplinary Master program called F for Fact, at the Sandberg Institute (Amsterdam NL), exploring past and future representations of reality through an artistic lens.

photography: Wim Klaassen

info@anoukvanklaveren.com
www.anoukvanklaveren.com

Gino
Anthonisse

He investigates the role of wonder in his work by creating an alternative reality. The monumental silhouettes from his previous work have a sculptural character. In his new work, he will further implement this by making clothing that no longer needs a body. An experiment where clothing, photography, performance and sound come together to form sculptural “life-size collage installations”.

collage: Gino Anthonisse/ work: 2019

Wandâ/ photography: Lisandro Suriel

Gino Anthonisse (1988) is a Dutch artist based in The Hague, The Netherlands. He studied at the Royal Academy of Art in The Hague and graduated in 2014. He got the opportunity to live and work in Antwerp during his internship at Christian Wijnants in the summer of 2013.

Wandâ/ photography: Lisandro Suriel

MADODA / photography: Anouk van Kalmthout / model: Evandro Laurens

Lost Wonder / photography: Lisandro Suriel / model: Jip Loots

info@ginoanthonisse.com
www.ginoanthonisse.com

Das Leben am Haverkamp

NAILS

9 May 2023

In the last weekend of May and the first weekend of June, our project space transforms into a nail salon. This interactive installation is a work by artist and social scientist Pauline Oosterhoff, who has built the nail salon together with Vietnamese and Dutch-Vietnamese nail artists Lê Đinh Đức, Ngọc Đào, Nguyễn Minh Thư (Ming-Shih Juan), Nhung Bùi Hồng and Trần Thi Thanh Hương. The exhibition also contains a work by Dutch-Vietnamese artist Đăng-Vũ Đặng, who, as a descendant of Vietnamese boat refugees, poetically explores his family history through edible sculptures. The exhibition shows the charged dynamics between the beauty industry and migration flows.

Unlike many other nail salons, a nail treatment at this salon is not an anonymous transaction. Through a short documentary and personal interaction you will become acquainted with the migration backgrounds of the nail artist sitting across from you. With these individual, unique personal stories and intimate encounters, Pauline Oosterhoff opens the door to a bigger story about labor migration and the intertwining with the nail salon industry, which she maps with her long-term research.

The work is an ode to the cultural and economic contributions of Vietnamese migrants and refugees. In the installation, however, Oosterhoff also draws our attention to the black pages of this migration history. Nails seeks nuance in the labor migration debate and urges the public to unravel the anonymity and invisibility of our social-commercial interactions.

The exhibition is open from May 26 to June 4. A nail treatment costs 14 euros and can be booked here.

On June 2, Pauline Oosterhoff will give a lecture. Together with Matt Steinglass (Europe correspondent, The Economist) she will facilitate a dialogue with Vietnamese and Dutch-Vietnamese (nail) artists, entrepreneurs and policymakers about the charged dynamics between the beauty industry and migration.

Opening during Hoogtij: May 26, 7:00 PM – 11:00 PM

Opening hours: 27 + 28 May and 3 + 4 June, 11:00 – 17:00

Talk: June 2, 19:00 doors open, 19:30 start

Click here to book your nail treatment. A limited selection of treatments is available. A treatment takes about 20 minutes and costs €14.

photo by Carmen Gray

Framed Intimacy

26 April 2023

Bodil Ouédraogo (1995) is a visual artist that explores the art of dressing up and its cultural surroundings in her work. During Rewire Festival, she presents Framed Intimacy: a visual installation that combines sculpture, movement, video, and music composed by Bram Owusu. Camerawork and editing of the video is done by Anne Lakeman.
Informed by her Dutch and Burkinabe background, Bodil is interested in the different cultural ideas of what constitutes identity. For this installation, she takes West African sculptures as a starting point, longing to express togetherness through material heirlooms. She does so by enlarging the sculptures, framing them and wearing fragments of the sculptures in a performative way. In this way, she aims to shift dynamics on how a sculpture is perceived and embodies the stories that are hidden in them. This results in a visual and auditory research about posing, bearing and positioning yourself; a longing about who went before us. Framed Intimacy is a new chapter in Bodil’s work, after Port la Richesse and To Blend, Together. In both works, Bodil Ouédraogo worked together with Anne Lakeman and Bram Owusu and were presented at Amsterdam Fashion Week and Stedelijk Museum Amsterdam in 2020 and 2021.

Framed Intimacy is commissioned by artist-run space Das Leben am Haverkamp and Rewire Festival and is part of a long-term collaboration between the two platforms. Through this collaboration, they aim to facilitate space for experimental crossovers between fashion, performance art and music

composer: Bram Owusu
camera work and video editing: Anne Lakeman
talents: Jomecia Oosterwolde, Luna Frederique, Benjamin Aerts,
osayi Osawe Turay, Siesa Moll and Mamadou Ouédraogo.

This work is generously supported by Creative Industries Fund NL, Stroom Den Haag and Rewire Festival.

Procrustinacean

11 April 2023

Das Leben am Haverkamp and Warehouse have invited Philipp Schueller to expand his exploration into the symbiotic relationship between humans and nature. With these explorations, that often take the shape of visual narratives and fashion, Schueller aspires to forge greater empathy with nature and its creatures. In the work Procrustinacean, Schueller draws parallels between fashion’s compulsive drive toward the new and a profound evolutionary urge. He compares humans shedding garments to other lifeforms that shed their skin or modify their appearance. In doing so, he speculates about future ‘fashion species’ and how clothing could shapeshift once it leaves the human body. He also shares his specific fascination for the horseshoe-crab, an animal whose blue blood, that holds an important virus detector, is harvested by the pharmaceutical industry. Our reliance on this animal can determine the decline of this species, or that of our own.
In the exhibition, that includes objects, performance, participation and conversation, Schueller invites the audience to internalize the story of this animal and to see the interdependence between us. Das Leben am Haverkamp, in collaboration with Warehouse, supports Schueller’s work by creating access to new materials and techniques as well as contextualization of the work through conversations. Together with Suzanne Bernhardt, Schueller developed a potion, a ‘liquid of life’ that visitors can consume in the exhibition.

artwork by Philipp Schueller
beverage in collaboration with Suzanne Bernhardt
graphic design in collaboration with Andrea Karch
audio collage by Bea1991
photos by Temet.studio

Thanks to Creative Industries Fund NL, Hoogtij and Warehouse

Procrustinacean by Philipp Schueller

6 March 2023

opening Hoogtij
Friday 10 March, 19:00 – 23:00 h
performance 20:00 h

openingstijden / opening hours
Saturday 11 March, 11:00 – 17:00 h
Sunday 12 March, 11:00 – 17:00 h

Saturday 18 March, 11:00 – 17:00 h
Sunday 19 March, 11:00 – 17:00 h

artist talk
Saturday 18 March, 20:00 h

gratis entree / free entrance

Stille Veerkade 19
Den Haag

Fitting In

17 October 2022

The world turns increasingly pluriverse. How can we, without losing ourselves, become part of a larger entity? That question forms the starting point of the group exhibition Fitting In. Artists and designers show how lavish our context can be, if we are open to the many voices around us. They understand identities as multi-layered or fluid. In conversation with you they explore the boundaries between fashion, visual art, photography, design and the world.

On show 02-10-2022 until 26-02-2023 at Z33 Hasselt, Belgium

Participating artists:

Christian Bakalov, Alia Ali, Lisa Konno & Sarah Blok, Mous Lamrabat, Berre Brans, Elisa Van Joolen, Das Leben am Haverkamp: Dewi Bekker, Anouk van Klaveren & Gino Anthonisse, The Fabricant & Teresa Manzo, CFGNY, Ines Alpha, Tom Van der Borght, Jo Cope & Boutique by Shelter, Marwan Bassiouni, Nazanin Fakoor, Helen Storey, Sanne Vaassen, ADIFF Angela Luna, Anais Hazo-Santorin, Elke Lutgerink, Lotje Heidingsfeld, Lucy & Jorge Orta, Mona Steinhaeusser, Sheltersuit, Thierry Geoffroy, Woman Cave Collective: Léticia Chanliau & Chloé Macary-Carney.

Curators: Annelies Thoelen, Branko Popovic and Marnix Rummens

photography: Liva Visual Storytelling

The Artist Mascot

30 June 2022

The Artist Mascot is a performative piece in which Anouk van Klaveren (the interchangeable mortal) aims to transform herself into Anouk van Klaveren (the mythical artist). By imagining her artist image as a collectively crafted object, she reflects on the mysterious aura that surrounds artisthood. Under what conditions is manual labor elevated to a mystical act that we call art? Her appearance is the result of a collective embroidery session that has now been going on for a year, in which dedicated art professionals as well as friends, family and exhibition visitors help to glitter her skin. Hovering between reliquary, a death mask and a shoppingmallesque mascot figure, the work draws parallels between capitalist dynamics and religious behaviour, exploring mankind’s susceptibility to cult and magical thinking.

With this project, Anouk obtained her MA degree at the Sandberg Institute, at the interdisciplinary F for Fact program.

Performance in collaboration with Puck Kroon. Embroidery by: Puck Kroon, Olya Korsun, Elki Boerdam, Pia Jaques de Dixmude, Eloïse Alliguié, Juliana Zepka, Mariana Fernandez Mora, Bernice Nauta, Jonathan Hielkema, Dewi Bekker, Gino Anthonisse, Christa van der Meer, Rianne Zijderveld, Jeannette Slütter, Cecilia Palmer, Leonie Dronkert, Paul de Jong, Marty van den Broek, Gé Bekker, Sjoerd ter Borg, Barbara Visser, Bart Haensel, Moosje Goosen, Arnoud Holleman, Ricarda Franzen, Matthew Wilson, Liselotte van Bemmel, Lucienne Post, Loekie Mulder, Nelleke van Klaveren, Ilse Dronkert, Peter Schaap, Simone Eleveld, Bill Wei, Patricia de Vries, Ineke Bakker, Eilit Marom, Katalin de Mooij, Wouter Backx, Ilse Moelands, Nicky Willems, Rico Pet, Nelleke Groot, Sander Breure, Witte van Hulzen.

Photography: Janne van Gilst.

1:1

20 June 2022

Immersed in the paradoxical world of patents and certificates of authenticity, the collective Das Leben am Haverkamp dissects the aura of the immensely popular Nike Air Jordan. Due to its exclusivity, this sneaker is arguably the most counterfeit sneaker in history.

With the work 1:1 – an encounter between real and fake Das Leben am Haverkamp questions; how do patents perpetuate existing power structures? What myth surrounds the exclusive Jordans, and what promise is this cult based on? How does it survive when counterfeit and original hardly differ from each other in terms of material properties?

1:1 is a hybrid sneaker that consists of two Jordans; the original and its forgery. One obtained the collective through an English webshop, which they had an authenticity check carried out for a fee. The others they bought on the Haagse Markt. 1:1 explores the complex value system in which the Jordans operate.

