Illustrated cahier, documenting long distance relations via Skype, messenger and mail, 2017
Antiheros 2016/17
Family, lovers, birds 2016/17
Comflictidy
A Comflictidy may be a residing, state or thing at the intersection of commodity, conflict and comfort. Stimulated by the need to generate a space to escape, comflictidies typically produce a reflectional echo, recalling the conflicts they partially stem from. Confronted by that echo, usually presented in temporary, mental blockages of the user, a sort of psychic and somatic dead-end sensation occurs, similar to a foggy wall, both dazing the user’s perspective and at the same time, hinting at the pre-conditional root discomfort or conflicts. On an advantageous note, most Comflictidies potentially operate both as an experienced limitation, and at the same time offer a place to rest, hesitate or contemplate. Comflictidies are not particularly enjoyable places, but function as a provisory shelter from live challenges too big to understand or too dynamic to move along with. Comflictidies can occur within artistic practices, in spatial design, in escapism, therapy sessions and in the finalising moments of procrastination. Comflictidies have been referred to as a double sided sword bending in retrovers, where the user is not just holding but simultaneously balancing on it, like on a thin line, unable to find proper quiet or precise insight of how to move on ( Metaphor).
Through a subtle and precarious approach,“An attendee” tries to guide the audience perspective into the details of space, along the edge of (un)spectacular events, towards the frictions of different encounters.
“The Orange Rest/Sacrifice” is a former form, originally designed by Toni Steffens and Sigrid Stigsdatter. It was for the first time interactively realised at the Picnic Pavillon in Venice, May 2019 and later the same Year at QRU Amsterdam East. ”Orange Rest” offers a Vitamin C Boost and the possibility to rest and rejuvenate. Facilitated as a simple station to take a break from hectic life, oranges get prepared to be juiced by the audience member laying on them.
Since 2017 Toni Steffens and Sigrid Stigsdatter create a body of work that researches and deals with the politics of collaboration as a shared encounter. Their choreographic practice tries to evoke a space that can communicate, negotiate and alternate its needs like a self expressing environment.
“Metamotion for 270degrees” loosely departs from the biblical story of Salome. The work approaches the young, dancing female body to touch upon myths around femininity in western art history, in conjunction with christianity and the implemented cancellation of that character. Hovering in and out of those images, the performer enters into dialogue with different objects, times, references and narratives and switches roles, being its facilitator, user, friend, sparring partner.
“Hope,Test- a strategy of performative memories" is a collection of seven written pieces deriving from Toni Steffens archive of performative materials at the intersection of perception, fiction, emotion and pseudo scientific observation.
The project is to project.
In a 3D canvas images perform for (not only) a human gaze that imagines itself as an audience. The materiality of these images shapes, looks out, elaborates and confuses itself until something unfolds in front of our all eyes.
"Maybe when we speak of “movement”, Amsterdam is limping a bit, as we have a problem of relations. I wish institutions and freelance artists were to engage much more and had honest and challenging conversations. It should be an ongoing conversation where we acknowledge that we need each other."
Unfamiliarities is a space for artists of various disciplines to present their work in progress and to create a conversation subsequently. The project finds its genesis in the desire to design a space, where fragile, unfinished, and perhaps unfunded works can be witnessed and nourished. The aim is to create a momentum for artists, that stimulates their artistic processes by means of exchange.
Unfamiliarities
DATES/ NEWS
2-3/09/2023: "Line,lo0sing line", Research Presentation at Oldenaller, commissioned by Fransien van der Putt, working with the archive of painter Claartje Berger
3-5/07/2023: Research residency at Oldenaller, commissioned by Fransien van der Putt, working with the archive of painter Claartje Berger
23/06/2023: "THE FATE CAST / IN THE SEARCH / OF FOUR PETALS", during " Even in the dark I know I am sleeping with myself" at Perdu Amsterdam, Collaboration with Mercedes Azpilicueta
24/05/2023: "SPRING WOUNDS" as part of the warp, a shared evening at KUNSTKAPEL, AMSTERDAM
30/03/2023: "WEAVING PASSAGES FOR THE MOMENTOUS", Extra Intra Reader #2 :A SLIGHT BREATH, editors HARRIET FOYSTER, ROSIE HAWARD, NELL SCHWAN, editorial board for intercurricular Programmes, GERRIT RIETVELD ACADEMY, SAN SERIFFE, AMSTERDAM 2023
10/11/2022: "HOPE,TEST- A STRATEGY OF PERFORMATIVE MEMORIES", PUBLISHER: 4BID GALLERY AMSTERDAM
SEPTEMBER-OCTOBER 2022: "SPINAL CATASTROPHE" RESEARCH PROJECT, SUPPORTED BY NEUSTART KULTUR, #TAKE HEART, PACT ZOLLVEREIN, BERLIN/AMSTERDAM, RESEARCH
SEPTEMBER-OCTOBER 2022: DRAMATURGY FOR ELVAN TEKIN, TANZFABRIK BERLIN
08/07/2022: "THE FATE CAST / IN THE SEARCH / OF FOUR PETALS", DURING "CHANGE FEELING" , COLLABORATION WITH MERCEDES AZPILICUETA, VANABBE MUSEUM EINDHOVEN
02+03/07/2022: "ON J0YFUL MILITANCY", PERFORMING FOR MERCEDES AZPILICUETA, ROZENSTRAAT, AMSTERDAM
19/05/2022: "SPINNER" PREMIER AT FLAM FESTIVAL AMSTERDAM
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