Willem Besselink

abstract - conceptual - installation - land art - sculpture

In all my projects I work with external data: data and statistics, architectural structures, patterns in paving stones, everyday events, etcetera.
In addition, I am fascinated by systems, structures and patterns that can be hidden behind that given data.
In my work I make those systems visible, tangible and perceptible, thereby trying to provide myself, but especially the viewers, with new insights: that everything is based on different interlocking systems.
That work, which varies from small drawings to large location-bound installations, always has a physical form, so that every viewer must also physically relate to it, and in that way it is automatically part of those underlying systems.

  • Portfolio
  • Activities
  • Contact

    • IPIHAN # 13

    Residencies / exchange

    • 19-06-2023 t/m 23-07-2023
    • In collaboration with: CBK Rotterdam, Goethe Institut, Christian Weissenfels Foundation, Salangen Biennale, Culture Moves Europe EU
    • Location: Abandoned iron mine Salangsverket, Sjøvegan
    • If Paradise Is Half As Nice (IPIHAN) is an annual self-initiated five-week work period in which a group of 10 artists work in, on, with, on an abandoned (industrial) site. At the end of the work period, the doors are opened to the public. Edition ten is the first edition to take place in Rotterdam and the first in the outdoor area. De Betonplaat is a 3-hectare former factory site of the R'dam concrete plant in Crooswijk.
    • www.ipihan.com

    IPIHAN # 2 - # 12

    Residencies / exchange

    • 16-09-2013 t/m 28-08-2022
    • In collaboration with: CBK R'dam, Goethe Iinstitut R'dam, Geh8 Dresden, Verein für Industriekultur Leipzig, Christian Weissenfels Foundation
    • Location: various locations, Leipzig, Vlissingen, Zeitz, Altenburg, Dresden, Rotterdam
    • If Paradise Is Half As Nice (IPIHAN) is an annual self-initiated work period of five weeks in which a group of approximately 10 artists work in, on, with, on an abandoned (industrial) site. At the end the doors are opened to the public. Edition #2 #3 #5 #6 at various locations in Leipzig, #4 in the Lasloods in Vlissinge. Edition #7, #8 and #9 in Zeitz and Altenburg. #10 in Rotterdam, #11 in Meuselwitz, #12 in Dresden.
    • http://www.ipihan.com

    MK Award

    Other

    • 01-06-2012 t/m 31-07-2019
    • In collaboration with: MK Award Foundation, CBK Rotterdam, Tent Rotterdam
    • Location:, Rotterdam
    • The MK Award Foundation, of which I was a board member, awarded a prize to a visual artist every two years. The prize was created after the death of the owners of MK gallery Rotterdam / Berlin, in order to continue their creative legacy. The award was funded by gifts and donations collected with the collaboration of former artists of the gallery. These financial resources were exhausted after four awards.
    • www.mkaward.nl

    Frontviews - Berlin

    Exhibition / presentation

    • 01-09-2012 t/m 18-02-2021
    • In collaboration with: Frontviews
    • Location: In several European cities,
    • Frontviews is a collective of European artists and art theorists, based in Berlin. Until last year the collective had a nomadic existence and exhibited in all kinds of different cities in Europe, such as Madrid, Athens, Vienna, Rotterdam and Berlin. I have been a member since 2012 and have participated in several exhibitions. Since the beginning of 2020, Frontviews has a permanent space in Berlin: HAUNT, where it organizes exhibitions, events and lectures.
    • www.frontviews.de

    foundation IK

    Residencies / exchange

    • 01-10-2012 t/m 31-12-2012
    • In collaboration with: Stichting IK
    • Location: IK pavilion, East Souburg
    • The IK Foundation is housed in the so-called IK pavilion. Two buildings in the shape of the letters I and K, developed and designed by Jan van Munster. The pavilions were at the disposal of guest artists 4 times a year for three months, for a work period and an exhibition. There I made the installation 6500: 1, a spatial visualization of data about myself, collected during the two months that I lived there.
    • https://www.mondriaanfonds.nl/aanvraag/bijdrage-gastateliers/tijdelijke-binnenlandateliers/stichting-ik-vlissingen/

    Acknowledgments

      Scholarship

    • IBB (New York) CBK Rotterdam

    • 2018
      Scholarship

    • IBB (Los Angeles) CBK Rotterdam

    • 2019
      Scholarship

    • R&D, CBK Rotterdam

    • 2011
      Scholarship

    • Starting stipend, BKVB Fund

    • 2008
      Scholarship

    • maker counter, Droom en Daad Foundation

    • 2020
      Pricing

    • Threshold prize, Willem de Kooningacademie, Rotterdam

    • 2006