Bik Van der Pol
Site-specific art / Arte site-specific

Since 1995, Liesbeth Bik and Jos van der Pol work as Bik Van der Pol. They work and live in Rotterdam (NL).

Through their practice they aim to articulate and understand how art can produce a public sphere and space for speculation and imagination through which ‘publicness’ is not only defined but also created. By setting up the conditions for encounter they develop a process of working that allows for continuous reconfigurations of places, histories and publics. Their practice is site-specific with dialogue as a mode of transfer; a “passing through”, understood in its etymological meaning of “a speech across or between two or more people, out of which may emerge new understandings”. In fact, they consider the element of “passing through” as vital. It is temporal, and implies action and the development of new forms of discourse. Their work is both instigator and result of this method.

More information: www.bikvanderpol.net

Exhibitions and projects (selection)

  • 2019 CCA Zamek Ujazdowski, Warsaw; Take Part, 1st phase, project for Public Knowledge, with SFMOMA and Public Libraries network, San Francisco; Whole Life Academy, Researchproject, Dresden; Czigane – Not the whole story, at Exeter's Royal Albert Memorial Museum (RAMM)
  • 2018 Mama, was ist eigentlich Natur? Kunstmuseen Krefeld, Krefeld; Headlands, research residency Kunstmuseen Krefeld; Verschwindende Vermächtnisse: Die Welt als Wald – Disappearing Legacies (The World as Forest), Hamburg, Berlin and Halle (group, 2017-2018); Public Knowledge, SFMOMA, San Francisco (research and production of new work, 2018-2020); 2018-2019/20: participant in Syndrome of the Present, initiated by Galit Eilat (group)
  • 2017: Greater Together, ACCA, Melbourne (group); OffShore, Ferens Art gallery, Hull (group); Young Academy (workshop and publication), Academie der Künste, Köln; Future Climates, Athens
  • 2016: WERE IT AS IF, Witte de With, Centre of Contemporary Art, Rotterdam (solo); SEMA, Media City Biennale, Seoul (group); 11th GwangJu Biennale, GwangJu (group); AirBerlinAlexanderplatz (residency and event), Berlin
  • 2015: The Power Plant, Toronto (group); PAMM (Perez Art Museum) Miami (solo); Jakarta Biennale (group); Mauritius Pavillion, Venice Bienal (group); Future Light, MAK, Vienna (group); Decolonized Skies, ADNPlatform, Barcelona (group)
  • 2014: Public art project, Ternitz (Austria, group), 31st Sao Paulo Bienale, Sao Paulo (group); Museum of Arte Util, Van Abbe Museum, Eindhoven (group); The Crime Was Almost Perfect*, Witte de With Centre for Contemporary Art, Rotterdam (group); Apex Art ,Decolonised Skies, NYC (group); CAFA Art Museum, The Missing Stories, Beijng (group); The Part In The Story, Witte de With Centre for Contemporary Art, Rotterdam (group); The Crime was almost Perfect, PAC Padiglione d’Arte Contemporanea. Milano (group)
  • 2013: 25 years City Collections, Museum Boymans van Beuningen Rotterdam group); Biennale of Mercosul, Porto Alegre, Brazil (group); Call of the Mall, Hoog Catarijne, Utrecht (group); CAPACETE entretenimentos ROAD/BOAT 3.1.8 at the school Xapomi, Amazonia, Brazil
  • 2012: You talking to me? 98weeks, Beirut, Lebanon (solo); The Future that Was, NASA, Amsterdam (group); MACRO Museo d’Arte Contemporanea Roma, Rome (group); Between a Rock and a Hard Place, project for Sudbury, Musagetes Foundation, Canada (solo); CAC VOX, Montreal (group)
  • 2011: Living As Form, Creative Time, New York (group); Accumulate, Collect, Show, Frieze Projects, Frieze Art Fair, London (group); CLAP, Hessel Museum of Art, CCS Bard College, NY (group)  

Publications (selection)

  • UNGLOSSARY, publication in cooperation with Stadtrevue, CologneTHE CITY & THE CITY, Academie der Kunste der Welt: Youth Academy, Cologne (2017)
  • WERE IT AS IF (with texts by Ana Teixeiro Pinto, Doreen Mende, Manuel Borja-Villel, Marianna Hovhannisyan, Terry Smith, Elizabeth A. Povinelli, Brian Kuan Wood, Defne Ayas, Peter Osborne, Bik Van der Pol/Samuel Saelemakers), editors Bik Van der Pol and Defne Ayas, published by Witte de With, Center for Contemporary Art, Rotterdam (2017)
  • School of Missing Studies (with texts by Sarah Pierce, Ellen C. Feiss, Eloise Sweetman, Charles Esche, Nato Thompson, Laymert Garcia dos Santos, Bik Van der Pol), editors Bik van der Pol, published by Sternberg Press/Sandberg Institute (2017)
  • Public Space? Lost and Found, produced by ACT and distributed by MIT Press (2017)

Curated (selection)

  • Mama, was ist eigentlich Natur? Kunstmuseen Krefeld, Krefeld (2018)
  • Deze sokken niet wit, Van Abbemuseum (2012)
  • Too late, too little, (and how) to fail gracefully, Kunstfort Asperen, ww.kunstfortasperen.nl (2011)

Research residencies, grants and prizes (selection)

Letters to the Land (2017), Bik van der Pol, Australian Centre for Contemporary Art (ACCA), Mel...Point d'ironie, Bik Van der Pol, Performances in collaboration with SKOR, Who Cares? Speculatio...accumulate, collect, show (2011), Bik Van der Pol, Frieze projects, Frieze Art Fair, London (20...

Sart life