Liza Wolters

photography - installation - language - objects - video

In her practice, visual artist Liza Wolters (1992) investigates the liminal space found in the relationship between people and their environment. She observes and records her surroundings by means of photography, video, or words. In exhibitions, publications, collaborations, and installations, material from the archive is juxtaposed with observations made in situ, in a way that adapts and reacts to the situation and the other way around. A way to understand the world, to interrogate positions, and to explore other perspectives.


(all of it but not all of it), 2022-2023 - A four-storey layered installation spread over the stairwell and elevator, enclosing their position as in-between spaces in relation to a text, a soundtrack, several photographs, videos and objects. The installation was part of the Parkstad Limburg Prijs ‘22 exhibition at SCHUNCK*, amongst the solo presentations from the other nominees (Floor Martens, Mickey Yang, Mike Moonen, Morena Bamberger, Quinn Zeljak, Vera Gulikers and William Ludwig Lutgens).
Orchestrating Coincidence, 2021-2023 - Orchestrating Coincidence is a project by Hilde Onis and Liza Wolters An edition of 30 unique sculptures existing of 26 individuals, 2 pairs and 5 artist proofs. With Orchestrating Coincidence, Hilde Onis and Liza Wolters take on the representation of the in-between, resulting in a series of 30 sculptures that defy odds by finding connection at their breaking point. By developing a method that aims to constrain but meanwhile evokes accident, the series’ individual objects have a say in controlling it’s own contours. Departing from these notions, they explore existing linear views of (gendered) positive and negative space in sculpture. The thirty unique sculptures are paired with an emphasizing publication that plays with character assignment. The printed leporello catalog integrally touches upon what it means to collect and be one of a whole. Next to the catalog, the series connects to an essay written synchronously to their production. Constructed through and around various artists and thinkers who take erosion, fragility, interspace and the ‘failure’ of objects in their original function as their point of departure, the text explores content emerging from parenthesis and absent material. ________ Exhibition at Gallery Nieuw Charlois (15.01 - 25.02.23), Rotterdam (NL) In the one-off exhibition of ‘Orchestrating Coincidence’, the edition as a whole was presented in a site-specific installation. Concrete fault lines ran through the space, with the entire edition spread over them.
Comforting to Celebrate, 2021 - Troost om te vieren (Comfort to Celebrate) is an education workshop created by visual artists Katrein Breukers, Liza Wolters and theatre maker Peerke Malschaert, on invitation of TENT Rotterdam. The workshop researches the visible and hidden powers of rituals regarding comforting and honouring. Participants take an imaginary journey to two worlds: the tent of comfort and the garden of celebration. The first space is a warm and soft place where we take care of what we feel. Big and small emotions are received, nurtured and visually translated. In the second space, we celebrate, and the pupils build a growing Gesamtkunstwerk for themselves and with each other, in which emotions are honoured and literally given a place. “Comforting to Celebrate” is created in reaction to the group exhibition “WHO WANTS TO LIVE IN A WORLD WITHOUT MAGIC?”, curated by Katayoun Arian of TENT.
toevluchtsoord – work period and exhibitions initiated together with Raquel Vermunt, 2021 - For our site-specific work period at Hilton Art Lab, located in the old breakfast room of the Hilton Hotel in Rotterdam, the hotel was our starting point. We stayed there day and night, roamed around and worked on multiple site-specific exhibitions together with others. Everything we made in the hotel was directly translated into the space of H(a)L. We got to know the spaces through our own and each other's eyes. We were absorbed in the hotel, its rooms and corridors. A hotel is always standing still in a way. It’s a place where the visitors do not define the place; it’s the place itself that does this. It doesn't matter who is sleeping there, as long as someone is sleeping there. It's not about who's waiting in the foyer, as long as someone is waiting. We invited other artists to roam with us during the work period and with whom we created the exhibition moments. Visual artist and filmmaker Emma van der Put sent us a combination of two video works to which we responded with work of our own, and which we brought together in a video installation. We organised a live printshop with visual artist and writer Lorelinde Verhees, where collages and combinations were made in one day, with the images we photographed in the hotel. Musician Wouter van Nienes played a live set surrounded by videos and moving photographic images by us. Artist duo Leopold/Emmen, consisting of filmmaker Nanouk Leopold and visual artist Daan Emmen, delivered two works that we brought together with our own video work during the closing weekend of the work period.
