Xandra van der Eijk (Artist Talk)
she/her
Sat May 31 | Context Programme Day 2 - de Brakke Grond
How is living and lively matter moving within planetary systems? Xandra van der Eijk is an artist and researcher whose work investigates exactly this question. Deeply informed by material flows that defy containment or control, long-term research projects have focussed on the ever shifting and networked ecologies of fluid environments.
Central to their methodology is the concept of Materiality of Place—a term devised to describe how site-specific actors embody ecological, cultural, and political worlds and how these can be uncovered by engaging in artistic fieldwork, material experimentation and technological mediation.
As a founding co-curator and mentor of FIBER's early lab programmes, Xandra contributed to the development and methods of our Reassemble Lab. In light of celebrating 15 years of FIBER, and our 10th festival edition, we are happy to invite her back. She will share with us her specific approach to fieldwork, also linking it to the theme of wildness.
About the artist
With their roots in the Dutch river delta, Xandra traces local watery dynamics to reveal the complexity and instability of these heavily industrialised and overexploited shared environments. The current project Hydroformations aims to build personal and collective relations with the Rhine as a living entity who is in and of itself.