Commissioned by Design Museum Den Bosch for the exhibition Sneakers Under Construction by the Young Design Team.

On show from 11 June – 24 September 2022.

De Mortel 4
5211 HV Den Bosch (NL)

photo by Ben Nienhuis

Ton Zwerver – Trying to get grip on the situation

7 June 2022

As an experiment of collective making, Das Leben am Haverkamp invites Ton Zwerver to create a series of body related sculptures. Using the collective’s work, unfinished prototypes and left-over materials as resources, Zwerver creates cinematic scenes as part of his ongoing series Sculptural Situations.
Reassembling and attributing short performative actions to the materials he finds while roaming in their studio, he creates a new perspective on the existing works. Building on each other’s ideas, an intimate fusion of artistic practices takes place – challenging traditional notions of ownership and authorship.

Ton Zwerver (1951, Amsterdam) is a sculptor, photographer and performance artist. Everyday objects often form the basis for his sculptural work. Using his body as a canvas, carefully composed constellations take shape. Everyday movements take on an alienating dimension due to the repetitive nature of his performance.

opening
Friday 27 May, 19:00 – 23:00 h

openingstijden / opening hours
Saturday 28 May, 11:00 – 17:00 h
Sunday 29 May, 11:00 – 17:00 h

Saturday 4 June, 11:00 – 17:00 h
Sunday 5 June, 11:00 – 17:00 h

gratis entree/ free entrance

Stille Veerkade 19
Den Haag

Special thanks to Stimuleringsfonds Creatieve Industrie for their generous support, Hoogtij, Iris van der Zee for her words, Temet.studio for the wonderful pictures and everyone who lend us their precious Ipads.

video still, 'Trying to get grip on the situation' by Ton Zwerver, 2022

HUM (an/other)

28 March 2022

Das Leben am Haverkamp proudly presents HUM (an/other) – an interactive audiovisual installation by Angelo Custódio. Addressing the body’s vulnerability from a crip/queer perspective, the work fuses image, sound and vibration into an intimate experience. The immersive participatory installation expands listening through touch and artificial intelligence: a machine learning system reacting to visitors processes the artist’s voice. Visitors are invited to place a custom made tactile transducer on their own bodies, merging themselves with a hybrid organism. The spectator’s body becomes the material through which sound travels and is amplified.

Angelo Custódio (1983) is a Portuguese artist living in Amsterdam. Trained as a classical singer, he explores the relations between poetics and techno-embodied ways of voicing. He urges to nourish empathic understandings of identities, with a focus on the contemporary failure towards queer bodies and bodies with disability.

HUM (an/other) is included in the program Proximity Music: Sensing After Thought, an initiative by iii as part of Rewire Festival.

Opening
Thursday 7 April, 19:00 – 22:00 h

Continuous program
Friday 8 April, 12:00 – 19:00 h
Saturday 9 April, 12:00 – 19:00 h
Sunday 10 April, 12:00 – 19:00 h

Free entrance
Also accessible without Rewire ticket
Wheelchair accessible

Stille Veerkade 19
The Hague (NL)

video still, Sonic Iteration of QueerAble In/Stabilities, Angelo Custódio, 2021

photo Pieter Kers

Scarecrows

30 November 2021

During FASHIONCLASH Festival the work Scarecrows by Christa van der Meer is on display in the garden of Marres. Her work is a visual investigation into the relationship between people and objects. A recurring theme is the anthropomorphic: attributing human characteristics to non-human beings and objects.

Van der Meer is interested in scarecrows; a figure that is shaped by our discarded material and represents a human being. We use them not because birds actually find scarecrows scary, but because we think birds find them scary. Van der Meer is intrigued by how scarecrows look like us, but at the same time are some kind of monstrous variant of us.

[extended until further notice]
26, 27, 28 November
12:00 – 17:00h
Marres
Capucijnenstraat 98, Maastricht

supported by Creative Fund NL

Vier attracties, één kermis – Gino Anthonisse

25 September 2021

Through a series of four exhibitions, we explore the meaning of individual artisthood, by challenging our collective dynamics. Every week, we presented a “solo exhibition”, in which the members of the collective will playfully impersonate one of the other members by creating a work by carefully mimicking his or her working method, artistic intentions and aesthetics.

On 25 September Gino Anthonisse presented his one-day solo exhibition as part of the exhibition series Vier attracties, één kermis.

photos by Temet.studio

My name is Gino Anthonisse (1988), and in my work I search for lost wonder.
Life became very boring in the contemporary West, after we started to see ourselves as managers of the world.

Magic does not exist anymore; there is science and there is money. And there is bureaucracy; a strange reality on its own, which is hard to escape after we created a system in which the whole world is categorized, labeled and described.

The classical mens shirt, for me, is a symbol of this bureaucratic life without uncertainties. It represents the habits and the hierarchies which dominate our society, and is therefore my favorite target.

But underneath the surface of administration and knowing, there is an ocean of the unknown, and with my work I tap into it. By mixing two dimensional stock photos with ceramic elements and office clothes I search for optical illusions and a surreal experience. I create scenes in which the objects become props and bodies.

Met je dikke Zuidas-buik is a scene about the manager of a recruiter of a manager of an investor of a manager of a managing director, who manages his employees from the beach in the Bahamas. His shirts are left in the office, so his managers can take a little nap during their break, and still smell his hard work.

Please rest a bit on the manager’s belly. You must have had a tiring day visiting all this art.

Hi, my name is Gino and I make art. I explore the role of wonder within my work by creating an alternative reality. For me, wonder does not just stand for amazement or curiosity, but for an encounter with reality where nothing is as it seems. An exercise in free fall.

In ever-changing scenes I try to make the viewer reflect on this or I let them take part in a story by working with narrative elements.

I often use recognizable objects that immediately give the viewer a certain feeling or which they can relate to, such as; everyday utensils, clothing, shapes or postures.

These elements and objects arise from fascinations with uniformity, group identity of subcultures and stereotypes, but also status symbols and relics. For example, ‘the office life’ symbolizes uniformity for me, where amazement has been lost because humanity often transforms into procedures, models and (hierarchical) structures. That’s why it has such a strong appeal to me. By working with visual elements from this culture, I want to reflect on this.

I see my work as a collection of objects that can be used again and again in new scenes. The collection consists of self made or second-hand utensils and clothing, stock photos, cast-off body parts, but also body parts and objects modeled and made of ceramics.

Hi, I’m Gino Anthonisse and I am not an optical illusion.

In my practice I create alternative realities by combining sculpture, clothing, references to office-life, ceramics and 2D-artworks. I work with a lot of different techniques that I try to master. By mastering those techniques, I can work with optical illusion and I can mimic objects in such a way that it is hard to believe it is not an original.

It leaves the audience in awe. It is exactly what I aim for; handing my audience their childlike wonder back. By mastering the techniques and controlling materials that I work with, I strive for perfection. I work my materials like a magician and I master the techniques like the Avatar masters airbending.

By executing everything to perfection I give my audience their lost wonder back but does that equal my lost wonder as well? I usually admire artists that create work that embraces the imperfect and the spontaneous. Isn’t it a weird contradiction that I am, as an artist, not embracing this myself?

Maybe I should give it a go, and for this time I will master the imperfect and embrace the spontaneous. Mastering the imperfect questions my urge to perfection while it simultaneously uses the references and techniques I usually work with.

It is a practice in looking away and controlling my nerves.

I’m not telling you who I am. I prefer to keep you at a respectable distance from where I can get to know you quietly without having to converse with you. It’s not meant to be rude. I want the best for you.

In all modesty, I create an alternative reality in which I will trick you like a magician. By doing so I try to bring a sense of wonder back into your life. For me, wonder does not just stand for amazement, awe or curiosity, but for an encounter with reality where nothing is as it seems – an exercise in free fall. I also like to wonder myself. My imagination is out of this world, to the point that I still think I have a chance of becoming a real mermaid someday.

Vier attracties, één kermis – Christa van der Meer

18 September 2021

On 18 September Christa van der Meer presented her one-day solo exhibition as part of the exhibition series Vier attracties, één kermis.

photos by Temet.studio

My name is Christa van der Meer (1988). I experience this mysterious urge to create creatures out of all sorts of materials. It started as a two dimensional affair, by drawing and collage making. While playing around with colours, shapes and proportions a character emerges from it and starts to speak to me.

Lately I started to notice that I also detect personalities in all sorts of objects around me. Apparently it’s a human quality to recognize a friend or an enemy when we only perceive a glimpse of them. This sometimes results in accidently seeing the face of Jesus in a piece of toast, an animal in a coffee stain or reading an emotion in the headlights of a car. Neuroscience calls it pareidolia; the illusory perception of non-existent faces.

With my work I commit myself to these non-existing identities. I’ve made figures out of bananas and raisins, fabric and wind, rattan and robes. By articulating their body postures and faces, I give them a chance to come alive and be recognized by others too.

So these entities in this room are just a few assemblies I did. They are very clear because I isolated them for you. But don’t get me wrong; many of these creatures live with us without us paying attention to them. I want to encourage you to find them in the streets and in your home, and after you find them – please – don’t forget to love them.

Well hello there! So nice of you to read my artist statement, enjoy. My name is Christa, I would describe myself as a visual investigator.

While reading this, you feel the texture of the paper in your hands and you smell the ink. Be gentle to the paper, don’t wrinkle it too much, you might hurt it. Its name is Peter. This might sound funny, but I put a lot of love into this paper and you probably have got objects too that you love and care about. Everybody identifies with objects and projects feelings onto them. Maybe you feel sympathy for your favourite pair of trousers, your plant or the bell on your bike.

Anthropomorphism and personification both have ancient roots and have always interested me. Within my work I create objects that look alive, might have feelings and sometimes are able to dance.
I see myself as a creator of creatures: I bring objects to life. The objects then don’t care about me and start to live a life of their own; what I see, or what my intentions were, will be blurred.

The waving triplets is an installation of forever-cheering figures: sometimes (accidently) making friendly, scary or amazed gestures.

Welcome to my family house, where my plants, friends and a family of other characters live.

In recent history I graduated as a fashion designer, being interested in constructing identity with clothing. I used to express this in the context of Paris Fashion Week, but have become increasingly critical of the clothing industry. The way it functions at the moment I don’t feel like participating in it at all.

Together with the collective Das Leben am Haverkamp we are escaping and that is very nice. We now run a project space in which we approach fashion in a different way. Not as a commerce, and our audience is not a customer. By putting more personal stories first, I want to investigate the value of clothing and fashion.

My current work is about the anthropomorphic. I find it fascinating that as humans we tend to project human qualities onto things. Therefore I love scarecrows: a figure that takes shape by filling up our discarded clothes must represent a human being. Its aim is opposed to that of fashion: instead of seducing, it should repel. Not because the birds find it so scary, but because we think that birds find it scary. I like how scarecrows look like us, but are also a kind of monstrous variant of us. They are also the most anti-capitalist manifestations of clothing; constructed of what is already there and created by the user herself.

The first one of my family of scarecrows is here on show. Say hello to Turner!

