Tess Martin

audiovisual - experimental - film - installation - crossover

Tess Martin is a film and visual artist based in Rotterdam, the Netherlands. Her short films, videos and installations address our vulnerability: in relation to nature, the innocence of time and the precariousness of memory. Tess has both a classical fine art and an animation background and these come together in her work: she pushes the conceptual potential of hand-made animation and the narrative potential of site-specific pieces.

Tess' work has been exhibited at international galleries and festivals such as TOKAS Hongo (JP), International Film Festival Rotterdam (NL), Ann Arbor Film Festival (USA), and more. She was selected as an artist-in-residence at, among others, the Hawthornden Writer's Retreat (Scotland, 2022), the Camargo Foundation (France, 2019), and the Bogliasco Foundation (Italy, 2017).


1976: Search for Life at Rencontres Internationales Traverse, Toulouse

Exhibition / presentation

  • 13-03-2024 t/m 31-03-2024
  • Location: Chapelle des Carmelites, Toulouse
  • '1976: Search for Life' (single channel video) was included in a group exhibition inside a Chapel in Toulouse, as part of the Traverse experimental art festival. It was projected on an interior wall. This show was on for a month. The short film was also screened in a cinema context during the one week conference portion of the festival.
  • https://traverse-video.org/tess-martin/

Berlinale Talents

Workshop

ORBIT at Rotondes Gallery, Luxembourg

Exhibition / presentation

  • 19-01-2024 t/m 11-02-2024
  • In collaboration with: Roundabouts
  • Location: , Luxembourg
  • Orbit short film, installation, prints and print videos on display as part of the group exhibition 'Turn On' at Rotondes gallery in Luxembourg.
  • https://www.tessmartinart.com/#/orbit/

1976: Touchdown at De Aanschouw

Exhibition / presentation

  • 04-01-2024 t/m 11-01-2024
  • In collaboration with: De Ziechouw
  • Location:, Rotterdam
  • Presentation in a small showcase of a photograph and small installation related to the project 1976: Search for Life.

Artist Residency at Het Wilde Weten

Residencies / exchange

  • 01-11-2023 t/m 31-01-2024
  • In collaboration with: Het Wilde Weten
  • Location:, Rotterdam
  • A three-month artist residency in the project space of Het Wilde Weten to develop new work, culminating in a try-out installation titled 'Dear Rosa'. Supported by the CBK Praktijk Contribution.
  • https://www.tessmartinart.com/#/dear-rosa/

Masterclass at DOK Leipzig

Exhibition / presentation

1976: Search for Life installation

Exhibition / presentation

ORBIT at BRUTUS Wild Summer of Art Part II

Exhibition / presentation

Artist residency at Hawthornden Castle, Scotland

Residencies / exchange

Tokyo Arts and Space - Open Site Exhibition

Exhibition / presentation

  • 11-01-2020 t/m 09-02-2020
  • Location: TOKAS, Tokyo Arts and Space, Hongo, Tokyo
  • A solo exhibition in two rooms, consisting of an interactive installation, videos, a print series and a short film, all related to my phonotropic project ORBIT.
  • https://www.tessmartinart.com/#/orbit/

Time Waves

Exhibition / presentation

  • 07-12-2019 t/m 07-12-2019
  • Location: WORM, Rotterdam
  • Time Waves is an installation made in collaboration with Rotterdam artist Stella Koppe. It was presented at WORM on December 7, 2019 and is an animation loop projection with live foley sound and accompanying framed photo.
  • https://www.tessmartinart.com/#/times-waves/

ORBIT at Theater Rotterdam

Exhibition / presentation

  • 01-11-2019 t/m 31-12-2019
  • Location: Theater Rotterdam, Rotterdam
  • In November and December 2019 a specially edited version of the short film ORBIT was on display on the Theater Rotterdam media wall in the foyer. The film on a loop with other Rotterdam animations originally conceived in the April 2018 group exhibition 'Out of Frame, Out of Line, Our of Order, Out of Paper' at WORM.
  • https://manifestanimation.com/post/188902424556/special-announcement-five-animations-launch-at

ARTnSHELTER Residency and Retrospective

Exhibition / presentation

  • 06-01-2020 t/m 03-02-2020
  • Location: ARTnSHELTER Gallery, Tokyo
  • I was selected as an artist in residence at the ARTnSHELTER venue in Tokyo. I worked on the storyboard for an upcoming project, and to culminate the residency I had a 4 day 'retrospective' exhibition in the gallery, where I displayed the work-in-progress development for that project, past films were projected and displayed on a monitor, and I gave a presentation about my work.
  • https://artnshelter.com/2020/01/13/tess-martinthe-netherlands/

