Kunstenaar - Art Office

Read My World Festival - During Read My World Festival 2024 (Amsterdam, NL) I read the text 'It took me a while to change my name' reflecting on reclaiming my Colombian surname. Expressing thoughts on the context in which the change is made as a decolonial act of refusal and love in daily life. A small excerpt; "... I changed my name out of refusal, out of curiosity but most of all out of love. Up until now there has been little to no evidence—of the existence of or the connection to my Colombian birth mother let alone my birth father—in my daily life. My birth certificate mentions my mother by name and age, my father is represented as X. The pedagogy around adoption suggests it’s in the best interest of the adoptee to have no past, actual or virtual connection to their birth parents after adoption so they can fully adapt and attach to their new environment. Why is the adoptee of color not meant to be a witness of a social, cultural or ancestral connection they might have (had) or might not have (had) to the landscape of their origin? Why is intentionally obstructing access to pre-adoptive lives not seen as a violent act committed by Western systems of juridical power (i.e., the State) to oppress the adoptee of color and subjugate them to a life of social, (juridical, economic and moral) domination and extraction once they enter the Western hemisphere? No easy questions to ask but speaking as an adoptee of color, in the spirit of bell hooks’ love ethic, I propose to utilise not one but all dimensions of love, attending to the urgency to create awareness that goes beyond the narrative of well-intended care and prosperity so often used as the justification of adoption procedures which actually render the adoptee of color to be forever grateful, creating an Unpayable Debt, a debt which is not theirs to pay..."

sci-fi landscape for love - In 2023, I legally reclaimed my Colombian birth (sur)name and let go of my Dutch adoptive name as an act of resistance, curiosity, and above all, love. That year, as part of my performance 'It Took Me a While to Change My Name’ (Rotterdam, 2023) and following my Master thesis 'Caring Together in Decolonial Healing' (Arnhem, 2020), I created a series of collages that depict the symbolic representation of hands, made of scales, set against a background of diverse plant growth. A name can be seen as a form of handwriting, embodying ancestry, history, and identity; a living archive. Hands, as ancient tools passed through generations, carry both familiarity and estrangement. They symbolise creation and the power to manifest. Through these works, I explore the (dis)connection between name, identity, hands, and ancestors, creating speculative spaces of care and embrace, altars for love and connection. sci-fi landscape for love (2), a collage of Collagraph print with soft ground etching on self made paper, 80 x 64 cm, Johannesburg (SA) 2023. image credit: jhoeko.

it took me a while to change my name - I am happy to share some impressions of the performance at Pijnackerplein, Rotterdam, Saturday October 7th 2023. Performing in public space, sharing a moment of choreography with daily events of the neighbourhood I live in, the pedestrians who pass by, the children who play at the square, the local people sitting on the benches and enjoying their day or evening. It was a such a special moment. Thank you to all who passed by and shared this moment with me. A special thanks to my friends, mum and the two best collaborators I could ever wish for and guided me during this journey: Sara-Aimee Verity and Geo Wyex. Performance, as part of On Speculative Narration, Collagraph Printmaking and Performance, has been kindly supported by CBK Rotterdam. ~~~ it took me a while to change my name. a new variety of sounds to affirm my presence ~ a landscape~ to allow myself a space to explore, to wonder and to feel. what it means to break through the power the dutch language holds over me and enter an imaginary space of not knowing. ik heb mijn naam gewijzigd om mijn moeder te eren. mijn moeder die ik niet ken. mijn moeder wiens naam en stem gehoord moet worden. i made this hand to see if it can hold me. while i am loosing or loosening my name, my skin and sometimes even my sight.