Hi, I’m Christa and I am a person. I am pointing this out because having a name doesn’t necessarily mean that you are dealing with a human being. I could have been an animal, car, blow-dryer, bike or plant that goes by the name Christa.

I am fascinated by the fact that we treat objects and other living things as if they are human. We give them names and project our feelings on them. We empathise with anything that has some googly eyes stuck on it. We like to dress up animals and dolls just because we project our needs onto them.

I like animals dressed up as humans and humans dressed up like animals. It might sound like it is just about the cute-factor, but I mainly see it as a fascinating absurdity; our society is so human centered.

In my work I explore this phenomenon. To what extent are we able to empathise with non-human things? Can we stretch those borders? And why do we perceive our human projection as normal?

To disturb the self-evidentness of this projection I like to integrate unexpected elements into my work; spontaneous and unpredictable movement, clashing colour combinations, the cute and the grotesque and I name my works after candy. Laffy Taffy is no exception to this. It refers to both the texture of the taffy as well as its embodiment of silliness: short, question-and-answer-style jokes are printed on the outside of each wrapper, such as “What do you call a cow with no legs? – Ground beef”.

Vier attracties, één kermis – Anouk van Klaveren

11 September 2021

On 11 September Anouk van Klaveren presented her one-day solo exhibition as part of the exhibition series Vier attracties, één kermis.

photos by Temet.studio

I’m an artist that goes with the name Anouk van Klaveren. But a name is just a name. It is just a label to aim to understand the world around us and to make sure they fit in the structures in which we believe. When I start questioning all this and deconstruct it into systems and beliefs, everything starts to fall apart; it all comes to interpretation.

An artist can be multiple things and by being multi-interpretable it is hard to categorize them. Someone will be called an artist depending on the references of the viewer. To someone I might be an artistic genius but to the other I might be the girl next door pretending she is an artist. But does it all really matter? Isn’t artisthood a myth in itself?

I like to create and to collect objects and phenomena that are ambiguous. Because they are hard to categorize it raises questions about function, value and truth. By giving my work names I am able to charge the object with a certain function, value or truth.

You see, as an artist it is pretty easy to be a trickster.

Act 1: The mascot and the scapegoat is the first act in a series of performative pieces. Depending on your point of view I could be cheering for you or I could be the one that you can blame for anything.

The magpie came into my life a while back with a beautiful message.

She feels magnetically drawn to everything that glows and shines.

Magpies have traditionally been associated with good fortune. Yet this luck is not thrown into the lap of the magpie; she just has a good eye for it and sees the gem shining in the dung heap.

Be open to omens, your happiness is hidden in these subtle messages. The golden opportunity knocks at your door, will you let it in?

Magpies are curious and have a reputation for getting their hands on whatever they can drag, no matter the consequences. This energy and strength are often pitfalls of the magpie.

But of course this isn’t just about stuff.

Making myself beautiful is also part of this. By doing this I bring myself into a completely different energy. The sweatpants vibe is also nice sometimes, don’t get me wrong, but dressing yourself up and beautifying yourself for the day, brings a whole different energy with it that is perfect for me right now.

Dress for the life you want to live.

My name is Anouk van Klaveren (1991), working in The Hague. I am attracted to objects I don’t understand. I enjoy looking at seemingly useful objects of which the function is unclear to me. I like to collect these enigmatic objects, in physical form, or by photographing them. Over the years I’ve built up an impressive archive of them. Some of them I encountered at flea markets, in the home of friends, in ethnographic museums, in churches, at online fora such as whatisthisthingcalled.com. The objects hint to be some kind of tool, kitchen utensils, toys for some animal or kid or adult, particles of a machine or relics.

Despite their mystical appearance, they probably make sense within the everyday routine or rituals of a stranger. They belong somewhere, within an exotic belief system based on ideals that still need to reach us.

When I make art, I search for this mixed feeling of enigma and familiarity. The objects I make seem part of a myth or ritual where neither of us – you nor me – takes part in. Maybe this new belief will reach us some day, but for now we just need to wait for it.

This costume is made while waiting. I call it The Waiting Costume. Wet leather has been moulded around my body, while I was waiting for some new ideas and ideals to appear. Once all the parts were dry, I still felt I needed to wait a bit longer, so I started to adorn it with pearls.

You can watch and touch it, while you wait with me for the next collective myth that we will both believe in.

Hi, my name is Anouk. The best way to describe myself would be as an undercover operator.
To go “undercover” is to avoid detection by the entity one is observing, and especially to disguise one’s own identity or use an assumed identity for the purposes of gaining the trust of an individual or organization to learn or confirm confidential information or to gain the trust of targeted individuals to gather information or evidence.

Since the day I started creating art I have had two questions that haunt me. ‘What is fashion?’ and ‘Why isn’t everything shiny?’.

Through my work I’m exploring fashion as a system of unwritten rules, fascinated about how garments and objects embody normative structures. I perform undercover operations within these systems. A good example is one of my ongoing operations Peach Tree, Ambiguous: a research project mapping production processes of value and meaning in the spiritual void around luxury goods.

PROJECT 000 000 – The artist with the Shiny objects shows my utensils as an undercover operator such as masks, various specialized tools, personal belongings, disguises and various unknown and shiny objects.

Vier attracties, één kermis – Dewi Bekker

4 September 2021

On 4 September Dewi Bekker presented her one-day solo exhibition as part of the exhibition series Vier attracties, één kermis.

photos by Temet.studio

My name is Dewi Bekker, and I am here to play. You might think you are a reasonable grown up. I am sorry to tell you: you are not. You are as irrational, as playful, as fickle as your 6-year-old self.

Yes, you are right, you’ve built up some sort of identity. Over the years, you delicately created a story about you. A you-story shaped by thousand and one social interactions, carefully mimicking the people around you. Not to mention the attempts you made to be not like the boring others; these were formative too. Remember the plenty of short introductions about you and your life at birthday parties, after which you felt great or miserable. Or the numerous applications in which you chose the right framing to tell about your professional life. You’ve tried many outfits, haircuts – until you’d decided this one is fine for now. Congratulations on your haircut.

Every now and then you feel thrilled about this glossy you-story. My god, it sounds so coherent and true.

Today we celebrate your storytelling ability. We are playing a game. And you are about to invent the rules of this game. Everything is this room is ready to be identified, to be wrapped in one of your smooth stories. I know you can do it.

Don’t forget to actually play the game after you’ve set the rules. Please touch the brick.

My work revolves around the malleability of the self. The alter ego is central to my work. Using the human body, alienated everyday objects and fashion, I explore the universe of the alter egos and its complexity. Our appearance determines the identity that we reveal to the other and this may be subject to change. The changeable nature of the presented ‘I’ and our tendency to constantly refine it and even wipe it completely off the table, fascinate me.

A court jester, the official prankster at a monarch’s court, is the perfect representation of the alter ego. Mostly jesters gave bad news and speak their mind to the King that no one else would dare to deliver or speak out. For the worst cases the jester would switch to its scepter, which stands for the alter ego of the jester or sometimes the alter ego of the King himself. The scepter could speak freely without being judged or punished.

The ten-nosed suit shows the diversity of the jester’s role. His freedom of expression, prankster of the monarch’s court and representation of the common people and you.

The alter ego is an important theme within my practice. The changeable nature of the presented self and our tendency to constantly refine it and even wipe it completely off the table, fascinate me. The representation of the self is in my opinion an important issue in current society where identity, partly by the internet, can be shaped and judged in a blink of an eye. People perceive themselves as being a profile, a self-curated set of characteristics or an avatar. Identity is almost like a year-round performance where everyone is writing a script for the self in which the self is ambiguous depending on the situation. This curating of the self intrigues me. The way we shape our (visual) identity might cause polarisation, alienation, detachment, distance and hostility (seeing someone as a ‘thing’) but might as well cause familiarity, compassion and open up dialogue (seeing someone as a ‘human’).
Through my work I am searching for the tipping point from ‘human being’ to ‘thing’ and the roles people take on towards these opponents. I explore this by working with the human body, objects, sculptures and material/techniques like silicones, polyurethane, textile, casting, and handicrafts. This enables me to move between tactility, familiarity and alienation and to examine material in relation to the human body.

A Monument of Folly is an ode to the relation between the court jester and the alter ego. The medieval court jester and their bauble might be irrelevant in nowadays society but their dynamics and spirit isn’t. The jester openly plays different roles without masking it, is a scapegoat and a mascot at the same time and is therefore seen as unpretentious and harmless. This allows the character to speak freely, to mock and criticize, and to cross cultural, religious, political and social lines.

Hi, I’m Dewi. I like art, road cycling and beautiful plastics. I’m wearing funny socks, police pants and red lipstick. Tomorrow I may be very different from today. And you may may so too. When I talk to your mother I am someone else then when I talk to you. And you too. Whenever I’m in a different situation, I’m a different person. Does that make me less real? Or is it just fun and smart? And if my environment influences me so much, isn’t my environment more me than I am myself? It’s an interesting thing that people have so many different appearances. You could also call them alter egos. Everyone has an infinite number of them. Some are regulars, others only appear on the scene once. I think clothing plays a big part in this. It can be an aid to clarify and present your alter egos. You are then your alter ego together with your clothes. To the people around you, your clothes and you together are the person you are.

One alter ego of mine that is regularly revealed is my artist alter ego. It’s actually there almost every day. When that time comes again, I like to make things that investigate what an alter ego exactly is. Where does it begin, and where does it end? And can you make an alter ego very precisely yourself? Even if it’s just for a while.

upcoming show: Vier attracties, één kermis

4 August 2021

Through a series of four exhibitions, the collective Das Leben am Haverkamp explores the meaning of individual artisthood, by challenging their known collective dynamics. Every week, the collective presents a “solo exhibition”, in which the members of the collective will playfully impersonate one of the other members by creating a work in the spirit of this member.

First one in line: Gino, Dewi, Anouk and Christa will make a work as if they are Dewi, by carefully mimicking her working method, artistic intentions and aesthetics. While experimenting with new formats of togetherness, the project explores artist hood as a character that can be performed and shaped by multiple.

4, 11, 18 and 25 September
12:00 – 18:00 h

Das Leben am Haverkamp
Stille Veerkade 19
2512BE, The Hague

collage by Anouk van Klaveren

collage by Christa van der Meer

collage by Dewi Bekker

collage by Gino Anthonisse

Wessel Verrijt

19 June 2021

We proudly present The Catalysts, a solo exhibition by Wessel Verrijt at the home of Das Leben am Haverkamp.

Wessel Verrijt (1992, Eindhoven) builds sculptures that play the leading role as “entities” within his rituals. In the rituals he creates, his props, set and protagonists come together to form a immersive installation. Within the immersive installations there is a fine line between art, theater and choreography, in order to create a new mythology of symbols and meaning.

The collective regularly invites like-minded artists or human beings who they envy for being so incredibly talented. The guest star joins the collective for a while – imagining and executing any dream that fits the dimensions of the square room. Their sparks become part of Das Leben am Haverkamp, if only for a moment.

