Artist Talk

Welcome to an evening with artist duo Bik Van der Pol, who will discuss their working practice and approach to research, followed by a Q & A session. This event marks the launch of the artists’ latest project, commissioned by Volt, which will take place in Bergen in 2021–22.

Encompassing performance, publications, curating and public projects, Bik Van der Pol’s practice explores archives, collections and local histories. Through their work, the duo aims to understand and articulate how art can generate a public space for speculation and imagination. This includes forms of mediation through which publicness is not only defined but also created. Their work is informed by research into how to activate situations to create platforms for communication and encounter, while also enabling continuous reconfigurations of place, history and public space. Taking a site-specific and collaborative approach, Bik Van der Pol see dialogue as a vital component of their practice and the means by which to engender new understandings and forms of discourse.

Since 1995, Liesbeth Bik and Jos van der Pol have collaborated as Bik Van der Pol. They live and work in Rotterdam. They have exhibited their work at numerous venues, including Australian Centre for Contemporary Art, Melbourne, Kunstmuseen Krefeld, Kunstinstituut Melly, Rotterdam, Pérez Art Museum Miami and The Power Plant, Toronto, as well as participated in biennials such as Gwangju, Istanbul, Jakarta and Sao Paulo.

Recent projects include an ongoing residency at School of Casablanca (2021–23), Take Part (2019–20), at San Francisco Museum Of Modern Art and Public Libraries, San Francisco, and Far too many stories to fit into so small a box, Ujazdowski Castle Centre for Contemporary Art, Warsaw.Bik Van der Pol were course directors for The School of Missing Studies – a temporary masters programme at Sandberg Institute, Amsterdam (2013–15) – and they are advisors at the Jan van Eyck Academie in Maastricht.