FEIKO BECKERS

FEIKO BECKERS
Portfolio 2015
ABOUT
Feiko Beckers (the Netherlands, 1983) is a Dutch visual artist, working with video, performance,
installation and text. He graduated from Academie Minerva in Groningen in 2006 and in 2010-2011
he was a resident at the Rijksakademie van Beeldende Kunsten in Amsterdam, the Netherlands. In
2013 he was an artist in residence at Le Pavillon, Palais de Tokyo in Paris, France.
He has shown and performed his work in amongst others, De Appel, Amsterdam, Witte de
With, Rotterdam, De Beursschouwburg in Brussels, STUK in Leuven and Palais de Tokyo in Paris.
«In his book Consolations of Philosophy, Alain de Botton unveils how greater philosophical
questions can transcend everyday life. He places practical issues, like the lack of money, and plants
the seed for simple, yet fundemental philosophical questions in the reader’s mind.
The subtle power of asking a question is a key element in the work of Feiko Beckers. The
artist focuses on the problematic nature of everyday human relationships. Everybody knows these
daily rituals that expose the incomfortable side of social interaction. Situations that are slightly
embarrassing or awkward and known to everybody, for example how to start a conversation (A
certain time and a certain place, 2011). His own personal relationships become exemplary for
everyday problems and dilemmas humans seem to have with each other. Consequently, he zooms in
on these behavioral patterns, unfolds their dynamics and exposes the underlying emotional charge of
anxiety, failure and sadness. He goes back to the very source of those feelings and keeps wondering
how to avoid them in the future.»
Text by Alexandra Landré
CURRICILUM VITEA
Education
2002-2006
2005
- Academie Minerva, Groningen
- Californian College of the Arts, San Francisco, US
Residencies
2015
2014
2012-2013
2010-2011
- Tembe Art Studio | Moengo, SUR
- LIVEWORKS Performance Act Award #2 | Centrale Fies, Dro IT
- Le Pavillon Neuflize OBC | Palais de Tokyo, Paris, FR
- Rijksakademie van Beeldende Kunsten, Amsterdam
Solo exhibitions
2015
2013
2012
2011
2007
- Where everything is safe and sound | Jeanine Hofland Contemporary Art, Amsterdam
- A conversation is a risk to loose your own opinion | Le CAP, Lyon, FR
- Liste18 | Basel CH (with Jeanine Hofland Contemporary Art, Amsterdam)
- Slow and Gradual | Meet Factory, Prague, CZ
- My Rock is Also Your Thing | Jeanine Hofland Contemporary Art Amsterdam
- The arranging of books by color | deServiceGarage, Amsterdam
- Making a birthday cake with my mother | Jeanine Hofland Contemporary Art, Amsterdam
- Painkilers for Redheads/the Artist and other works | Hedah, Maastricht
Group exhibitions AND SCREENING (Selection)
2016
2015
2014
2013
2012
2011
- Welkom Thuis | Villa Zebra, Rotterdam
- Cairotronica | Cairo, EG
- Athens Digital Arts Festival | Athene, GR
- Tenderflix | Tenderpixel/ICA, London UK
- Kasseler Dokfest | Kassel, DE
- Paradocs | IDFA, EYE Filmmuseum, Amsterdam
- Didn’t Know It But Knew It All Along | Onomatopee, Eindhoven
- Liste20 | Basel CH (with Jeanine Hofland Contemporary Art, Amsterdam)
- Acting Truthfully Under the Circumstances | Tenderpixel, London UK
- Layers: Die Arbeit | WORM, Rotterdam
- Soft Machines | IMPAKT Festival, Utrecht
- An elaborate set of keys | Jeanine Hofland Contemporary Art, Amsterdam
- Supermarket 2014 | Stockholm, SE (with NEST, Den Haag)
- IDFA 2013 | Amsterdam
- Narcissistic Tendencies | NEST, Den Haag
- Apathy is not my friend | Chapter House Lane, Melbourne AU
- Nouvelle Vague | Palais de Tokyo FR
- Destiny: The B’s | Galerie Anne Barrault FR
- Past Future | Biennale d’art contemporain d’Anglet | Anglet FR
- Edible Glass | Western Front, Vancouver, CA
- I Fail Good | Beursschouwburg, Brussel, B
- 5x3 | Kunstraum, Düsseldorf DE
- In Search Of... | Academie Minerva, Groningen
- TJCC Festival | Théâtre de Gennevilliers, Parijs, FR
- A Dutch Landscape | La Casa Encendida, Madrid, ES
- RijksakademieOpen 2011 | Rijksakademie van Beeldende Kunsten, Amsterdam
- Mijn vriend en ik | 21Rozendaal, Enschede
- Abstraction Surface Air | Bureau des Videos, Paris, FR
Performances
2015
2014
2013
2012
2011
2010
- The exact opposite of the exact opposite | Arti et Amicitiae, Amsterdam
- Deadpan and Disco | PACT Zollverein, Essen DE
- The exact opposite of the exact opposite | Onomatopee, Eindhoven
- Deadpan and Disco | Beursschouwburg, Brussel, BE
- The exact opposite of the exact opposite | Tenderpixel, London UK
- Deadpan and Disco | Centrale Fies, Dro IT
- No cause for celebration | De Oude Kerk, Amsterdam
- Educating Artists? | GNYP Art/KW Institute for Contemporary Art, Berlin DE
- Cinq saynètes pour deux | Glassbox, Paris FR
- Liste18, Basel CH (with Galerie Jeanine Hofland, Amsterdam)
- Accident with red car | Art13, London, UK (with Yeo Workshop, Singapore)
- Accident with red car | Kunstraum, Düsseldorf DE
- An evening with Feiko Beckers | Beursschouwburg, Brussel, B
- No chance of success whatsoever | Beursschouwburg, Brussel, B
- A story about my fathers heart attack... | STUK, Leuven, B
- Advantages and disadvantages | Witte de With, Rotterdam
- Deus ex Machina | De Appel, Amsterdam
- No chance of success whatsoever | Theater Frascati, Amsterdam
- Three Options | Rijksakademie van Beeldende Kunsten, Amsterdam
- Making sense of my horoscope | Jeanine Hofland Contemporary Art, Amsterdam
- A story about my fathers heart attack... | Rijksakademie van Beeldende Kunsten, Amsterdam
- Cracker #01 International Performance Festival | Self Service Open Art Space, Stuttgart, DE
Awards / Stipends
2014
2012
2011
2010
2008
- Mondriaan Foundation | Amsterdam (basic stipend)
- Mondriaan Foundation | Amsterdam (work budget)
- Amsterdam Fonds voor de Kunsten
- dr. Hendrik Muller Vaderlandsch Fonds | Den Haag
- dr. Hendrik Muller Vaderlandsch Fonds | Den Haag
- Foundation for Fine Art, Architecture and Design | Amsterdam (starter’s stipend)
- International Prize for Performance | Galleria Civica di Arte Contemporanea, Trento, IT
- Klaas Dijkstra Fonds | Groningen
WHY I DON’T HAVE A SOFA
HD Video | 6’53’’ | 2016
«...a sofa has an easy outward journey, but a difficult return journey. Everybody
knows that it’s easy to sit down on a sofa, but hours later, it’s sometimes hard to
get up again. And I don’t like that order. Because it are these kind of difficulties
that I prefer to deal with first. And that’s why I don’t have a sofa.»