19, 20, 26, 27 June
12:00 – 18:00 h

From 18 – 27 June we continuously show a film by Wessel Verrijt in our street window.

photos by Janne van Gilst

The Catalysts by Wessel Verrijt

still from film: The Catalysts by Wessel Verrijt

The Catalysts by Wessel Verrijt

still from film: The Catalysts by Wessel Verrijt

The Catalysts by Wessel Verrijt

Wessel Verrijt

still from film: The Catalysts by Wessel Verrijt

Out and About

30 April 2021

This exhibition is a gathering of some individual works by the members of Das Leben am Haverkamp – the plastic chair as a stage for a current development in their artistic life.

Christa what do you present in your chair, it looks intriguing!
C: ‘It’s a body, constructed by many, many knots. He sprouted from a macrame workshop a while back’

Gino what can you tell about your plastic chair? You even brought two chairs!
G: ‘Two suits which escaped from the office to chill in this garden, they no longer need the bodies.’

Wow Dewi, what is it we see here?
D: ‘It is a work made from vacuum formed PET and latex that has been worn on the naked body of a performer. It is left behind as a residue of an alter ego.’

Anouk?
A: ‘There is not so much sitting in my chair. Nevertheless, I took the time to decorate it, as I started to appreciate tactile decoration more and more.’

30 April 2021

NEST
Out and About
De Constant Rebecqueplein 20b
The Hague

photo’s by Lotte van Uittert

Anouk van Klaveren

Christa van der Meer

Dewi Bekker

Gino Anthonisse

Your Future

15 April 2021

Studying at Sandberg Institute’s MA F for Fact, has drawn Anouk to explore the art of coffee ground reading. Through the World Wide Web, she got in contact with Mario Baker, who became her remote teacher and shared his knowledge on symbols, the residu’s color and distribution with her. Challenging the negative connotation of “Dat is koffiedik kijken” (= A matter of reading coffee grounds), the readings offer her a genuine encounter with her classmates, with whom she practices. Recognising dogs, trees and pizza slices in the coffee ground offer entrypoints to share imaginations about the future. What can we learn from this practice, when we look beyond the question of true or false?

About F for Fact:
At a moment in time when facts are framed as fantasy and feelings equal truth, F for Fact investigates different forms of knowledge through an artistic lens. But what counts as knowledge? What’s the difference between truth and meaning? How are narratives shaped and by whom? Find more about the master program here.

Elki's Future

Juliana's Future

Eloise's Future

Pia's Future

Mariana's Future

Olya's Future

Furqat's Future

The residents

2 April 2021

Throughout the past year we’ve been working on a research based project with Zuiderzeemuseum, Enkhuizen (NL). A museum with one of the most remarkable outdoor museums we’ve seen; a small village consisting of characteristic buildings – big and small – that were originally in villages in the Zuiderzee area, but rebuild in the 1950’s.

The museum invited us to reflect on Dutch traditional wear in relation to tourism. The traditional wear has been reproduced repeatedly and has become a romanticised image – a static, stand-alone icon. While in every day life the tradition is intimate, pragmatic and subject to constant change. In our work we want to unite those two conflicting realities.

We selected three buildings from the outdoor museum to find out who is currently living on the geographic location the building was originally on. We were curious what their lives are like, how they live and what they wear. We translated all of this, together with the information we have gotten on the traditional wear of the region, into sculptures. Portraits if you wish.

The chapel, Den Oever

On October 26, we ring the bell at the first location. In Den Oever, where this chapel used to be, there is now an apartment complex with a chilly empty shop on the ground floor. Apart from the street name, nothing in the street scene reminds us of the chapel. The chapel is still very much alive in the memory of the residents of the complex. His name is Egbert, and he has always worked in fishing, remembers well how the church was visible from the dike. Since his retirement he has always been busy making things. In the window frame stands a great pride, a London Tower Bridge, completely constructed of Lego. Her name is Gea, with a warm smile she shows us around the house and through their wardrobe. Some smart pants, sneakers, comfortable t-shirts. A traditional Wieringer hood? No, she doesn’t have a Wieringer hood.

The fisherman’s house, Monnickendam

We tracked down Mr. Sijmons through a competition he once won through the Monnickendam shopkeepers’ association. By Googling his name we find a local theater company and through the screen of his telephone we see an open and cheerful man in a green ensemble. Green with green. Even his physical therapist knows that if his shirt is green, even his socks are. He apologizes for the dents on his face that have come with the years. Monnickendam has never had a very pronounced costume, but the neighboring local choir likes to dress in Volendam costume. He feels great in such gigantic pants.

The candy shop, Volendam

This house once stood in the Doolhof of Volendam. The streets are so narrow that the cars from google maps cannot get there. Where this sweet shop once stood is now a small family home from the 1990s. Via a video call we meet Cliff and Agata. They wanted to surprise us by receiving us in their Volendam costumes, in which Cliff usually shows tourists around. Instead, they wear comfortable clothes adorned with company logos. They speak with mixed feelings about the absence of the annual tourist flow. Nice and quiet, thinks Agata, who finally does not have to squeeze through a photographing crowd with full shopping bags. It is a bit less favorable for Cliff’s pub De Molen, but his energy is no less. He speaks vividly about his businesses and British shorthair cats.

2 April – 24 October 2021

Zuiderzeemuseum
Wierdijk 12-22
Enkhuizen (NL)

Gea and Egbert, the chapel, Den Oever

detail Gea and Egbert, the chapel, Den Oever

Meneer Sijmons, the fisherman's house, Monnickendam

Agatha, the candy shop, Volendam

Cliff, the candy shop, Volendam

Cliff's cat, the candy shop, Volendam

Cliff's other cat, the candy shop, Volendam

Front Row

19 March 2021

We are Public‘s Front Row invited us to make a print to send to their members. This is it!

Consumptie (2020) 210 x 297 mm, digitale collage

Peach Tree, Ambiguous

10 March 2021

We warmly invite you to the speculative department-store Peach Tree, Ambiguous; a digital exhibition by Anouk van Klaveren.

Peach Tree, Ambiguous is a fictional brand with a deliberate ‘yes-man’ work-ethos. Embracing the deranged logic of today’s marketing- and communications cultus, the brand fully outsourced its products’ raison d’être by hiring an international team of sales experts, content creators and e-commerce models.

Simulating a tribalized department-store, the exhibition shows a wide range of purposefully advertized objects, all blurring the thin line between need and wanting; cause and effect; the voyeur and the exhibitionist. Doused within the realm of commercialized daydreams, Anouk portrays today’s e-environment and its inherent consumer myths. Read more about the project at Mister Motley College, where you can download a mini-publication about Anouk’s method; including a text written by Femke de Vries and designed by Ruben Verkuylen.

After an artist-in-residency in the spacious hall of De Fabriek, the Peach Tree Showroom was supposed to open its doors during Dutch Design Week, but couldn’t due to circumstances. With the help of Janne van Gilst, Max Peeperkorn, Studio Lennarts & De Bruijn and Pieter van Vliet, the project got the shape of a digital 360 showroom. An exhibition and a memorable gifting idea too!

www.peachtreeambiguous.com

Many thanks to Stroom Den Haag and Creative Industries Fund NL

Stills from commercial videos made by content creators for the fictional brand Peach Tree, Ambiguous

A glimps of the Peach Tree, Ambiguous assortment

10 March 2021

A selection of Peach Tree, Ambiguous’ products, as part of Anouk van Klaveren’s project.

www.peachtreeambiguous.com

photography: Janne van Gilst

Magnificent Obsidian

Be a part of the art. Brought to you exclusively by Peach Tree, Ambiguous. An aesthetic basalt free-form sculpting style, […] made out of magnetic fiber iron oxide, and each comes with little spherical radiant marbles of different sizes. The magnetic marbles are scattered along the sculpture’s surface, you can move and basically redesign the piece, however, and whenever you feel like it. The enigmatic artifacts are designed to spark your sense of creativity. […] This inspires the artist in you to take the driver’s seat and pull in, the drive from within. Its play time. So, be a part of art. Inspire the artist within. You are invited to become an active part in the ever changing world of abstract art.

Design To Delight

If you feel like lacking enthusiasm and fun in your life then your surroundings might need a quick and fancy makeover. To pacify your running thoughts and elevate your spirits to gain inspiration for achieving your dreams, recreation is important. These handmade aerated concrete blocks can be your friend to help you relieve pressure by exhibiting your artistic skills. […] Series of aerated concrete blocks, in various shapes and variety of lengths ranging from straight to 90 degrees curve, 30 degrees curve to 60 degrees curve, to form longer or shorter objects. They are covered with brass push buttons in a unique rhythm, which can be covered with the pompons, in any composition or colour scheme which pleases you. […] Let that creative essence of your soul be out of the curtain of timidity and challenge it to new opportunities of innovation.

Build-Your-Own-Broom

No need to stress over cleaning a dirty table, a dusty couch, messy garden or a public seat you do not want to touch anymore. Your favorite artist at Peach Tree, Ambiguous has hand-crafted the first of its kind FLEXIBLE Broom, yes you read it right, a flexible broom, that not only looks classy and unique but also cleans sparkling clean. […] The latest addition to our handmade artifacts is the ‘Build Your Own Broom’ product-series that is easy to assemble and even easier to work with. Once you have used BYOB, there’s no going back to an ordinary broom. Be among the classiest group of people to own one of these Exclusively Handcrafted packages for you and your loved ones.

An Elite Form Of Home Decor

This exquisite piece of art can be a lovely addition to any home decor. Its sleek design is made of turquoise-coated wood and gold plated metal bulbs, which provides an endless eccentric style to one’s home fashion. Its intriguing structure is simple yet complex which allows for its many various uses of decor, including it being used as: women’s tabletop/kitchen decor, men’s vehicular/office decor, childrens playroom/bedroom decor. I would have never believed that this piece of home decor could have so many variations of use; however, it is a truly beautiful piece of art that will be quick to become a conversation starter with its sleek, luxurious design.

Magnificent Obsidian

Design To Delight

Build-Your-Own-Broom

An Elite Form Of Home Decor

A Highly Charged Affair

5 March 2021

This installation by Dewi Bekker is part of her ongoing exploration of the extent to which visual identity can be shaped.

performer: Jip Loots
photography: Janne van Gilst
Thanks to Stroom Den Haag

Shigaraki Ceramic Cultural Park

12 February 2021

Gino Anthonisse created new work during his residency at Shigaraki Ceramic Cultural Park (Japan) in early 2020.

JOIN Collective Clothes

7 September 2020

Das Leben am Haverkamp has moved to a new studio, a former gallery space. We are looking forward to extending our artistic practice by initiating and hosting shows, bingos, screenings, dinners – inviting like minded artists and adventurous audiences.

Hereby you are cordially invited to our very first exhibition where we proudly give the floor to the great initiative by Anouk Beckers, JOIN Collective Clothes.

