Janneke van der Putten is a visual artist and performer based in Rotterdam since 2009. Her voice is her main tool, guiding her through physical and sonic explorations in different landscapes. Engaging with specific sites and local contexts, she investigates (human) responses to her surroundings, and their relation to natural phenomena, such as the sunrise. Her work results in performances, paintings, video, sound, installations, textiles and workshops.
Van der Putten has been presenting her work internationally and holds a BA from the Gerrit Rietveld Academy (Amsterdam, 2009) and a MA from the Royal Academy of Arts; Royal Conservartory (The Hague, 2013). She is part of Collective Aloardi (Lima, Peru) since 2014 and in 2017 she initiated Foundation Idraola, producing multidisciplinary projects and cultural exchanges. She has been a selected artist-in-residence and fellow at a.o. Centre international d'art et du paysage (Vassivière, 2014) and Akademie Schloss Solitude (Stuttgart, 2019).
[to]
Written in the phonetic alphabet, [to] is a syllable to be spoken. It means 'world' in an old Ecuadorian language. [to] is a world to be sounded, colored, materialized. Immerse yourself in the atmosphere, and resonate with the frequencies. Moving through the space, experiencing the physicality and presence of [to], the architecture becomes part of the works that both Jorinde Fischer and Janneke van der Putten conceived for Kunstraum 34.
Geo-astronomical relations: the moon and the river as our elements
Our voices, our bodies, the environment, video, sound, words and textiles laid down the base for this intensive, immersive project created and led by Janneke van der Putten. Through following our individual interests and tying them together we worked with myths, elements, intuition and all things holistic. This project was an experiential rollercoaster, to say the least. The project was presented on the BEAR festival of 13 October with a handmade publication, performance, exhibition and video.
Quitsa
In her solo exhibition Quitsa Janneke van der Putten wants to share with us the ancestral relationship of man, in his place on earth, with the movement of the sun. In her video Directed to the Sun, recorded in December 2014 on a ruin in Peru with a view of the Chanquillo solar clock (about 500 BC), a tribute is brought to the sun with waving orange ribbons and the primal sounds of Janneke’s screams. (...)
Directed to the Sun
For more than ten years, Janneke van der Putten has used her own voice as an essential medium in her interactions with landscape, space and contexts, in connection with e.g. natural phenomena, mythologies, cycles and time. Van der Putten's work often differs from purely auditory performances through visual aspects. Documentary media (video, photography, drawing), but also textile works and spatial installations transport their experience and association processes into the exhibition space.
All Begins With A
For her first exhibition, Janneke Van der Putten presented a constellation of works in which the relationship between sound, voice, and singing and body, time, and space are investigated through her personal experiences, physicality, and voice. The lengthy walks, tours and listening studies that Janneke Van der Putten (Amsterdam, 1985) performs are an important starting point for her work. She uses her voice as an instrument to scan or articulate a particular situation or space (...).