from yellow to brown (un)measured against a white background - a new performative work inspired by José Esteban Muñoz’s (1967-2013) ‘The sense of Brown’ and ‘all about love’ by bell hooks (1952 -2021) at Daily Practice, Rotterdam 28.08.2022 - 09.10.2022. I invited Ellen Mary Rooijakkers and Lucciana Bolivar to be part of a transformative process of ‘displacement’, its meaning and manifestation. "In lucie draai’s work, displacement is key and she investigates all its connotations: the loss of a native place and environment, or a literal displacement, voluntarily or unintentionally, and thus ‘movement’. From her personal history of adoption from Colombia to the Netherlands, displacement has set in motion an irreversible process, in which questions about origin and identity remain unanswered, because crucial information is missing and therefore continuous movement may be the only constant and reliable factor. From a decolonial, queer, mindset lucie rethinks what it means to be human and how to reclaim an ethic of care and love. In various disciplines she tries again and again to seek a caring, loving connection with her self, her body, her history and her environment. For ‘from yellow to brown (un)measured against a white background’, lucie invited her dear friend Ellen Mary Rooijakkers to design a costume for the performance to take place in Daily Practice. Ellen has made five ephemeral and literally layered garments from tulle, transparent but at the same time quite stiff material, each in a different (skin)tone. lucie draai asked Lucciana Bolivar as a queer person of color to take analog portrait photos, over a 24-hour period; a conscious choice to look beyond the white, patriarchal, normative gaze. Lucciana spent an evening, night, morning and afternoon with lucie, her partner and their pets. An intimate and realistic portrait on a hot, oppressive summer day. When the sun shines, the figure of the street window moves through the space of Daily Practice. lucie draai has made the movement of this shape part of the exhibition and therefore opening hours have been adjusted. Together with polaroids that reflect the performance on August 28, ‘from yellow to brown (un)measured against a white background’ shows various possible semblances of lucie draai, from realistic to transparent; movements of boundaries, colours, shapes and identities: a constant displacement." Image credit: jhoeko

a tender exchange - as part of the group exhibition HEDEN: AARDE X PARADYS at H47 in Leeuwarden curated by Sanne de Vries from 2 June-23 June 2022. Silkscreens on paper, size 76 x 112 cm and 56 x 78 cm. Video loop on wall. Publication ‘outsider within: a conversation by lucie draai and ketan’, 2nd edition 2022. Image credit: jhoeko ~ i can sense you’re here ~ pulsating from,~ towards ~ the air is humid ~ we are dripping in sweat ~ i am nervous ~ are you ok? ~ we keep on meeting ~ overflowing with excitement ~ a few minutes ~ in the bright sunlight ~ forever darkness ~ i am softly dreaming ~ of our multiplicity ~ in the warmth ~ of the night ~ i look at you ~ burning with curiosity ~ how we are growing ~ into existence ~ i can see me ~ reflected ~ in your slime ~ flowing liquid beings ~ not knowing where we start ~ and where we end ~ it’s hot ~ we are melting ~ i think, i love you ~ for making me feel ok ~ to just be ~ i smile ~ to have you close ~ inside waves of love ~ you and me ~ a tender exchange ~

to (dis)appear ~ the performance of everyday life - As part of the group show The Brain Mixologist at A Tale of A Tub, Rotterdam, 21.08.2021 - 31.10.2021 explores how the figure of the human adoptee of color reclaims their imagination and welcomes the viewer in their world with them. Learn how an uncanny friendship between the artist and a slime mold, Physarum polycephalum, named Ketan, disorientates and redirects fixed notions of knowledge making processes to a live embodied experience. image credit: LNDW Studio

performance to (dis)appear ~ the performance of everyday life - was held during the opening and closing day of The Brain Mixologist on respectively Sunday August 21st and on Sunday October 31st at A Tale of A Tub in Rotterdam. The performance was limited to 5 guests per performance. Each guest was wired with an audio monitoring device including a headset which was in live connection with the performer. An intimate sonic experience in which the audience was called into the depths of the building. On both days the performance was held 4 times on different time slots and lasted for about 10 min. to (dis)appear ~ the performance of everyday life ~ you might feel my presence as a ghostly vibration through waves in silence a phantom-like expression ~ as our desires take shape in the dark or in the light we (dis)appear ~ Video documentation and edit: Areumnari Ee. Audio Support: Any Colour You Like and Fabiënne van den Ierssel. Text Support: Mónica Lacerda. Special thanks to A Tale of A Tub, Eva Posas and the audience without whom there would be no performance to experience.