The fashion industry focuses mainly on the status of designers and brand identity. It portrays garments as the magical results of invisible processes. Therefore fashion can be experienced as something exclusive, something that is not for everyone. Although perceived that way, fashion is actually a collective practice. We find the simple example of everyone wearing clothes in everyday life. Fashion is something we are all part of. JOIN Collective Clothes accelerates this idea by inviting everyone to participate.

Thursday 10 September
10.00 – 18.00

Friday 11 September
10.00 – 23.00

Satuday 12 September
10.00 – 18.00
16.00 – 17.00 artist talk (NL) on register in advance by mailing anna@daslebenamhaverkamp.com

Das Leben am Haverkamp
Stille Veerkade 19
2512BE, Den Haag

photos: Anouk Beckers
event is supported by Stroom Den Haag

Celebration Scenes IV – The Buffet

20 August 2020

Anouk sculpted these Zoute Stick Jewels from copper, opalite and crushed pearls.

They are handcrafted individually, and made in a numbered edition of 30 pieces. They are exhibited in Loui Meeuwissen’s installation The Buffet, during PIP expo. Read more about it here.

The work is part of Loui’s Celebration Scenes, a continuous series of performances and installations around the aesthetics and rituals of celebration – an experimentation with the unwritten rules of ‘gezelligheid’.

Satuday 29 Augustus
16.00 – 23.00

Grey Space in the Middle

Paviljoensgracht 20

The Hague

Many thanks to Stroom Den Haag

Photos: Lotte van Uittert

Suzie

10 March 2020

by Christa van der Meer.

Suzie, the dog formerly known as Guus party-cipated in The Savage by Oscar Peters in De Electriciteitsfabriek, The Hague in 2020.

photo by Charlott Markus

Suzie in Volta by Oscar Peters, 2020

Candy Canes

20 November 2019

Christa van der Meer playfully investigates different relationships we could have with what we wear, creating performance, sculptures and objects.

“In many ways, couture and fast fashion have lost their connection to the practical world. People own more clothes than they can wear. I don’t handle this lightly, but want to reflect on this in an optimistic manner. By imagining, taking out context and magnifying ‘clothing’ and ‘show’ I question the role of clothing, it’s status and the show in our current society.”

This work was previously on show at Bureau Europa during Fashionclash Festival 2019.

pictures by Janne van Gilst
thanks to Stroom Den Haag

Can we leave this male posturing bullshit till later?

18 November 2019

In the installation Can we leave this male posturing bullshit till later? Gino Anthonisse investigates the role of wonder in his work by creating an alternative reality. He developed his sculptural silhouettes with modelling techniques and creates clothing that no longer needs a body and bodies which no longer needs clothing. These silhouettes come together in ever-changing life-sized collage installations consisting of clothing, body elements, photography and optical illusion.

The work has been on show in the exhibition New Fashion Narratives, curated by Fashionclash. Bureau Europa, Maastricht (NL), 17 October – 3 November 2019.

photography: Janne van Gilst

PROJECT 000 008 – The Waiting Costume

13 November 2019

This costume by Anouk van Klaveren is part of an audio installation, in which voices speculate about the function of the costume. The music has been written by Pieter van Vliet.

“The Waiting Costume is a costume that traces the posture of the artist while waiting. Wet leather has been molded around the artist’s lingering body, until its components gain their final shape over time.

The costume deliberates the wearer’s body and mind by reinforcing a passive physicality, and offers a new perspective on, for example, the anatomical appearance of a waiting popliteal. Decorated with bright sweet water pearls, The Waiting Costume also offers a great opportunity to pass your time by staring at its components from a distance.”

The work has been on show in the exhibition New Fashion Narratives, curated by Fashionclash. Bureau Europa, Maastricht (NL), 17 October – 3 November 2019.

Yellow hands, yellow ears

12 November 2019

The installation Yellow hands, yellow ears of Dewi Bekker revolves around the extent in which visual identity can be shaped. “In particular the alter ego is an important theme within my practice. Our appearance determines the identity that we reveal to the other and this may be subject to change. The changeable nature of the presented ‘I’ and our tendency to constantly refine it and even wipe it completely off the table, fascinate me.“
In her projects she is looking for the tipping point from ‘human being’ to ‘thing’. She is driven by the following questions:How can someone be unrecognizable but not anonymous? And is the physical body needed to display a visual alter ego? She explores these questions by making use of the human body, sculpture, objects and fashion. This resulted in a playful installation, which examines material in relation to the human body.

The work has been on show in the exhibition New Fashion Narratives, curated by Fashionclash. Bureau Europa, Maastricht (NL), 17 October – 3 November 2019.

photography: Janne van Gilst

Le Signe

18 October 2019

Our work Quirky Cruise takes part in this years autumn exhibition De Toutes Façons, in center for graphic design, Le Signe. In addition to this we were invited to create a performance for the opening event.

De Toutes Façons explores the fertile links between graphic design and contemporary textile creations. The plasticity of fabric makes it possible for it to interact with its environment. Worn on bodies, flying in the wind, in three or just two dimensions, the designers play on these qualities. Graphic designers, whose art consists in laying out messages, indulge in taking up this medium and imagine flags, diverted garments or trompe l’oeil finery. More info.

17 October 2019 – 22 March 2020

Centre National du Graphisme
1 Place Émile Goguenheim
Chaumont (FR)

photography: Janne van Gilst

performer: Eva Schartner

Incoming!

1 October 2019

New Fashion Narratives
Bureau Europa, Maastricht (NL)
17 October – 3 November 2019
Opening event on 17 October from 17.00 h
More info

The exhibition forms a prelude to FashionClash Festival (1-3 November)

De Toutes Façons…
Le Signe – Centre National du Graphisme, Chaumont (FR)
17 October 2019 – 22 March 2020
Opening event on 18 October from 18.00 h with a performance by Das Leben am Haverkamp
More info

Glory Collision
by Atelier Oh Nee, Billytown The Kitchen, The Hague (NL)
29 November 2019 – 31 January 2020
Opening event on 29 November, time to be announced.
More info

Taskforce Fashion
Van Eyk, Maastricht (NL)
1 – 3 November 2019
More info and schedule

Joe!

8 July 2019

The performance Joe is the final chapter of Zeeuws Museum x Das Leben am Haverkamp. During the finissage on the 8th of June a performance transforms the current exhibition into archive pieces.

about the exhibition
In the early summer of 2017, the Zeeuws Museum, as instructed by Das Leben am Haverkamp, invites forty of its visitors to give a description of forty randomly selected objects of the museum’s archive. The subjective descriptions of regional costume, jewellery and household goods induce the collective to develop a new collection objects without ever having seen the original museum objects.

on show until 10th of June 2019
Zeeuws Museum
Abdij, Middelburg (NL)

Final assembly

27 May 2019

The performance Joe is the final chapter of Zeeuws Museum x Das Leben am Haverkamp. During the finissage on the 8th of June a performance transforms the current exhibition into archive pieces. We would like to invite you to join us for this.

8 June 2019
Zeeuws Museum open 11.00-17.00 h (free entrance)
Performance 13.00-16.00 h (continuous)
Drinks 16.00-17.00 h

Zeeuws Museum
Abdij, Middelburg (NL)

The exhibition is on show until the 10th of June 2019.

campaign by Studio Lennarts & de Bruijn

A Fictional Turn

27 May 2019

Our favourite book store Page Not Found invited us to make a presentation contextualising our new book Zeeuws Museum x Das Leben am Haverkamp. The event is part of a series of events called A Fictional Turn, on how artists, faced with the exacting requirements of archiving and documenting, turn to fiction.

24 May 2019
Page Not Found
Boekhorststraat 126
The Hague (NL)

Here for you

1 December 2018

We launched our first book! The publication Zeeuws Museum x Das Leben am Haverkamp elaborates on our project with Zeeuws Museum. It’s a banger with lots of great essays by smart people, documentation of our work, the transcriptions that lay behind it, behind the curtain material and gossip by us. Graphic design by Studio Lennarts & de Bruijn.

Order your copy here for only €20,- or shop at:

– Stedelijk Museum, Amsterdam
– Page Not Found, The Hague
– Het Nieuwe Instituut, Rotterdam
– Billytown, The Hague
– Stroom Den Haag, The Hague
– Gemeentemuseum Den Haag, The Hague
– De Koperen Tuin, Goes
– Zeeuws Museum, Middelburg

photography: Janne van Gilst

Four ways of launching a book

30 November 2018

Through the art of the spectacle four special guests will launch the book Zeeuws Museum x Das Leben am Haverkamp. The book deepens the enigmatic relation between things and words and the fundamental meaning of objects in our daily life, and that of our ancestors. This colourful publication is released in addition to the exhibition Zeeuws Museum x Das Leben am Haverkamp and gives a view on an unconventional cooperation between the visitor of the Zeeuws Museum and the collective Das Leben am Haverkamp. With contributions by Heske ten Cate + Robin Barry, Leonie Dronkert and Mari van Stokkum – among others – and designed by Studio Lennarts & de Bruijn.

During the launch evening the book is available for 20 euros. Joost Haverkamp will join us as a host and you will be surrounded by an audio landscape of Pieter van Vliet. We hope to raise a glass with you.

30 november 2018
17:00 – 19:00 h

welcome speech by Marjan Ruiter, director Zeeuws Museum
17:30 h

Stroom Den Haag
Hogewal 1-9
2514 HA Den Haag

Fashion my religion

12 April 2018

We had the honour to develop the campaign for the 10th edition of Fashion Clash Festival! With this series of cakes we want to celebrate your favourite garments, instead of making new ones. Read more on this here.

Read what i-D/Vice (US) had to say about this project.

photography: Lonneke van de Palen

Nawie's favourite shirt

Anouk's favourite shoes

Branko's favourite garment

Laurens' favourite fashion socks

Dewi's favourite socks

Zeeuws Museum x Das Leben am Haverkamp

20 February 2018

In the early Summer of 2017, the Zeeuws Museum, as instructed by Das Leben am Haverkamp, invites 40 visitors to give a description of 40 randomly selected objects of the museum’s collection out of storage. Objects in the storage rooms are anonymous, without judgment, without a story. It is that anonymity that appeals to the imagination. The subjective descriptions of regional costume, jewellery and household goods induced us to develop a new collection without ever having seen the objects described.

With this method and our collection Das Leben am Haverkamp aims to create a bridge between past and future, between knowing and fantasizing, between the image of yourself and that of the other.

Volkskrant described it as one of the cultural highlights of 2018. Glamcult said to go see this with your own eyes – “The journey is worth it”. Read about what i-D Vice and VPRO Nooit Meer Slapen had to say about it.

17 February 2018 – 10 June 2019
Zeeuws Museum
Abdij, Middelburg (NL)

photography: Presstigieuxx

Zeeuws Museum x Das Leben am Haverkamp

20 February 2018

A selection of the 60 objects that we made for Zeeuws Museum x Das Leben am Haverkamp, starting with the transcriptions given to us.

Each of us worked in a specific color.

