Art Office

The Rotterdam artists Shardenia Felicia, Florian Braakman and Valentina Vella shared during Studio Art Office | This is how you do it #2 on November 22, 2023 their experience with the Practice Contribution from CBK Rotterdam.

You have a fantastic idea, you work with great people and you have found a great location to show your artistic plan to the world! But have you also thought about yourself? With the Practice Contribution from CBK Rotterdam you can submit an application for your own fee. During How you do it #2 in the TENT auditorium, about forty artists came together to find out everything about the scheme.

Art Office' Cindy Stegeman gave a short introduction about the Practical contribution. Rotterdam artists can easily apply for this accessible scheme via the website to provide (part of) the fee. An important condition is that the art project has a public character, whether it is a public performance or an exhibition in a non-commercial space. The start date must also be after the application date. External advisors assess the application and within four weeks the artist will hear whether he or she will receive a maximum of 2500 euros.

Reminder

The Rotterdam artist Shardenia Felicia applied for a Practical Contribution for her project Reminder, a stop-motion film about her life as a mother of two young children. With this film she wanted to show herself and other mothers that their lives are not over if they have put aside ambitions or dreams for motherhood. “It was a huge job to make the film because I did everything from home,” she said. 'At the same time, my two young children also demanded a lot of attention. And they always wanted to play with the dolls.”

Felicia's work is characterized by the color pink. “I actually don't like pink at all,” she laughed. 'I make different types of work, from stop-motion to paintings. I was looking for a way to connect the works and by chance the color pink became that way. It started when I picked up a pink toy outside the shelter, a pink number 3. I started collecting more small pink objects and that gave me more insight into what pink means for society.

Felicia also used the Practice Contribution to organize a mother- and child-friendly exhibition meeting at WOLk in Rotterdam last summer. “With this meeting I wanted to meet other artists and mothers,” said Felicia. 'I strongly believe that you don't have to do it alone. We can help each other and learn from each other.' Felicia's story received recognition from the audience: another artist with children asked her how she keeps the balance. “It is especially difficult if you leave your children crying at daycare,” she says. 'How important is your art then? But it's also just my job. So I want to do it for myself and to show my children that they should never give up on their dreams.

Brother

Photographer Florian Braakman asked the Practice Contribution for his photo series Brother to be shown at the Jakarta International Photography Festival (JIPFEST) in September 2023. Brother consists of portraits of all kinds of different men who addressed the photographer on the street as 'brother'. With the series, Braakman wanted to show that it doesn't take much to feel connected to other people. He quoted James Baldwin: 'All men are brothers. That's the bottom line. If you can't take it from there, you can't take it at all.'

When Braakman moved to the Rotterdam city area of ​​Delfshaven ten years ago, he started taking photos from his window. He slowly became more familiar with the neighborhood, he spoke to more and more people and his photos became more personal. “I have encountered many of the people portrayed before, so at some point you form a bond,” he says. 'It is an ongoing project and the series is only getting bigger. I was asked to show the series at JIPFEST, but the organization barely had a budget for participating photographers. I was able to finance my travel and accommodation through the International Voucher from the Mondriaan Fund and, thanks to the Practice Contribution, I also received compensation for my time investment. And it was also easy to apply for, which is ideal.”

The audience asked, among other things, why Braakman mainly photographs men and few women. “They are men who address me as brother, so that is part of the project,” he says. 'I would like to portray more women from the neighborhood, but I am also aware of my position as a man and that there is a different dynamic.'

netherworld

Performance artist Valentina Vella performed three songs from her work Netherworld, an electronic album with poetic stories about personal and social crises. Vella voices the atrocities caused by neoliberal capitalism, shows how absurd job advertisements can be and recounts dating adventures. “The pieces are based on texts I wrote years ago when I had just moved to the Netherlands and I was very poor, tired and isolated,” she says. 'I already had the basis for the music, but I came across a Belgian producer who proposed a collaboration and took the album a step further.

Vella performed the entire album live in the autumn at an other world in Carnisse. “Apart from making the album, it took a lot of time to prepare the performance,” says Vella. 'The performance lasts fifty minutes. I had to memorize all the lyrics and practice the tempo and use of voice. I applied for the Practice Contribution for that time investment. I think it's highly recommended.'

The vulnerable themes in Vella's work raise questions from the audience, such as to what extent she takes into account the people who play a role in her stories. “If someone asks me to remove their name from the text, or details that can be traced back to that person, I do my best to satisfy them,” she explains. 'But ultimately it is my story, told from my own unique and subjective perspective. So I have the right to tell it.' She does not shy away from her own vulnerability. 'I don't worry about crossing my own boundaries. I choose what I say and how, and there is a lot of power in that.'

Practical contribution

De Practical contribution provides (a part of) the artist's fees in art projects that have a public character and with which artists strengthen their professional practice. With the practical contribution wears Art Office contributes to the fees of visual artists resultout our commitment to the Fair Practice Code. You can apply for the Practice Contribution again from January 8, 2024.

 

 

Photos: Hoby Moerland