Is it possible to make a work for, or through, another?

ØIT is collaborating with Oerol Festival on a laboratory for Being Here for You, an experimental work by Dutch artist Rita Hoofwijk and South African artist Hannah Loewenthal, living and working far apart. It involves a protocol for an artist to create a site-specific work without being physically present; A local artists will become the eyes, ears, hands, and mind for a remote artist.

Being Here for You is an ongoing work. It began as a response to the situation of lockdowns and the impossibility of relocating themselves and their work. They asked: Do you have to see something with your own eyes, hold it with your own hands in order for an experience to be considered ‘real’? Would it be possible to ask someone else to be your eyes, ears, hands?

These questions resulted in an ongoing exchange consisting of (im)possible requests and led to the following question: Is it possible to make work for another? As an exploration of this last question geographically distant artists, partners and sites are connected in an exchange to create in-situ work.

Within the frame of Being Here for You artists and presenting places are linked to create site-specific work, simultaneously locally and at a distance, without travelling physically. It is both an artistic research into a possible future way of presenting and an enquiry into another way of creating; stretching our understanding of authorship and allowing another to be you.

Naja Lee Jensen (DK) will create a work on Terschelling 15.–21. June via Emke Idema (NL), followed by Emke creating a work via Naja in Fredrikstad, 19.–25. October.

Fredrikstad, October 2021:

Emke has chosen the area of Trosvikstranda/Homen as a location for the work. As she writes:

it seems to be an area with a lot of change recently.

it seems the least romantic/idyllic place of all the places.

i am curious what the character of this place is/could be.

Audience in Fredrikstad are invited to a presentation on
Sunday, October 24th at 14:00
Meetup at Borggata 23 (BilXtra)

A digital presentation of the work is available here:

www.beinghereforyou.com

The collaboration between Rita and Hannah grew out of their Metropolis residencies in 2018. Emke Idema is an (UN)COMMON SPACES Associate Artist.