Christa van der Meer: pink
Anouk van Klaveren: petrol
Dewi Bekker: yellow
Gino Anthonisse: red

photography: Anda van Riet, Mieke Wijnen and Janne van Gilst

visitor 36, object 35: "... I have no idea what it is ... but I do rather like it .... the delicate wire work."

visitor 11, object 10 "The object that is on the table in front of me is a true example of ... simplicity, something that can be used in daily life ... very simple material ... but still, because a woman is a woman you make it into something more .. you do ... something extra, beautiful lace ... just to give that feeling that ... even if it is an all .. everyday object that you use, what you wear garment gives you a kind .. of feeling of beauty, nobody probably sees it, it's probably hidden under a lot of layers .. of clothing ... but I can imagine that

visitor 20, object 19: "This object eh ... evokes memories of eh old movies .. eh .. some of them dating from the .. eh ... from the time of western movies .. with a big circus somewhere out there on the prairies ... ehhh .. a large tent .. children walking in, dark on the inside, they pick up a seat, sit down ... eh .. then the most beautiful and most beautiful images pass by ... Oriental eh European and you name it."

visitor 15, object 14: "I see reed .. but not just any reed .. reed in which you can put something and with which you can travel and I see a ... good looking woman farmer from Zeeland before me .. who takes it with her on a journey, but where does she go and what does she have in it?"

visitor 22, object21: "These objects remind me of my father .. ehm he also had a few of these objects placed near the sofa ... for his own comfort for in the evenings ... eh yes they are made of leather .. and .. they seem to be very comfortable and easy to use and used a lot."

visitor 6, object 6: "I can see something that looks like an adornment ... what a person can wear ... to smarten it up .. it will probably have something to do with .. religion eh eh .. it has a great lot of details ranging from from large to small .. and there is also eh precious metal in it eh ... I think it is very old but I'm not sure about that ... there are some tiny details that you would really like to have a closer look at ... and it's a a nice colour."

visitor 26, object 26: "Yes I see a large object in front of me .. eh .. it seems something to wear eh .. a special kind of fabric .. it looks to have some kind of feathers or leaves on it .. eh it reminds me a bit of the crop tops of today .. but then eh .. from the past .. eh it also seems to originate from this region .. and eh typically regional costume I think."

visitor 8, object 8: "I can see eh eh an object that is so bizarre and eclectic that I couldn't possibly place it. I think it's a eh completely coincidental combination of Chinese eh Chinese-like European Asian .. eh fantasies ehm ... an item of chinoiserie that eh in .. its .. complete weirdness surpasses every other object in the eh at the fancy fair .. it would do nicely in the shooting gallery .. yes."

visitor 25, object 25: "Eh ... I do not know it ... couldn't really tell what it is .... if you can wear it or .... never seen before ......... maybe eh from the time .. of your grandmother or so that she wears back then or so buttah ... huwè .. I've never actually seen it, so."

visitor 22, object 22: "With this eh object I notice that eh on the .. yeah that it's a kind of little garment perhaps for children because if I picture it like that on the right shoulder it has some clamps with which to eh fasten and loosen it, so I can imagine that it yeah has the function of some kind of bib bib-like .. something .. a protective piece of clothing .. nice colours."

visitor 13, object 15: "I think this is a little mould ... ehm a little mould that needs something in it because I see a little hinge and a handle, it would have been hot ah .. gingerbread cookies .. maybe a little mould for an artwork something ... from Zeeland .. metal I think ... I cannot see very well, there's a human figure inside and ... I'm curious to know what should come out if 't ehm ... when it would be finished."

visitor 39, object 37: "Well what I see is a ... I think it's a piece of clothing ... but ... [talks unintelligible outside of the microphone] oh for that it is extremely tiny so it won't be that kind of thing .. oh god what it is that is a mystery to me what beautiful borders ... ha bib haha but no that's not it as well ... oh dear ... it is something that you tie around ... I don't know ... a garment, that's all I know."

visitor 23, object 21: "It reminds me of an object that is worn very often, is still worn or at least is used ... uh ... by all sorts of people, you come across this in all kinds of cultures, it's a really a very favourite .. footwear I would directly dare to "

visitor 6, object 8: "I see a a somewhat wonderfully object with lots of details ... you have to look at it closely as to also be able to see the details to see them well .. it it seems a bit oriental .... it has a lot of eh holes ... it it it's high .. it seems to be made from metal, but I think it's been mainly painted ... so it does not have to be metal ... it has a golden ... yeah appearance."

visitor 21, object 23: "To me this object too looks as if it's ... quite old ... and it also looks to me as if it has been lying on the bottom of the sea for a long time and as if it may have been pottery .. and I wonder who used it and indeed how long ago that was."

visitor 39, object 40: "A cloak, an .. old-fashioned hoodie as you can imagine .. a burka .. hihi .. look, that's what we looked like in the past and now everyone considers eh that to be a problem .. maybe it is just the facial cover that is lacking here but maybe there was some of that too a veil I can see something .. what I very much recognise nowadays on the street and what we too used to have here .. concealing, you can place a whole bomb belt under underneath .. but I don't think they had those at that time haha"

visitor 32, object 29: "Yes it does look like something you will not encounter in a museum every day .. it's far more likely to be something for at home ... and if it's old or not I do not know, it could just as well be bought directly from IKEA now"

visitor 17, object 18: "... ffft .. it also looks nice and warm .. ehmm .. and it's something to put on your head I think .. ehm .. it has a nice texture especially when it snows or when it's cold outside .. ehmm .. and .. it's got all kinds of small things hanging from it that make it look a bit flouncy .. the colours are a bit brighter ehm .. bright pink and and combined with the blue .. and I think that it rather belonged to a child eh .. than to an adult .. so rather for a girl .. ehm .. I used to wear this too as a small child .. ehm .. and the nice thing about it is that it not only covers your head but also your neck .. so I think you're well protected against against rain and wind .. ehm .. yeah"

visitor 35, object 36: "First impression nice large silver .. buttons .. with a diameter of ten centimetres I think think of the regional costume .. uh .. this object .. will in my opinion be worn on the hip .. as a decoration .. very beautiful."

visitor 25, object 26: "Ehm ... yes ... you don't see this as much anymore ... maybe that eh .. at the time of grandfather and grandmother .. they were then worn .... and .. my mother never wears such a thing ... it is kind of special .. to wear I think too .... strangely coloured fabric ... with a collar ... no buttons no nothing attached ... but really special"

Dutch Design Award

31 October 2017

Last Saturday Das Leben am Haverkamp received the Dutch Design Award in the category Fashion for the work Bravado – A pretentious, swaggering display or courage during the award show at Dutch Design Week in Eindhoven, The Netherlands. This was our first big show and took place at Amsterdam Fashion Week 26 January 2017. It was well received by Volkskrant, NRC, Elsevier, Glamcult and Fucking Young! ao.

Attentione!

4 October 2017

Save the date for the opening of our show at Zeeuws Museum.

17 February 2018
Zeeuws Museum
Abdij, Middelburg (NL)

campaign stills: Studio Lennarts & De Bruijn

Hop on board ladies and gentlemen

3 October 2017

Steaming on the beach this summer. Our collective project Quirky Cruise is captured by Sanja Marusic. The objects are on show in the exhibition Uit de Mode at Centraal Museum Utrecht (NL) 12 September – 22 October 2017.

photography: Sanja Marusic
models: Varusa Misidjan and Wouter van de Kuijt

thanks to Stroom Den Haag

Uit de Mode

11 September 2017

Our work Quirky Cruise is on show at the exhibition Uit de Mode in Centraal Museum Utrecht.

12 September – 22 October 2017
Centraal Museum
Agnietenstraat 1
Utrecht (NL)

Quirky Cruise

15 July 2017

We showed our Quirky Cruise collection as the opening show at Amsterdam Fashion Week this week and we hope it will stick to you the whole summer. It will not only serve the mind and eyes of “more seasoned jet-setters” but also the agoraphobics who will enjoy the sun on their one square meter balcony.

Here is a selection of this collective project.

photography: Team Peter Stigter

model: Naomi Smith

model: Driewieler collectief

model: Jip Loots

model: Andreas van der Mast

model: Bob Groot

model: Driewieler Collectief

model: Jody Rouwenhorst

model: Peggy Schwab

model: Noami Smith

model: Driewieler Collectief

model: Jip Loots

model: Henk Kalfsterman

model: Dolly Bing Bing

model: Henk Kalfsterman

model: Grego Francisco

model: Mariwka Waluniwka

model: Paul van der Plas

model: Otwin

Nominated

13 July 2017

Oh yeah, we are nominated for two Dutch Design Awards! Both in the category Young Designer as in the category Fashion.

Go off to kip in the zoo

11 July 2017

As a contribution to art=ARTIS, Anouk van Klaveren and Dewi Bekker created A residence that might remind you of that unique hotel in Magdeburg or that colourful gym where you used to train for tampon hockey. In a former bear stay they furnished a Bed&Breakfast.

Following their own interpretation of Standards for the Accommodation and Care of Animals in Zoos and Aquaria, drafted by EAZA (European Association of Zoos and Aquaria) the designers created a habitat.

Make yourself comfortable and enjoy the unique view and location of this accomodation.

Stay tuned

10 June 2017

Preparing for a show at Zeeuws Museum.

Let’s go on a Quirky Cruise

9 June 2017

Proud to announce we will be the opening show at this upcoming edition of Mercedes-Benz Fashion Week Amsterdam. The members of Das Leben am Haverkamp all have their individual practice, but for this occasion we unite, as we will show a collective project this night.

13 July 2017
Gashouder, Amsterdam
(invite only)

Adornments

9 April 2017

These adornments are a significant part of PROJECT 000 005 – ‘His Majesty prefers pigs’ by Anouk van Klaveren.

photographer: Imke Ligthart
model: Wouter van de Kuijt
styling: Anna Mala

Bravado

1 February 2017

Our show Bravado: a pretentious, swaggering display of courage during Amsterdam Fashion Week, January 2017. Four collections in one show, while exploring different ways to present fashion to an audience.

photography: Team Peter Stigter

'A flag, stripes and a guy in green overalls' by Dewi Bekker

PROJECT 000 005 - 'His Majesty Prefers Pigs' by Anouk van Klaveren

"PROJECT 000 005 - 'His Majesty Prefers Pigs'" by Anouk van Klaveren

'Wandâ' by Gino Anthonisse

'Creamy Dream' by Christa van der Meer

Wandâ

29 January 2017

By using a life-size collage technique, Gino Anthonisse creates designs that are surprising as well as astonishingly surreal. By combining collages together with origami he discovers an approach on how to design clothing without sewing, only using folding for its construction.

photography: Lisandro Suriel
model: Noah Owie

Creamy Dream

29 January 2017

Clothing enables you to express your identity and flaunt it. That is why Christa van der Meer wonders, in what way is the clothing you wear connected to your identity? Is fashion still an expression of identity when it is not worn by a person, but worn by an object? The collection Creamy Dream is a cheerful exploration of these questions.

photography: Verena Blok
model: Katinka van Gorkum, Bernice Nauta and Reynir Þór

Thanks to Pannenkoeken Paviljoen Malieveld

model: Reynir Þór

model: Katinka van Gorkum

model: Bernice Nauta

model: Reynir Þór

A flag, stripes and a guy in green overalls

29 January 2017

With this collection Dewi Bekker created an alienating group identity that is defined by an absurdist aesthetic that includes bright colours, striped patterns, rubber gloves and masks.

photography: Iris van der Zee
model: Jip Loots

PROJECT 000 005 – ‘His Majesty prefers pigs’

9 January 2017

For PROJECT 000 005 – ‘His majesty prefers pigs’, Anouk van Klaveren created a series of characters, costumes, jewellery, props and sets. The projects has been shown in various set-ups at Atelier Néerlandais, Amsterdam Fashion Week and Kunstlinie Almere Flevoland.

photography: Imke Ligthart

model: Giuliano Bolivar

model: Darcy Nann Henry I

model: Giuliano Bolivar

model: Lisandro Suriel

model: Lisando Suriel

model: Marlies van Stolk

photography: Imke Ligthart

Fleet of Foot

6 December 2016

We will be part of the opening of Amsterdam Fashion Week in January 2017! A big shout out to Future Generation and Stroom Den Haag.

