Suzanne Weenink

uitwisseling, spiritualiteit, proces, Lichaam, cross-over, Community, Artistiek onderzoek

At this moment my personal interest lies in the barely or non-material, such as silence, attention, vibration and hope. And how these can manifest themselves in the space and in the body.

Through painting (which was too object-oriented for me), collaborating with and for other artists (mainly Marijke van Warmerdam from 1998-2002 and Erik van Lieshout from 2002- to date) and motherhood, I found a clearer form of my own in 2019.

That year I founded the space of 'Daily Practice' at the Volmarijnstraat 57a in Rotterdam. Without a fixed plan it soon became an exercise in which boundaries are allowed to blur: between workspace and presentation space, between private and public; also in friendly & art-related encounters, between art forms and meditation forms. A “form” in which to experiment with silence, attention and meditation; as a connector, a facilitator, as an artist. 'Daily Practice' has developed from a specific space to a form of thinking. Or indeed, to a practice. It has become an art form and art platform that pays attention to the interactions between art and life. June 2023 I moved Daily Practice to my home, so that these elements actually coincide.

I continue to wonder how art and life relate to each other. How does life shape an art practice, and how does art influence life? How close can they get, where do they meet, touch or overlap each other. To this end, I observe, I do research, works arise, I organize exhibitions, meet other artists and facilitate and guide silence meditations. I have no answers. There are public moments, there are private moments. I bring my own life and practice to the space; the invited guests – artists, writers, meditators and so on bring their own lives and practices to the space. There is dialogue, there is movement. I hope to be generous and to connect.

At the heart of Daily Practice are weekly silence meditations in the space and online.

**Tuesday silence meditation, July 5 2022, - '84 STEPS', Kunstinstituut Melly Rotterdam, 2021 - 2023** - In March 2017, following four years of illness, Rotterdam writer Moosje M Goosen underwent surgery for a life-saving bilateral lung transplant. Only hours earlier, while her close friend Suzanne Weenink happened to be visiting, did the doctor announce news of a donor match. The next day, Goosen was breathing through different lungs and has since gone on to reflect on this formative experience through her writing and meditation practice. Most especially, drawing attention to the deep connectivity with people both familiar and unknown, and with the living and the dead. In March 2020, Suzanne Weenink invited Goosen to present her writings, however tentative, at Daily Practice. Located in Rotterdam West, Daily Practice was founded by Weenink the year prior, as a space for meditation and exhibitions, and through which to explore notions of hospitality and generosity. Titled On Wards: Dispatches from a hospital bed, the exhibition comprised a text work of 40 pages, accompanied by a series of meditation cushions created by Rotterdam-based artist and researcher Nienke Terpsma. Opening as the Covid-19 pandemic took hold here in the Netherlands, the exhibition remained on view, decidedly open-ended, until it was safe for Goosen herself to attend. Furnished with a specially designed wooden floor fit for meditation, and a new series of meditation cushions created by Terpsma, On Wards Inwards seeks to create the conditions for a state of mind in which acceptance can emerge, however able or fragile a body may be. Since last year, this space has been activated and complemented by various actions and gestures, both discrete and public, individual and collective. Such activations include bi-weekly meditation sessions, as well as silent meditation retreats marking the arrival of Winter, Spring, Summer, and Fall. These sessions foster attention to turn inward, and to notice reactions and feelings as they arise and cease within and around us over time. Additionally, Weenink regularly comes to the gallery to personally sweep the floor, collecting the dust from the weeks past. She does so as a way to deepen her connection with the space over time—a kind of meditative practice, breathing with the installation. This gesture Weenink also regards as a form of welcoming, preparing the meditation floor for future visitors. Text by Kunstinstituut Melly Image: Beeldsmits

Dust, January 20 2022 - '84 STEPS' Kunstinstituut Melly, Rotterdam , 2021-2023 — **Dust, January 20 2022 - '84 STEPS' Kunstinstituut Melly, Rotterdam, 2021-2023** - To clean the floor for others to sit on is a deed of hospitality. You do not only sweep the floor for something to take place on it, the sweeping itself is of equal matter, an event itself. Cleaning the meditation floor at Melly means, apart from welcoming the visitor, that there is ongoing contact with the floor and the space. That it isn’t ‘done’ after the opening. It is about taking care and about connecting again and again. With the floor, with the space, with the visitor, with the institute. Each time after cleaning I took a photo with my smartphone of a detail of the dust and then of the dust pan as a whole. Together with the date it became a collection of 49 duo-images: a collection of time passing, of dust falling (if it is true that dust is always falling...)

**Trembling Sunlight #3, 2024** - Ballpoint pen on paper by Rixt Weenink-Klaversma 11.5 x 13 cm Eindhovens Dagblad - April 18 2024, page 14. 'Trembling Sunlight' is a collection of newspaper puzzles, filled in by my mother Rixt Weenink-Klaversma (Hengelo, 1944) who suffers an essential tremor. An essential tremor is a progressive hereditary disease, usually caused by aging. I acknowledge the struggle and severe restrictions her extreme trembling hands mean, at the same time I admire the beauty of the signs, written by her, unwilling to adapt to the given squares of a puzzle. A sign of determination. 3 puzzles were framed and shown at 'Archipelago - Various modes of resisting the Groove', a groupshow organized by 004Collective for Het Archief Rotterdam, summer 2024. With 'Trembling Sunlight' I also tried to connect an insight from Daily Practice during a ritual with flora valeska woudstra. This insight is described (pp 58-59) in 'Love is a Daily Practice' a conversation between Suzanne Weenink and Rosa de Graaf in Kunstlicht 'Labor of Love' 4-2022 VOLUME - written by Rosa de Graaf

**Screenshot 'Exhibitions'** - A screenshot from the Daily Practice website showing artists, events and titles of a few exhibitions.

Nothingness Awareness

Datum: 21-09-2024 t/m 21-09-2024

Locatie: Limestone Books

In samenwerking met: Sarmad Magazine - Space of Heech (Space of Nothingness)/Limestone Books

Sarmad Magazine invited me to design and guide a silence retreat around the theme of Nothingness. Sarmad themselves were invited by Limestone Books Maastricht to take over the space and curate an events program.
On September 21 2024 I guided the retreat, where sitting meditation and walking meditation were practiced in silence. I shared remarks on meditation by the Birmese monk Sayadaw U Teyanija and a poem titled 'Nothingness' by Belgian poet and artist Jan H Mysjkin.

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