Outsider within: a conversation by Lucie Draai and Ketan (2020) - Made on the occasion of Test_lab: Of Microbes and Matter at V2_Lab for the Unstable Media, 26 November 2020, Rotterdam (NL); the publication contains an intimate conversation between two friends. Artist Lucie Draai and her friend Ketan: a single celled organism named Slime mold, Physarum polycephalum. They lived together with Lucie’s partner and their two cats for the duration of eights months between December 2018 and Augustus 2019 in Rotterdam (NL). Their conversation touches upon the question of care, interspecies relationships and transnational-transracial human adoption. Weaving personal narratives with Decolonial queer feminist science studies in an effort to disorient and disturb the normative terms of order that surround us within Western globalized societies. We named Ketan after Indonesian sticky rice. Image credit: lucie draai

Caring Together in Decolonial Healing - MA Thesis Critical Theory and Art Praxis Dutch Art Institute 30 dec 2020, Arnhem Thesis Abstract. This thesis explores what it means to be human guided by Sylvia Wynter’s thought provoking trajectory “Towards the Human, after Man” and Denise Ferreira da Silva’s encompassing book Toward a Global Idea of Race (2007); and argues that at the core of contemporary humanness lies a struggle defined by a racialized order of human existence. This struggle informs not only those racialized Others but to varying degrees impacts all human beings on a global scale. As a form of tentacular thinking this thesis contributes in troubling the colonial category of the human by introducing the figure of the human adoptee of color in relation to a decolonial ethics of care and healing. Pushing against normative notions of modes of being human the adoptee of color radically rethinks what it means to reclaim humanness and an ethic of care. Publication of Caring Together in Decolonial Healing, edition of 200. Design by Christoph Clarijs, preface edited by Mónica Lacerda (October 2021) Image credit: lucie draai

Lucie Draai - Botanic_X by Banquet X, DAI, COOP SUMMIT 2019, Cagliari (Sardinia). A performative eating ritual of Physarum polycephalum (Ketan) assisted by Assem Hendawi, Aslak Aamot Kjaerulff and Bjarke Hvass Kure in the Roman Cistern of the Botanical Gardens in Cagliari. Image credit: Nikos Doulos. ”We welcome you into a moist and cold concrete habitat. An invitation to engage in an eating ritual, performed by us humans and a single celled organism named Slime mold, Physarum polycephalum. Imagine a future garden that is not for us". The performance has a limited capacity of 20 people. Bring your living compass.” — As part of this project I made 80 petri dishes (3,5 cm width) with agar and slime mold, presented as living compasses, handed out at the entrance of Botanic_X. Followed by a performance assisted by Assem Hendawi, Aslak Aamot Kjaerulff, Bjarke Hvass Kure taking place in the Roman Cistern in the Botanical Gardens, Cagliari (Sardinia) — while you have been walking through the near future ecopark/ you’re Living Compass/ has been exploring and finding its way on the agar in the petri dish/ hardly visible to our eyes/ it grows and withdraws/ on it’s journey to eat oat flakes/ a compass is known to be a navigational tool/ it gives us direction/ this compass navigates as well/ but it is difficult to predict how/ we are in a future garden/ we plant seeds/ and create a habitat to live in/ what happend if instead of creating an outer garden/ we consciously decide/ to be a garden/ to be a host/ and to welcome outside guests/ to become a garden and/ to become food for the life in this garden/ — DAI-COOP SUMMIT 2019, BanquetX, Cagliari (SAR). Image credit: Nikos Doulos

Ongoing Negotiations - Ongoing Negotiations performed at Dutch Art Institute during Graduation week at Silent Green in Berlin, May 2019 presented as a work in progress. Can we co-exist in the present? Exploring different modes of being and sociality in-between humans and a single-celled organism. Human consciousness and spatial intelligence move side by side in an ongoing negotiation of life. Image credit: Saskia Burggraaf

Lucie Draai - The Entangled Readers/ Ongoing Study Group. As Entangled Readers we practice ways in which text and language might resonate with, and be digested by, the bodies present in the room. We approach reading as a collective, dialogical, and full body activity. By engaging sensorial methodologies with critical thinking we attempt to become receptive to the knowledge present on the page, under our skin and within the spaces between. We explore what tools and conditions might assist us to think through current political climates and open up space for alternative socialities and imaginaries to emerge. The Entangled Readers is initiated by artists Zoë Scoglio and Lucie Draai, acting as a point of connection and opening up of their practices and research. Previous sessions have been held at Shimmer (Rotterdam), Hot Wheels Projects (Athens) as part of the Dutch Art Institute and Van Abbemuseum COOP Academy, at Hordaland Kunstcenter Bergen (Norway). Image credit: Shimmer Rotterdam. More info: https://www.instagram.com/theentangledreaders/

Lucila Novoa

The Entangled Readers - Ongoing Study Group