Meet the Maker #04

Proudly we present the selected Makerst:

DISTRESSED
GABRIEL + GUEVARA
Debora de Haes
Femke Habets
Niels Rijsemus
Germaine Sijstermans
Chantalle Weerts

These Makers will have the opportunity to exhibit their work at Bureau Europa, plus the opportunity to enter into a dialogue about the artistic, practical questions and the development of their oeuvre with a selected group of professionals working in various areas of work - think of curators, writers, journalists and policy makers.

On Sunday 4 November, Bureau Europa will open its doors to the public, giving the Makers the opportunity to show their work to a broad and diverse audience.

This trans-disciplinary networking event is organized by Bureau Europa, The Artist and the Others in collaboration with graphic design studio Studio Noto.

io's van de Makers

DISTRESSED
Designers: Isabella De Angelis (South Africa), Sophie van Leeuwen (NL), Isobel Dyson (Canada), Tessa Mendez (NL) and Torgeir Riise (Noorway).

This occasional collective of five students from iArts developed the DISTRESSED clothing line, which utilises fabrics fished from the River Meuse. The global fashion industry is known for the environmental pollution it causes through the production and transport of textiles and clothing. The exploitation of workers in low-wage countries also calls for careful consideration regarding the sustainable use of clothing, not to mention the role of the consumer, who, more than ever before, is continually seeking the latest look.

This clothing line questions the demand the fashion industry generates and our conspicuous consumption. Can dressing with more respect for labour and the earth change our attitudes toward fast fashion?

GABRIEL+GUEVARA with Serpent Alchemy
Jewellery maker Gabriel Guevara's ongoing series of unique objects are distinctive in character and have a certain primordial power. Whereas a ring or other item of jewellery is often defined through its perfection, Guevara considers the form as the ultimate expression of material and technique. The resulting objects contain recognisable traces of manufacture and the tools employed; it is as if the hand of the maker has solidified into the material. Gabriel sees his role as a designer as a method of self-transcendence through form. He investigates the future functions and meanings of jewellery-related processes, such as ritualization or the bond embodied in a ring.

To further his craftsmanship, Gabriel Guevara recently enrolled on the Artistic Matters MA.
gabriel-guevara.com


Femke Habets with 1001 fortune tellers
Femke Habets describes her artistic research as ‘a preoccupation with grasping the experience of time and the conscious experience’. Her work reveals the intimacy inherent to the repetitive acts of daily life. She draws inspiration from nature, natural phenomena, and the almost casual procedures of our human actions.

‘By examining the rhythm of my own actions and my immediate surroundings, I have realised several works that unearth the visual choreography within the image. The image is activated through natural phenomena (the earth's rotation, the force of growth, etc.) or mechanical sources.’
femkehabets.com

Debora de Haes with The Makeable body
The interdisciplinary work of contemporary artist Debora De Haes merges painting, photography, video art, and fashion. She is interested in the relationship between the body and the mind, the rational and the emotional, and the analytical and the sensory. Her works examine the processes of existence, evolution, and extinction, taking in topics such as the origin of life, mutation, derived species, and death.

The Makeable Body project refers simultaneously to the skin and anatomy, creating a sense of intimacy and recognition as well as abstraction and estrangement. By examining the image, the work unfolds in forms and meanings that are atmospheric on the one hand and hint toward the ornament on the other. This gives rise to questions related to the biological and the constructed body and the roles of an authentic or altered body in an age of technological appropriation.
deboradehaes.exto.org

Niels Rijsemus
M. C. Rijsemus has been a violinmaker in Maastricht for more than 35 years. About 10 years ago, his son Niels chose the same occupation; it is an artisan trade that few young people go into, so the profession is in danger of dying out.

When he started his violin making business, he soon realised it didn't guarantee a fixed income. Since his product is a precious luxury item, he couldn't find anyone to finance the start-up capital. Given this reality, Niels Rijsemus began developing a series of handmade timepieces with wooden wristbands. These timepieces currently provide for his livelihood. Niels advocates that some professions need to be cherished; otherwise, they will suffer at the hands of today's consumer society.

Germaine Sijstermans
Germaine Sijstermans is a musician and composer with a passion for the contemporary repertoire. She collaborates with composers and performers on music and experimental performances, drawing inspiration from nature, indeterminate music, silent music, and butoh dance. Her work focuses on the use of space, silence, and physicality, and also the presence and synthesis of playing an instrument. To visually enhance the spatial experience of the music, she often constructs installations for her performances,

Sijstermans studied clarinet with Pierre Woudenberg at the Royal Conservatory in The Hague and with Jan Jansen at Codarts in Rotterdam. Sijstermans is the artist in residence at Intro until July 2019 (supported by Via Zuid). She is giving work-in-progress concerts as part of her residency. Several performances of the resulting work made during residency are planned for summer 2019.
germainesijstermans.com

Chantalle Weerts with The residue of modernity
Graphic designer Chantalle Weerts applies various approaches to her practice. She combines photography with architectural processes, such as model building, to create designs that question the world around us.

Modernity was ubiquitous in the first half of the twentieth century and is characterised by efficiency. Our cities, streets and infrastructure were subsequently developed for optimum functionality. Chantalle's work examines what is lost through this approach to organising our living environment. What would happen if inactivity, inefficiency, and contemplation are slowly erased from our consciousness? Would there still be a place for our imagination?
chantalleweerts.nl