Afu-Osu
Reinforced concrete | 350 cm x 250 cm x 360 cm | 2016
A conversation is a risk to lose your own opinion
HD Video | 12’32’’ | 2015
«That’s why I can’t say one thing without saying the other thing. No matter how
impossible it sounds. If I say: “It’s a good washing machine.” I immediately have
to follow that up with: “But don’t expect too much from it.” And when I say:
“Don’t expect to much from it.” I also have to add: “But it’s a very good washing
machine.”»
Things I once believed in, that I then stopped believing in and that I now
believe in again
Glazed texts on ceramic plates | dimensions variable | 2015
Deadpan and Disco
Performance | 15 min. | 2014
«So I asked the stewardess if instead of a seat next to window or a seat next to
the aisle, she couldn’t just give me a seat in the middle. But she got really angry
with me. “What’s wrong with you?“ She asked me. “Here I am, offering you
every available seat in the airplane and you tell me you want to sit in the middle?
That doesn’t make any sense!“»
Another Night in Arcosanti
Print on Paper | 43 x 29 cm | 2015
safe and sound
HD Video/Installation | 9’23’’ | 2013
«If a friend of mine goes on a holiday and comes back and he tells me: “Feiko,
I just had an amazing holiday. In fact, it was the best holiday ever.” And he
then would ask me: “Feiko, would you like to know more?” I will probably say:
“No, no, I’m not that interested.”»
Three options
Performance | 7 min. | 2011
«But there’s also a third option to deal with fear. An option that my mother used
when she was confronted with the fear that one of my ribs might be broken. And
that is, that you just ignore it. Just pretend it’s not happening.»
«But then we’re forgetting one
thing. One very important
thing. Because for a failure to
be a failure there had to have
been at least a small chance
of success. When you attempt
to do something that has no
chance of success whatsoever,
your attempt can hardly be
called a failure.»
No chance of success whatsoever
Performance/C-print on dibond/Installation/Sound | Variable dimensions | 2012
«I of course should never have asked
my friend to help me. Because I am
alone, I should also accept all the
consequences of being alone. Instead
of asking somebody to help me, I
should’ve carried my new refrigerator
up the stairs on my own, just as I had
also carried my old refrigerator down
the stairs on my own.»
Advantages and disadvantages
Performance/C-print on dibond/Installation/Sound | Variable dimensions | 2013
As long as you’re not reminded too often
HDV Video | 4’34’’ | 2014
«Because as I have said before, being on your own is not difficult at all. You just
have to make sure that you’re not reminded too often of the fact that it is actually
better to be in the company of others. And how can you feel lonely if in your
apartment there is only room for one person to sit down to begin with?»
Slow and gradual
HDV Video/Installation | 4’11’’ | 2012
«It’s like when you get into the water. If you jump straight into the water you get
completely wet instantly. But if you slowly immerse yourself into the water, let’s
say by going down one of those ladders they have by the edge of a swimming
pool, you also get wet, but it happens more slowly and more gradually.»
A certain time and a certain place
HDV Video | 3’40’’ | 2011
«The thing I’m usually bothered by is if people show affection for each other in
public. Because with affection it’s a totally different story. Because affection isn’t
something you can’t stop. It is not something you have to get out immediately. I
think affection on the other hand is something that can wait until you’re home.»
A story about my father’s heart attack/hanging up a family picture with
my mother
Performance | 6 min. | 2011
«Because some things happen unexpected. But other things happen because they
are bound to happen. Because they are matter of cause and effect. If you put
ice-cream in the sun, it melts. If you take a shower you get wet. And if you smoke
heavily for thirty years, you do not exercise and you eat unhealthy food, like my
father did, then you get a heart attack. It is as simple as that.»
Accident With red car
HD Video | 2’24’’ | 2010
Making a birthday cake with my mother
HDV Video/Installation | 7’48’’ | 2010
«I once read an interview with a translator who subtitles sitcoms. In the interview
she said that a sentence like “Would you perhaps like a cup of coffee?” would
first be reduced to “Would you like a cup of coffee?” then to “Would you like coffee?” until the question just becomes the word “Coffee?”»