Mirjam Somers

drawing - video - nature

Mirjam Somers makes video works and drawings. Her video works are situated between moving painting and compressed cinema. In her work she is inspired by the complicated and contradictory relationship between humans and (other) animals. The complex moral universe that surrounds this relationship constantly creates new insights and conflicts. In her drawings and video work she questions and visualizes many of these conflicts. Different people, animals and intermediate beings inhabit disturbing worlds in her work in which they question, threaten or simply do not see each other. Somers studied at the HISK Flanders and AKVISt.Joost, 's-Hertogenbosch. In addition to her own autonomous work, she regularly collaborates with photographer Bas Czerwinski on film projects by fellow visual artists and on various artist portraits. Together they have also recently started programming art projects in their own kitchen under the name Kitchen Stories.

  • Portfolio
  • Activities
  • Awarded
  • Contact

    • R&D grant project Silent Sirenes

    Project

    • 01-11-2022 t/m 01-06-2023
    • In collaboration with: in collaboration with Petros Mousios, Gerwin Luijendijk
    • Location: Rotterdam,
    • In my ongoing research project Silent Sirens, I started investigating which film is hidden in my 300 drawings Daily Drawings. This research has resulted in an installation consisting of drawings, silhouettes, some film scenes (3D animations in collaboration with Petros Mousios), four landscape models, a theater model, texts and music in collaboration with Gerwin Luijendijk. And a synopsis for the film Silent Sirens with three main characters: a man, a dog and a crow.

    Daily Drawings

    Project

    • 30-03-2020 t/m 21-09-2022
    • Location:, Rotterdam
    • Daily Drawings is a drawing project that I started in April 2020. Every day a concentration on paper, a reflection of a previous encounter, an experience, a thought, executed in different techniques. In September I showed Daily Drawings Part3, #201 to #300 during Groot Rotterdams Atelier Weekend 2022. Based on the 300 drawings I will start my film project Silent Sirens in November 2022.

    INTENSE

    Exhibition / presentation

    • 09-09-2021 t/m 27-11-2021
    • Location: ARWE gallery, Gouda
    • At the request of gallery owner Edwin Spek, artist Marcel Wesdorp has invited three colleagues for the 'INTENS' exhibition: Silvia B., Maria Ikonomopoulou and Mirjam Somers. All four are driven by an intense personal commitment that is expressed in a very personal, unique visual language.

    Passages en Passant, Fatima Barznge & Mirjam Somers

    Exhibition / presentation

    • 18-06-2021 t/m 16-07-2021
    • Location: Goethe Institute, Rotterdam
    • Passages en passant is a series of exhibitions in the corridor of the Goethe-Institut Rotterdam in which the works of two artists enter into dialogue with each other. This format is intended as a space for exchange with and through the works, a cause for discussion and as a meeting place for interested parties.
    • https://passages-en-passant.nl/passages/

    closed encounters,

    Exhibition / presentation

    • 21-12-2020 t/m 10-01-2021
    • Location: Hilton Art Lab,
    • A film showcase project composed for Off Screen by Marieke van der Lippe could be seen every day. Due to corona, the images could only be viewed from outside, with the monumental projections visible on the back wall. A collage of short art films: single, double and triptych by various visual artists
    • https://hilton-art-lab.com/hilton-art-lab-no-14-closed-encouters

    IFFR, RTM x Off Screen I Lantern Window Rotterdam

    Exhibition / presentation

    • 24-01-2020
    • Location: Lantern Window, Rotterdam
    • The program features: Who Am I Becoming (2019, Natalia Papaeva), fever is a bliss (Ine Lamers), Melt (2020, Stacii Samidin), Guardian, Tales of Sentience (2019, Mirjam Somers), Here (2019, Robert- Jonathan Koeyers) and black tears (2020, Robert-Jonathan Koeyers).

    Tales of Sentience

    Project

    • 20-11-2019
    • Location: Tales of Sentience, Rotterdam
    • Tales of Sentience is an ongoing research project. In this research I focus on 17/18th century painting depicting animals from all over the world. Nature was physically and mentally framed into menageries, botanical gardens, and taxonomic categories. The series consists of the video works Waker, Guardian, Gathering (WT) and Euphoria (WT) Gathering and Euphoria are still in development. .

    B is for Birds

    Exhibition / presentation

    • 03-06-2018 t/m 30-08-2018
    • Location: Museum Kranenburgh, Bergen
    • My video work Waker was part of the exhibition B is for Bird. What actually determines our bond with birds? In this age of rationalization we forget that for centuries birds captured the imagination of artists, poets, priests and prophets. Guest curator Hanne Hagenaars gives us back the bird as a symbol with B is for Bird.

    Kitchen Stories

    Other

    • 04-06-2022 t/m 05-06-2022
    • In collaboration with: Bas Czerwinski.
    • Location: Spangen, Rotterdam
    • Under the name Kitchen Stories, Bas Czerwinski and Mirjam Somers program art projects in their own kitchen. Our first guest was Priscila Fernandes, who screened her two films Never touch the ground and Make it Bounce.

    Mary Incognito

    Task

    • 25-03-2022 t/m 30-07-2022
    • In collaboration with: Commissioned by Daniela de Paulis, in collaboration with Bas Czerwinski, Silent M Studio
    • Location: Mullard Radio Observatory, Cambridge
    • Mare Incognito is a project by visual artist Daniela de Paulis, in which brain activity during deep sleep is sent into space in real time during a performance. Mare Incognito includes an autonomous film work and a documentary. Bas Czerwinski did the camera work and Mirjam Somers did the sound, editing and together with Daniela she developed the concept for the film.
    • https://vimeo.com/727351812

    Never Touch the Ground / Make it Bounce

    Task

    • 03-08-2020 t/m 23-12-2021
    • In collaboration with: Commissioned by Priscila Fernandes, in collaboration with Bas Czerwinski, Silent M Studio
    • Never Touch the ground / Make it Bounce are two film projects by visual artist Priscila Fernandes, in which Mirjam Somers was responsible for the production, sound recording and editing and Bas Czerwinski for the camera work.
    • https://vimeo.com/672742323/f367a0d27c

    Artist portraits CBK

    Task

    • In 2018/2019 Bas Czerwinski and Mirjam Somers made six artist portraits for CBK in collaboration with Nicole Scarione. These portraits were shown at Art Rotterdam 2018 and Art and during CBK Science hotel Rotterdam
    • https://www.mirjamsomers.nl/someproductions/

    Acknowledgments

      Scholarship

    • Municipality of Rotterdam, contribution to research and development, Visual/Moving Image

    • 2019
      Scholarship

    • CBK Rotterdam, R&D subsidy for research project Complex Moral Universe

    • 2012
      Scholarship

    • CBK Rotterdam, R&D subsidy for research project Silent Sirens

    • 2022
      Scholarship

    • The Dutch Film Fund, scenario (Research & Experiment)

    • 2024
      Scholarship

    • Municipality of Rotterdam, moving image/screenplay

    • 2024
      Collection

    • Various private collections (36) including collection Berry Koedam, Marianne Grotenboer, Anne-marie Ros, Christa Deen

    • 2021, Rotterdam, Amsterdam, Antwerp, San Francisco
      Publication

    • 2021 Lashing people and animals, NRC

    • 2021
    • review
    • NRC - Gretha Pama
      Publication

    • The Blind Bird

    • 2021
    • Text
    • - Ida Hunter
      Publication

    • THE TURNING

    • 2024
    • - Ida Hunter