BredaPhoto Highlights

by Luuk van Raamsdonk

My name is Luuk van Raamsdonk (2001) I am a lens-based artist located in Breda( NL). Recently I graduated from St Joost School of Arts & Design with a BA in Photography, with my multidisciplinary project ‘’My Sweet Elora’’.

In the coming weeks, I will be shining a spotlight on what I believe are four “must-see” highlights from this year’s edition of BredaPhoto. Offering you a small curated selection based on my interests as a recently graduated artist. This selection will give you the opportunity to explore a diverse range of projects, each offering a unique perspective on this year’s theme: “Journeys.”

From personal narratives to broader social commentary, these works approach the concept of ‘’Journey’s’’ in both engaging and contrasting ways. Whether you’re drawn to stories of migration, inner exploration or sonic landscapes, these highlights promise to surprise, inspire and move you

 

Luuk van Raamsdonk
Luuk van Raamsdonk
I’m going home to eat mulberries from the tree & You Can Spend a Night in the Villa - Katya Lesiv

’Oh, if only cool resolutions melted in the sun, while warm ones scattered like the tiniest seeds I carry, unnoticed, lying in a ripe fragrant field. Oh, how I would then exude fragrance. Yet, I never thought of those seeds; they are but briefly on me. And when I go home to eat mulberries from the tree, oh, how it smells. Especially when the rain is just beginning, and it’s clear that everything will end. I haven’t decided yet when to go for the mulberry tree, oh, and that decision I haven’t made’’ – Katya Lesiv

When first coming into contact with the work of Katya Lesiv, I couldn’t help but be intrigued. I was staring at 3 self-portraits in sequence. Static but in movement I see monochrome tears and hands covered in the blood of berries. In her series ‘’I’m going home to eat mulberries from the tree’’ Lesiv taps into the notion of caring and being cared for. Our essential needs and wants. Longing for home, security and the familiar. With a vulnerable approach she manages to expose both micro and macro conflict. The images are haunting but have a soft comforting quality about them, they feel recognisable.

Her images remind me of places that are vaguely familiar yet I am sure I have never visited them. In the other exhibited series ‘’You Can Spend a Night in the Villa’’, In this Victorian Villa, Lesiv and her daughter Rada become both inhabitants and ghosts, roaming it’s many rooms and corridors. Together they create images that are playful, performative and collaborative.

Lesiv proves us that big stories can reside in small places. Be sure to take a look at her wonderful work at park ‘t Zoet until 3 November!

Katya Lesiv I’m going home to eat mulberries from the tree
Katya Lesiv I’m going home to eat mulberries from the tree
’De gesuikerde onderneming’ - Tyler en Sebastian Koudijzer

‘’Wie wij zijn, gebeurde hier. De lotsbespeling, de grondverdeling, de projecten, de blokken, de wonden, de korsten zonder heling rondom deze onderneming.‘’ – Tyler / Sebastian Koudijzer. (Who we are, happened here. The casting of lots, the land’s divide, the projects, the blocks, the wounds, the unhealed hide, around this venture, we reside.)

When talking about the work of the Koudijzer brother’s, it’s hard to put into words the care and sensitivity with which they work. Tyler and Sebastian have managed to weave absolute poetry in-between the darkest pages of history. In ’De gesuikerde onderneming’ they take us on a journey through history, using their grandparents memories and experiences as a guide through the landscape. A landscape shaped by a colonial past, forced. As we follow them on their back into the past. A sense of collective mourning is present. The sun kissed buildings and overgrown scenes are a stark but fitting contrast to the hidden pain that resides in their structures.

In the poetry that accompanies the work, we find the true depth and scope of this history. In sharp, unrelenting fashion, they describe the uncertainty, perseverance and hope of this story. It’s precisely in this conversation between past and present, image and text, where this project shines the brightest.

Last summer I saw Sebastian perform a piece of spoken word on this project. Seemingly out of thin air, he started effortlessly weaving his story about his grandparents. I can’t remember the last instance were I was this focused on someone’s words. For a short moment there was nothing else but Sebastian and his powerful words and disarming presence. An experience that I will carry with me for a long time. If you ever get the chance to see Tyler and (or) Sebastian perform, take it, you will not be disappointed.

Sebastian & Tyler Koudijzer De Gesuikerde Onderneming
’All that perishes at the edge of land’ - Hira Nabi

‘’But even if we want to go, we cannot, for we are so crushed by poverty, that at most we can weep, but we cannot return.’’

What would the last words of a dying ship be? Where do they go to die? And who are taxed with dissecting their enormous metal bodies? In Hira Nabi’s fiction-documentary film ’All that perishes at the edge of land’’ we get answers to all of these questions. In a painfully poetic and realistic way, Nabi exposes the often hidden truth of consumerism, pollution. In a game between ship and men. Ocean and desert. Survival and what the hope of something better that lies beyond.

The imagery at hand feels unreal at times. The pure scale and mass of these machines is intimidating and overwhelming. In contrast to these behemoths we meet the workers who have the hard and dangerous jobs of dismantling and disposing these ships. Survival is their only focus. All while navigating the toxic fumes, sharp metal and towering heights. In the eyes of the companies that control them, they are merely disposable surgeons, and the ship the body that needs to be taken apart.

Despite the odds being stacked against them, we see and hear small glimmers of hope and love. The men display and moving and admirable amount of camaraderie. Rely on each other for support, rest and compassion in these harsh conditions. Take some time out of your week to sit down and be immersed in this world that Nabi captured. I promise you will leave more informed and a bit more human than you will have entered. Promised.

Hira Nabi
Hira Nabi All that perishes at the edge of land