ORBIT at Out of Frame, Out of Line, Out of Order, Out of Paper

Exhibition / presentation

  • 06-04-2018 t/m 08-04-2018
  • In collaboration with: Municipality of Rotterdam
  • Location: WORM, Rotterdam
  • In 2018 I initiated, curated and produced a group exhibition at WORM in Rotterdam, comprised of work by 8 artists with an animation background who had rarely before made work for a space. The result was one weekend of interactive sculpture, participatory installations, projections, VR experiences. My contribution was the ORBIT interactive installation (discs, turntables, cellphones).
  • https://vimeo.com/264841449

ORBIT exhibition at TAFF

Exhibition / presentation

  • 21-08-2019 t/m 24-08-2021
  • Location: Turku Animation Film Festival, Turku
  • I was invited to present the ORBIT interactive installation, the ORBIT monoprints and print videos as part of the Turku Animation Film Festival in Finland. The 4 day exhibition was, appropriately, in a record store and was well visited. The ORBIT short film was also included that year in the festival's program.
  • https://vimeo.com/355491823

Artist in Residence at Kala Art Institute

Residencies / exchange

  • 01-12-2018 t/m 31-01-2019
  • Location: , Berkeley, CA
  • I was selected as an artist-in-residence at the Kala Art Institute in Berkeley, CA, an established center for printmaking arts outside of San Francisco. I was able to develop the ORBIT monoprints here (and the subsequent monoprint videos), and my stay culminated in a presentation about my work and the results.
  • http://www.kala.org/residencies/kalas-media-arts-artist-residence-exhibition-award/

Artist in Residence at Camargo Foundation

Residencies / exchange

Artist in Residence at Bogliasco Foundation

Residencies / exchange

  • 18-04-2017 t/m 20-05-2017
  • Location: , Bogliasco
  • I had the pleasure of being selected as one of the artist in residence at the Bogliasco Foundation Residency outside of Genoa. For one month I worked on the development of an ongoing project about memory.
  • https://www.bfny.org/

Artist in Residence at Djerassi

Residencies / exchange

  • 10-08-2016 t/m 06-09-2016
  • Location: , Woodside, CA
  • I had the pleasure of being selected as artist in residence at the beautiful Djerassi Resident Artist Program in the mountains south of San Francisco. I spent the time developing the ORBIT project.
  • https://djerassi.org/

Acknowledgments

    Scholarship
  • CBK Research and Development

  • 2019
    Scholarship
  • Creative Industries Fund NL - Design

  • 2020
    Scholarship
  • Netherlands Film Fund - Finishing

  • 2019
    Scholarship
  • Municipality of Rotterdam Visual Arts - Scenario Writing

  • 2019
    Scholarship
  • Netherlands Film Fund - Treatment

  • 2018
    Scholarship
  • Municipality of Rotterdam Visual Arts - Scenario Writing

  • 2021
    Scholarship
  • Dream and Deed Foundation

  • 2021
    Scholarship
  • Creative Industries Fund NL - Experiment

  • 2021
    Scholarship
  • amarte fund

  • 2020
    Scholarship
  • Netherlands Film Fund - Realisation

  • 2023
    Scholarship
  • Netherlands Film Fund - Screenplay Writing

  • 2022
    Scholarship
  • Municipality of Rotterdam Visual Arts - Realisation

  • 2022
    Scholarship
  • CBK Research and Development

  • 2021
    Scholarship
  • Netherlands Film Fund - Ultrashort

  • 2021
    Scholarship
  • Netherlands Film Fund - Finishing

  • 2023
    Scholarship
  • Mondriaan Fund - International Art Presentation

  • 2024
    Pricing
  • Camargo Foundation Artist Residency

  • 2019
    Pricing
  • Kala Art Institute Media Arts Fellowship

  • 2018
    Pricing
  • Bogliasco Foundation Artist Residency

  • 2017
    Pricing
  • ORBIT, Best Experimental Film, Shortcutz Amsterdam

  • 2020
    Pricing
  • Het Wilde Weten project space residency

  • 2023
    Pricing
  • Hawthornden Castle residence

  • 2022