26 January 2017
show at Amsterdam Fashion Week
Transformatorhuis, Westergasterrein
Amsterdam (NL)

21-23 January 2017
Showroom during Paris Fashion Week
Marais, Paris (FR)

Campaign - Das Leben am Haverkamp x Future Generation

A ride in the park

8 November 2016

Collages by Dewi Bekker

29,7 x 21 cm

Pairs

7 November 2016

Imke Ligthart and Das Leben am Haverkamp paired up! These photos are published in the book Pairs Project.

mask and shirt by Dewi Bekker

coat and trousers by Dewi Bekker

coat by Anouk van Klaveren/ trousers by Christa van der Meer

coat by Dewi Bekker/ mask by Anouk van Klaveren

dress and mask by Christa van der Meer

coat by Anouk van Klaveren

mask, coat and shirt by Gino Anthonisse

Time’s up

22 August 2016

Time is just a made-up concept.
We could turn it the other way around.
Make it into something that’s fiction in your eyes and reality in ours.
Welcome to our liquid space time warp.

This calendar is a collaboration between Marsdiep and Das Leben am Haverkamp and was presented in Avondwinkel de Buren op 101 in Amsterdam.
The collages are by Das Leben am Haverkamp and are made from found footage.

Face time

3 May 2016

photography: Jeronimus van Pelt
edit: Das Leben am Haverkamp

Anouk van Klaveren

Gino Anthonisse

Christa van der Meer

Dewi Bekker

MADODA

23 February 2016

Gino Anthonisse is always searching for wonder. By using a collage technique he creates designs that are surprising as well as surreal astonishing. This technique is also shown is his new installation of the collection MADODA.

photography: Anouk van Kalmthout
model: Evandro @ Tony Jones Model Management

Ons bronko drijf oor die see

23 February 2016

A project by Christa van der Meer. As an elaboration of her previous collection she continued the investigation on how to translate 2D images to 3D designs. The result is presented in a film which gives you an 360 degrees view on the collection.

photography: Luka Karssenberg
models: Vasura Misidjan and Stephany Kerssenberg
hair and make-up: Chris Völkers
shoes: Fabian Bredt
styling: Anna Mala

The sun would not catch them on the road

23 February 2016

This is a project by Dewi Bekker. During her quest, she researches on myths and alter egos, which include superheroes, traditional European festivities and James Bond. This is shown in her new collection The sun would not catch them on the road.

photography: Henri Verhoef
model: Jelle Smid @ Tony Jones Model Management

The Show-Off Show

1 February 2016

The Show-Off Show, an exhibition and showroom by Das Leben am Haverkamp. Four upcoming fashion designers have presented their crispy couture flavors while simultaneously presenting their individual interpretation of the concept ‘show’.

photography: Janne van Gilst / installation: Gino Anthonisse

photography: Janne van Gilst / installation: Christa van der Meer

photography: Janne van Gilst

photography: Janne van Gilst / installation: Dewi Bekker

photography: Janne van Gilst / installation: Anouk van Klaveren

photography: Janne van Gilst

Holy moly

15 January 2016

Anouk van Klaveren’s PROJECT 000 002 – Vestes ad illustrandam embryogenesin hominis et mammalium abnormen in the desert.

photography: Imke Lighthart

Fish billboards – contemporary is temporary

8 January 2016

You are invited

23 – 27 January
The Show-off Show
Atelier Néerlandais
121 rue de Lille
Paris (FR)

Did anyone say gefelicifashion?

15 November 2015

Gefelicifashion – a celebration of conventions featured in Glamcult

photographer: Imke Ligthart
model: Henk Kalfsterman

Gefelicifashion

11 August 2015

– a celebration of conventions

This Das Leben am Haverkamp collaboration was shown during Future Generation at Amsterdam Fashion Week.

model: Koos Heemskerk

photography Team Peter Stigter

backstage photo by Gijsje Heemskerk

Faster

10 May 2015

Sandra Zegarra Patow photographed our works in Belfast

stylist: Lewis Robert Cameron / model: Stephen Edgar

coat by Dewi Bekker

jumper by Anouk van Klaveren

outfit by Gino Anthonisse

Lick it, stick it!

5 May 2015

Collages & sketches by Dewi Bekker for the upcoming collection.

42 x 29,7 cm

Edel Achtbaar

29 April 2015

Collage of upcoming work Gino Anthonisse

Parental advisory

7 April 2015

This is a nice photo shoot by Jaimy Gail de Gier. And that is a good thing. Clothing by Christa van der Meer

New pioneer

7 April 2015

Henri Verhoef photographed pieces from Gino Anthonisse and Dewi Bekker in his project.

photography: Henri Verhoef
styling: Tessa de Boer
hair: Jennifer Wijngaard and Xiomara Virdo
makeup: Jolanda Denneman and Xiomara Virdo
model: Jay Eversdijk

Make Me Feel

5 April 2015

Anouk van Klaveren’s leather pieces in a photography project of Imke Panhuijzen.

Mondaze

4 April 2015

Dewi’s pieces are featured in this crazy shoot for Mondaze magazine.

photography: Jacob van Rozelaar / make-up and hair: Melanie Foeh / styling: Luna Michel / model: Ziggy

Cult of Creators

5 February 2015

Gino Anthonisse’s collection Lost Wonder in a photography project of Anouk van Kalmthout!

photography: Anouk van Kalmthout / model: Dax van Eijkeren and Julia Baas

Privacy is Theft

11 October 2014

Anouk van Klaveren launched her new PROJECT 000 003 – Privacy is Theft. Because plastic is fantastic.

photography: Imke Ligthart

Shopping!

10 October 2014

Collecting fish for a photo shoot of Anouk van Klaveren’s PROJECT 000 003 – Privacy is Theft with photographer Imke Lighthart.

Hypertrichosis bow tie 2.0

3 May 2014

PROJECT 000 002 – Hypertrichosis bow tie 2.0 is an ongoing project by Anouk van Klaveren. Collected human hair is being preserved in a series of custom made bow ties. The project was created as a performative sequal to Anouks graduation project and shown at BACK STAGE ON STAGE, Salone del Mobile in Milan.

photography: Dayna Casey and Joel Nieminen

Thanks for your hair

2 May 2014

Anouk van Klaveren has been collecting hair of the audience at Salone del mobile 2014 to be used as raw material in PROJECT 000 004 – Hypertrichosis Bow Tie 2.0. Check out the whole collection at www.anoukvanklaveren.com

Because He Made Her Smile

1 May 2014

A series of portraits painted on silk that were made by Christa van der Meer during a performance at BACK STAGE ON STAGE during Salone del Mobile, Milano 2014. This project stems from a fascination for the proportions of the face and the emotions that influence its expression. Specific parts of the portraits are shrunk to change the expression of the portrait.

50 x 60 cm/ textile dye on silk

Lost Wonder

10 January 2014

Graduation collection & collages by Gino Anthonisse.

Photography: Lisandro Suriel
Model: Jip Loots

I would like to drink beer high among the Aesir

1 September 2013

The graduation project I would like to brink beer high among the Aesir by Dewi Bekker. Photography by Imke Ligthart and Henri Verhoef, model Jip Loots.

PROJECT 000 002 – Vestes Ad Illustrandam Embryogenesin Hominis Et Mammalium Abnormen

24 August 2013

This project by Anouk van Klaveren exists of a series of 17 garments, following anatomical abnormalities of the human body.

photography: Janne van Gilst

Bubble Boy

3 May 2013

PROJECT 000 002 – Vestes Ad Illustrandam Embryogenesin Hominis Et Mammalium Abnormen

by Anouk van Klaveren

photography: Rik Versteeg

Who might have guessed that at least seven billion atoms found their way to construct four individual entities that would eventually speak and discuss the current state of affairs of something we delightfully – but often problematically – call fashion? art?

A collision of people like this just happens once in a blue moon.

Our main protagonists – Anouk van Klaveren (1991), Christa van der Meer (1988), Dewi Bekker (1990) and Gino Anthonisse (1988) – joined forces and formed the collective Das Leben am Haverkamp after graduating from the Royal Academy of Art, The Hague (NL).

Das Leben am Haverkamp (meaning life at the Haverkamp) is constituted like a soap; a never-ending tale, intimately intertwining the individual and the collective artisthood of its members. Their togetherness creates the novel context necessary for their artistic practices to unfold, allowing themselves to reinvent their creative methods along the way. Inspired by the quirky reality of daily life, creation of myths, relativity of luxury and alter egos – the main characters indulge the mystic urge to create tactical objects. Masks with striped ears, wooden creatures on gold-plated wheels, garments for inflatable giants, ceramic shoe-balls, concrete blocks adorned with fluffy push buttons, animal figurines with flowing hair, sculptures with balloon-like hands, tuxedo-shaped garden cushions – to name a few.

The collective used to operate from their shared laboratory at the Haverkamp in the outskirts of The Hague. Recently, they relocated their playground to Stille Veerkade, inhabiting a former white cube that soon got stacked with their collection of obscure tools and lush plants. Sparing a square room in the back allows them to host exhibitions, screenings, dinners and bingos.

Ever since, the collective regularly invites like-minded artists or human beings who they envy for being so incredibly talented. The guest star joins the collective for a while – imagining and executing any dream that fits the dimensions of the square room. Their sparks become part of Das Leben am Haverkamp, if only for a moment.