IT MIGHT BE GONE, IT MIGHT BECOME (work title – research project 2020 – …) - What do you need in order to (re)capture an original, impactful, live moment on film? The research is founded on the reconstruction of “live” moments she has experienced, and what is left of them once recorded. “Can (the memory of) an original moment be preserved, or does it change in a fundamental way as the memory is cinematographically reconstructed?” Just like her earlier work, Wolters’ cinematic work is made up of fragmentary snapshots of everyday scenes and encounters, details from reality. More often than not, a moment will fade away before you get the chance to capture it. - Fragment from the in originally Dutch written version by Sandra Smets for CBK Rotterdam, who kindly granted the project with a research & development subsidy
(I’m thinking about) Construction Workers – ongoing project - I’m thinking about construction workers as performers. I’m thinking about performers in disguise, functioning as construction workers. I wonder what it would be like if the meetings weren’t about the process of construction, nor the building that will become, but about the process of rhythm, movement and timing. Individually and as a group. There would be enough space in the meetings to talk about lost ambitions and dreams, fears about not being seen or not being talented enough. The length of building the building would take as long as rehearsing and improving this site-specific play. As always, a lot would go wrong in this final rehearsal that would last for months, and everything would be finished just right on time. An audience consisting of family and friends would give a big applause, proudly and without any objectivity. They would even burst into a standing ovation, an obvious recognition for all the hard work. The days after would feel like a black hole, but in the end these would be the most valuable days for reflection and improvement for the next play in line. ----- 2019, 66 x 114 cm window sticker with text and videostills on voile Graphic design by Glitterstudio
“This is The Sky”, said The Limit - Photo on aluminium, 120 x 200 cm Wolters' works in the group show AS FAR AS I CAN REACH bring three given elements together that are entirely unrelated at first glance: Quartair's physical space, Liza’s grandmother who's fallen down, and a recent conversation she had with an acquaintance. Through association, these three inputs – the space, the fall and the conversation – feed directly into a new series of works. Instead of reaching for something higher, she aims to concentrate on what is, for now. The titles of the works refer to the possibilities and impossibilities involved in this. Including all attempts, wishes, desires and expectations. Part of group show 'AS FAR AS I CAN REACH' 8 - 17 juli 2018, Quartair (The Hague, NL) Curated by Marilou Klapwijk
fragment of ‘Knowing that it will change over time, Feeling that it will stay the same for now.’ - Various materials; photographs printed on different materials and sizes, video works and found materials/objects - Solo exhibition at der Neue Galerie in Landshut (DE), 04.05 - 27.05.2018
fragment of NOW IS A DIFFERENT BACK THEN - Solo exhibition at Museum SCHUNCK*, Heerlen (NL), 25.11.2017 - 14.01.2018. In the same way as a photograph, an exhibition can be considered as a ‘snapshot’. The exhibition in SCHUNCK* functions as one large, temporary installation. Everything relates to everything else, even the space which visitors occupy between the works of art forms an integral part. Much can happen there: works can move, change shape and get closer, and visitors can likewise develop a relationship with them and make connections. Sometimes, you can forget they are mere photos: the works are almost sculptures, physical in essence, and have a forceful spatial presence. • Fragment out of the accompanying text for the exhibition, written by Florette Dijkstra Now is a different back then is kindly supported by Fonds Kwadraat, CBK Rotterdam, Yolk and Mondriaan Fonds. Three works from the exhibition are part of the collection SCHUNCK*, Gemeente Heerlen’.
All of these images are the outcome of certain observations - The work All of these images are the outcome of certain observations is a book based on the concept of collection and archiving. Neither a collection nor an archive can consist of only one element – one thing needs another to exist. I have selected a number of works from my own photo archive of everyday scenes and brought them together in this book. The photographs have been stacked and then photographed again. The physical form of All of these images are the outcome of certain observations is subject to the rules of collecting and archiving: due to its slanted cut, the book requires support from other objects around it in order to stay upright. 184 pages 31 x 21 x 2,8 cm Edition of 250 self published Each book costs € 85,00 and is personally signed and numbered. If you would like to have a copy of your own, please send an email to info@lizawolters.com.