Bambi van Balen

community - publieke ruimte - sociaal-maatschappelijk - spiritualiteit - LGBTI+

bambi van balen is a non binary Dutch-Hungarian visual artist, raver, inflatable fetishist, activist, mushroom grower and founder of the artist group and foundation Tools for Action. With Tools for Action they hold open source skill-share workshops, create participatory performances and political interventions, often drawing on the dream-like and transformative qualities of inflatable objects; i.e. their monumental size, pop-up mobility, softness, playfulness and latent erotic appearance. Next to Tools for Action, they teach, curate or create liminal site-specific installations. Since 2020, they have been exploring dream work as a collective healing practice.


Persistence Is All (2024) - Light installation with 32 numbered and signed ceramic sculptures from a limited edition of 64 multiples Materials: stoneware, glaze of copper saturation, silicon LED lights, raspberry pi. Single size sculpture: 45 x 55 x 55 cm Dimension of formation variable. Inspired by minimal sculpture, 80ies neon club aesthetics and Van Balen´s previous Tools for Action work Mirror Barricade (a choreography and direct action training with 110 inflatable silver reflective barricade cubes against a neo Nazi march), Persistence Is All is a poetic exploration of barricades, crowd formations, meditative stone circles and genderfluid erotics with four legged bodyparts. The sculptures are to be anchors of stillness and perseverance in the sloshing of times. Installation as part of the exhibition No Dancing Allowed / 2, curated by Bogomir Doringer at Garage Rotterdam 27.01 – 07.04.2024 Produced at Sunday Morning @ EKWC (European Ceramic Workcentre) in 2016. Light installation from 2024.
Dream Chapel - Dream Chapel Installation as part of exhibition Resilient Rebels, Kunsthal Museum Helmond 13.10.2023-24.03.2024 Installation by Bambi van Balen in collaboration with Christy Westhoven, Sarah Kerbosch, Jazmin Schenonen, nat skoczylas Soundcomposition by OTION Size: 550 x 550 x 500 cm Materials: Cordura fabric, dried Artemisia (mugwort), cherry pit pillows, LED strips, arduino, fountain, dichroic TPU foil, sound system. Fragrance aroma based on Artemisa Vulgaris.  Duration dream trip: 15-20 min Max visitors at a time: 12 Mugwort grows on the banks of the Maas River and next to Bambi van Balen´s studio. The herb has been used for centuries for its pain-relieving effects, its ability to restrict birth and regulate menstrual cycles, and for its oneiric power to induce lucid dream states. Clusters of dried mugwort hang from the outside of the inflatable dome as an incantation. In the centre, a small fountain as an ode to flowing, highlighted by a mysterious bubble shifting between blue-violet and pink light. The liminal space is an invitation to release and be receptive to dreaming.  Accompanied by the voice and repetitive rhythms of OTION, inspired by R&B, hip-hop, neo soul, jazz, traditional Afro-Surinamese and West African music, you are invited to pause, let go of the tension of everyday and join in an olfactorial and audiovisual journey. In resonance with the music, the installation performs a variation of light pulsations and patterns to stimulate affective landscapes and synchronicities within neural networks. These light pulsations are translated into bioelectrical activity, causing brain frequencies to slow down to so-called alpha waves. Within neurobiology, alpha waves are associated with REM sleep and thus with dreaming. Is it possible to dream while awake? The answer to this question is an ongoing study by Bambi van Balen. Photo by Dave van Hout, Peter Cox,
Dreaming Release (2022) - Dreaming Release is a collaborative experiment between OTION (Guillelmo Blinker) and me, that took place at MU Hybrid Art House as part of the exhibition MOVE ! Body Politics in Motion on the 17th of September 2022. As a still form of dance, we invited the audience to lie down and let their bodies be moved by the vibration of sound and the frequencies of light. OTION is a singer and songwriter with a background in dance. He uses sound as a somatic healing practice, creating “resonance with the water of your cells” In my own practice I started to create liminal environments with inflatable light sculptures. The soft ephemeral object alludes to the language of dreams. The light sculptures perform a variation of light pulsations and patterns, creating affective landscapes and synchronicities within the neural networks. Following the experiential stages of a sleep cycle, we created a collective state to dream and release. Foto by Boudewijn Bollmann.
RÆV REHEARSAL (2021) - RÆV REHEARSAL was a durational performance, choreography and community project in the summer of 2021 in Rotterdam. The project emerged as a response against the imposed isolationism by the Covid-19 pandemic. With a bluetooth speakers system, floating inflatable sculptures and a minimalist techno beat, ravers moved through the city like a radiating, dancing swarm. Then, the streets became the club; the stairs, roundabouts and benches, temporary stages. Starting point was the murmuration of starlings: Can we move and dance as a flock of birds and practice new forms of assembly? RÆV REHEARSAL was initiated by Bambi van Balen (Tools Design) and Floor van Leeuwen (swarm choreography). It was Bambi van Balen´s first project in the Netherlands, when they moved from Berlin to Rotterdam. The video shows a 360° documentation of the raving swarm during the Amsterdam Dance Event on the 15th of October 2021 on invitation of Stichting NDSM-werf. Camera Christina Stein. Edit by Bambi van Balen. More information: https://toolsforaction.org/raev_rehearsal/
Signals 3.0 - ´Signals 3.0` (2019) was a participatory commemorative performance and ephemeral monument in the heart of Dresden commemorating the "peacefull" revolution of `89 and making a connection with the present. Performance by Bambi van Balen | Tools for Action and Tomás Espinosa in collaboration with Kunsthaus Dresden, Hellerau - Europäisches Zentrum der Künste, Montagscafé | Staatsschauspiel Dresden. Video by Bambi van Balen With interviews by Abdu Elalem, Johanna Kalex, Holm Vogel, Thomas Pilz.
Barricade Ballet - ´Barricade Ballet` (2016) is a poetic video documentation of the Mirror Barricade, a social sculpture from modular inflatable mirrored cubes, that can be assembled within seconds into a barricade. It is built by 14 high schools and citizens of Dortmund, who positioned themselves against an international right-extremist manifestation in their city. The video shows a choreographed direct action training with the inflatable mirror cubes, interspersed with footage of the actual counter protests against the Neo-Nazi demonstration on the 4th of June 2016. Initiated by Bambi van Balen as part of their activities within Tools for Action in collaboration with the Theatre of Dortmund. More information and extended credits here: https://toolsforaction.org/mirror-barricade/
Sainsbury Chickens - Date: 2010 Material: Porcelain, clear glaze. Edition of 72. Dimension installation variable. Size individual object: 190x130x110 mm In the 17th century Europe, porcelain was considered as valuable as gold. To revert the value chain process of mass produced chickens, chickens were turned into ´white gold`. In collection of Koninklijke De Heus B.V.