EXHIBITIONS AND SHOWS

2022

Z33, group exhibition Fitting In, The Artist Mascot by Anouk van Klaveren, A Monument of Folly by Dewi Bekker and Office Oasis by Gino Anthonisse, Hasselt (BE) 2 October 2022 – 26 February 2023

Design Museum Den Bosch, group exhibition Sneakers Under Construction, 1:1 – an encounter between real and fake by Das Leben am Haverkamp, Den Bosch (NL) 11 June – 16 October
+ artist talk on 2 September, 19:00 – 22:00h

PIP, group exhibition PIP Expo, collaboration with Eilit Marom, Anouk van Klaveren and Dewi Bekker in continuation of the project Unforbidden Pleasures, The Hague (NL) 6 October

Das Leben am Haverkamp, solo Book launch by Anouk van Klaveren in collaboration with Lilo Boerman, The Hague (NL) 23 September

iii, group exhibition EVIDENCE IN MOTION: amorphous beings, performance The Artist Mascot by Anouk van Klaveren, The Hague (NL) 16 September

Melkweg, group exhibition Arty Party, performance The Artist Mascot by Anouk van Klaveren, Amsterdam (NL) 31 August

The Courtroom, graduation exhibition F for Fact, Sandberg Institute, performance The Artist Mascot by Anouk van Klaveren, Amsterdam (NL) 9 – 12 June

Kunstruimte de Melkfabriek, group exhibition by STeC, Patrick by Christa van der Meer, Den Bosch (NL) 8 – 16 January

2021

Marres, part of FASHIONCLASH Festival, Scarecrows by Christa van der Meer, Maastricht (NL) 26 November until further notice

Le Guess Who, OBSESSED! Jewellery Festival, Peach Tree, Ambiguous by Anouk van Klaveren, Utrecht (NL) 10-12 November

Museum Kranenburgh, Can we leave this male posturing bullshit till later? by Gino Anthonisse and Quirky Cruise by DLAH, part of the group exhibition Roaring Twenties, Bergen (NL) 17 Oct 2021 – 3 April 2022

Das Leben am Haverkamp, exhibition series Vier attracties, één kermis by Das Leben am Haverkamp, The Hague (NL) 4, 11, 18 and 25 Sept

Zuiderzeemuseum, Must See, The Residents, Enkhuizen (NL) 3 Apr – 24 Oct 2021

Grafische Werkplaats Den Haag, group exhibition Analog, Oh Henry! by Christa van der Meer, and The Residue is Pitifully Thin by Dewi Bekker, The Hague (NL) May – July

NEST, Out and About, The Hague (NL) 30 April 2021

FASHIONCLASH Festival, Peach Tree, Ambiguous, by Anouk van Klaveren, Online edition (NL) 26 – 28 Feb

2020

De Fabriek, Peach Tree, Ambiguous, by Anouk van Klaveren, Eindhoven (NL) 17-25 Oct

Heden Den Haag, Can we leave this male posturing bullshit till later? by Gino Anthonisse takes part in Haagse Heritage, The Hague (NL) 5 Sept – 10 Oct

Centre National du Graphisme – Le Signe, De Toutes Façons, Chaumont (FR) 17 Oct 2019 – 22 March 2020

De Electriciteitsfabriek, Suzie by Christa van der Meer takes part in Volta by Oscar Peters, The Hague (NL) 7 Feb – 20 March

Atelier Oh Nee and Billytown The Kitchen, Glory Collision, The Hague (NL) 29 Nov 2019 – 29 Jan 2020

2019

Taskforce Fashion, Van Eyck, Fashion after Flood, Maastricht (NL) 1 – 3 Nov

Bureau Europa, in context of FashionClash Festival, New Fashion Narratives, Maastricht (NL) 17 Oct – 3 Nov

Zeeuws Museum, Zeeuws Museum x Das Leben am Haverkamp, Middelburg (NL) 17 Feb 2018 – 10 June 2019

Zeeuws Museum, performance Joe for the occasion of the finissage of Zeeuws Museum x Das Leben am Haverkamp, Middelburg (NL) 8 June

Page Not Found, A Fictional Turn; Part 3, audio installation related to Zeeuws Museum x Das Leben am Haverkamp, The Hague (NL) 24 May

Stroom Den Haag, a Zefir7 night with Studio Lennarts & de Bruijn and Das Leben am Haverkamp, The Hague (NL) 16 April

Centraal Museum, Quirky Cruise as part of the permanent setup – Tromp L’oeil, Utrecht (NL) starting April 2018

Material District, Quirky Cruise, Rotterdam (NL) 12 – 14 March

2018

Stroom Den Haag, book launch Zeeuws Museum x Das Leben am Haverkamp, The Hague (NL) 30 November

HOW&WOW – studio by Crafts Council NL, Gino Anthonisse en Christa van der Meer, Dutch Design Week, Eindhoven (NL) 20 – 29 October

Modemuze, Modemuze@OBA: Innovation, Quirky Cruise, Amsterdam (NL) 18 May – 2 Sept

WYSIWYG (What You See Is What You Get), Grey Space in The Middle, The Hague (NL) 12 May

HOW&WOW – cooperazione! by Crafts Council NL, Salone del Mobile, Milan (IT) 18 – 21 April

Heden, Quirky Cruise, The Hague (NL) March – April

A residence that might remind you of that unique hotel in Magdeburg or that colourful gym where you used to train for tampon hockey, by Dewi Bekker and Anouk van Klaveren, ARTIS, Amsterdam (NL) 19 April – 26 August

Quirky Cruise, Heden, The Hague (NL) 3 March – 7 April

2017

Winner, Dutch Design Award category Fashion (NL)

Nominee, Dutch Design Award category Young Designer (NL)

Dutch Design Week, Dutch Design Awards exhibition, Veemgebouw, Eindhoven (NL)

Dutch Design Week, preview Zeeuws Museum x Das Leben am Haverkamp, Eindhoven, (NL)

Centraal Museum, Uit de Mode, Quirky Cruise by Das Leben am Haverkamp, Utrecht (NL)

Nest, Pitch Black Photo Booth by Eddie The Eagle Museum in collaboration with Das Leben am Haverkamp, Nest, The Hague (NL)

Mercedes-Benz Fashion Week Amsterdam, Quirky Cruise, opening show by Das Leben am Haverkamp (NL)

Punch Punch and About Asia at Future Center, Boom City, by Fashionclash, Chengdu (CHN)

Mercedes-Benz Fashion Week Amsterdam, Future Generation presents Das Leben am Haverkamp (NL)

Tijdgenoten, a night by Glamcult at nightclub De School, Amsterdam (NL)

Avondwinkel de Buren op 102, presentation collaboration Das Leben am Haverkamp and Marsdiep, Amsterdam (NL)

2016

Atelier Néerlandais, The Show-Off Show, Paris (FR)

Mercedez Benz Fashion Week Amsterdam, Future Generation, Gefelicifashion, Amsterdam (NL)

2015

Gemeentemuseum Den Haag, performance and exhibition in de Tuinzaal, The Hague (NL)

SELECTED PRESS

2021

Kunst is Lang (NL) aflevering 173 – Das Leben am Haverkamp, 15 June

AVROTROS, NPO1 (NL) Nu te zien, 5 June

Trouw (NL) Hollandse toeristische trekpleisters met een twist, 29 May

Front Row (NL) publication of Consumptie, a special for the members of We Are Public, March

2020

In Art We Trust (NL) Vier attracties, één kermis, 28 July

FashionUnited (NL) De kracht van het ontwerpcollectief, 4 Aug.

2019

De Grote Nederlandse Kunstkalender 2019 (NL), page 25 April

Dream Journal (AUS), Issue Three, 5 May

2018

Modemuze (NL), Wat zie ik nu? Tromp l’oeil in de mode, 19 Oct.

NRC (NL), Vanzelfsprekend was de Amsterdamse modeweek nooit, 4 Sept.

Flair (DE+AT), Kuchenkreation von Das Leben am Haverkamp, August issue

Mister Motley Salon (NL), Vier attracties, één kermis, 22 July

Kaltblut Magazine (DE), Fashion my Religion!, May

i-D Vice (US), meet the radical fashion collective making clothes you can eat, 24 April

See All This (NL), Zeeuws Museum x Das Leben am Haverkamp, no.9, spring issue

Elle Decoration (NL), Salone del Mobile, April

Mister Motley (NL), Zeeuws Museum x Das Leben am Haverkamp, March

NRC (NL), Tentoonstelling, Op deze expositie moet je het zelf uitzoeken, 14 March

Volkskrant (NL), 16 culturele hoogtepunten van 2018, Cultuurtip 8, Originele ontwerpers aan de slag met impressies van museumbezoek, 5 Jan.

Glamcult (NL), Das Leben am Haverkamp teams up with Zeeuws Museum, 16 Feb.

VPRO Nooit Meer Slapen (NL), De Reismicrofoon, 15 Feb.

i-D Vice (NL), Das Leben am Haverkamp raakte geïnspireerd door Zeeuwse folklore, 6 Feb.

2017

Volkskrant V (NL), Het talent van 2018, Mode en design, second place, 28 December

HP/ De Stijl (NL), Alles Neu!, interview with Das Leben am Haverkamp, winter 2017/18

Volkskrant (NL), Dude is wat tijdschrift voor designers moet zijn: vooruitstrevend en elegant, 9 Nov.

Dude (NL), by BNO, Young Designer Award, autumn 2017

Elsevier (NL), Interview met drie kanshebbers voor Young Designer Award, 23 Oct.

Be the Future – Dutch Design Today 2017 (NL), Das Leben am Haverkamp, Oct. 2017

Viewpoint (NL), Das Leben am Haverkamp – The fashion rebels, #40

Metal Magazine (ES), Das Leben am Haverkamp – Defying fashion as it is, Oct.

NRC (NL), review Amsterdam Fashion Week, 18 July

Nylon (US), Why We’re Obsessed With Amsterdam Fashion Week, 18 July

Jegens en Tevens (NL), Das Leben am Haverkamp at Amsterdam Fashion Week, 18 July

Metro (NL), Das Leben am Haverkamp opent Fashion Week, 14 July

Parool (NL), Een schilderij om aan te trekken, 13 July

Elsevier (NL), Kwartet van solisten in overrompelende show, March

Fucking Young! (ES), Das Leben am Haverkamp, Jan.

NRC (NL), Nieuwe koers voor Amsterdam Fashion Week, 27 Jan.

Volkskrant (NL), Overdonderende shows van jong Nederlands talent, 31 Jan.

Parool (NL), Das Leben am Haverkamp opent Fashionweek met vier shows, 26 Jan.

i-D Vice (NL), Das Leben am Haverkamp, Jan.

2016

Pairs Project (FR), Dogme, Jan.

Pairs Project by Eclectic Magazine (FR), #12 Welcome to Cathood, Nov.

A Shaded view on Fashion by Diane Pernet (FR), Das Leben am Haverkamp presents The Show-Off Show at Atelier Neérlandais, Paris from 23 – 27 January, 12 Jan.

Eclectic Magazine (FR), Introducing: Das Leben am Haverkamp, Jan.

Contact

General inquiries

joost@daslebenamhaverkamp.com
0031612525557

Press

anna@daslebenamhaverkamp.com

Address

Stille Veerkade 19
2512 BE The Hague
The Netherlands

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