East Side/West Side is the story of Bulgarian Nia Konstantinova (22) and Dutch Michael Verweij (26), two artists who not only like to explore the boundaries of their own country, but also those of the art world. Together they set up an artist community, first in Bulgaria and now in the Netherlands, where different cultures and different art forms come together.
It started with noticing little things — ‘Bulgarians don't say “bon appetit”,’ exclaimed Michael, still puzzled, which Nia couldn’t help but laugh at. They met while studying at Academie Minerva and were fascinated from the start by their different backgrounds, but what caught their eye was not just about food.
Nia explains that Bulgaria is part of the EU and that Bulgarians are eager to be part of the West, but once in the Netherlands she was disappointed: although Bulgarian children are taught Dutch history, most Dutch people don't even know where Bulgaria is located.
As artists, Michael and Nia decided to be inspired by each other's culture and to involve other artists in this. This is how they came up with the idea of establishing an artist community in both Bulgaria and Groningen. The end result of this artistic and cultural exchange can be seen at the Oosterhamrikkade from 8 to 31 October, and we got to take a look at it.
FROM BULGARIA TO GRONINGEN
On the floor of the East Side/West Side residency — in an excessively lit room — a skeleton lies on a drab, grainy rug next to a heater. It just seems to be...chilling out. Nia and Michael explain that this is supposed to represent the somewhat fruitless search for the comfortable and the cosy.
Turning left, the eye inevitably falls onto a typical TV playing gruesome images of a woman whose face and hand are decomposing or creeping along the lens in stop-motion animation (think movies like Wallace and Gromit, The Nightmare Before Christmas and Mary and Max). Artist Eva Elaine knew that charming children’s characters were typically the stars of stop-motion films. An image that contrasts with reality leaves you wanting more.
There’s a shoe hanging on the wall — wait, a shoe? — on the other side of the room. It appears to be nailed to a painting that is literally bursting with colour. A few days later, a second shoe hangs at the bottom of the painting (you feel completely disoriented as a visitor for a moment), because, according to artist René van der Werf, life is always changing and some objects have yet to find their place.
On the same wall hang several works by Nia Konstantinova, including one of a waterfall with a girl dressed in tight uniform right in front of it, waving a flag. In the Netherlands, Nia was regularly confronted with the misconception that, as a Bulgarian, she must know a lot about life in Russia. She magnifies this experience by pretending to be a dictator.
RESTRUCTURED POTATO
The preceding confrontational images stand in stark contrast to the ‘restructured potato’ of Henk-Sjoerd Hinrichs and the detailed, almost idyllic paintings of Michael Verweij.
As the title suggests, you will not find that potato in its normal, round shape. The potato was cut and regrouped into dozens of small square pieces, nailed down piece by piece (where does this fascination with nails come from, anyway?!) on a 55x55 canvas and smeared with a shiny substance. ‘Potato no more,’ we think with a misplaced sense of bewilderment. Inspired by Van Gogh's ‘The Potato Eaters’, Hinrichs says that he sometimes felt like a fish out of water, overwhelmed by the chaotic life in Bulgaria compared to the sometimes stifling, strictly organised life in the Netherlands. According to him, this chaos and disorientation emerge in the chopped potato.
Michael Verweij also bases his paintings on the contrasts between Bulgaria and the Netherlands, but uses a six-week-old puppy that he found on the street in Bulgaria as a metaphor. Fading into an almost empty landscape, the Bulgarian countryside gives way to the familiar little mill surrounded by plots of land in the Dutch countryside. The young puppy runs ‘through’ the series of four paintings and is gradually absorbed by its new, strange environment.
Don't mind the map will remain on display until 31 October, at Y2 (Oosterhamrikkade 2y).
For more information, see www.facebook.com/eastsidewestside.
Text: Shariza Abdoelhaken Lotte van ter Toolen
Image: Nia Konstantinova (group photo), Shariza Abdoelhak (exhibit)