Passportraits Performance Migrating Studio: an on going project since 2007...

I am a sculptress that needs a steady place. However, I have a migrating studio with which I can work everywhere. For the Migrate Studio I don't need to carry much: a few packages of colourful modelling-clay and a digital camera. In every new location, I invite passers -by to sit with me for a short while, to converse and to be portrayed in the soft modelling-clay.
Every time I bring up a new subject for conversation. During the conversation, I try to get acquainted with my sitters, and to reveal something about their identity, opinions and beliefs.
The conversation is part and parcel of the experience, and it makes the sitters to become an active element of the performance.

The modelling-clay is a fragile material; it cannot be baked or hardened, and it difficult to protect from damage. Therefore, for the documentation, I photograph the portraits, always from different angles: profile left, front, profile right. The result of such a session, after around an hour, is a passport like photo, a registration of a face with an unique expression. Later on I send the digital photo and a quote of one sentence from the conversation to the e-mail address of the portrayed person.
This is the only tangible evidence of our encounter.

on this blog you can follow the Migrating Studio Passportraits performance while it travels...
(klick on the photos to enlarge)

PASSPORTRAITS travels around...

PASSPORTRAITS @ van Abbe Museum Eindhoven The Netherlands
on the museum night, as part of the exhibition BE(COM)ING DUTCH, PASSPORTRATIS was investigating the relations of people with their Nationality. some of the questions that were asked: Does your Nationality is a part of your Identity? Do you feel Dutch? (or any other nationality you carry?)... Does double nationality means also double identity? (or double loyality?)....
(To enlarge please klick on the photos)








PASSPORTRAITS @ GORCUMS MUSEUM part of the exhibition THE PORTRAITS OF THE 21 CENTURY
on the TV was a loop of 109 Passportraits from the years 2007 -2009



PASSPORTRAITS PERFORMANCE @ KUNSTVLAAI AMSTERDAM
Migrating studio was 10 days in the Kunstvlaai, an alternative art-fair, and therefore, the conversation with my models was about moment in their life were they had to choose for alternative, with the moto: “…You can’t always get what you want, but if you try sometimes you just might find you get what you need...” (Rolling Stones)

PASSPORTRAITS @ Rotterdam & around 2007 till 2010

PASSPORTRAITS was performing in different places in Rotterdam at: HOMMES on Rotterdam south 2010, ONGEKEND Auction 2010, V.O.R.K Art Fair 2009, Beeld Fabriek 2008 and Gil & Moti HOMEGALLERY 2007.
The last Passportraits Performance for 2010 was in Schiedam, in a neighbourhood called the Gorzen. In The Gorzen, there are many houses that are standing empty, and waiting for demolishing. In one of these houses Passportraits Performance was a guest. The conversation with the inhabitants and the visitors was about Sin and Guilty feelings. I asked people what they consider as a sin, and when they feel guilty, regardless the norms of religion, or other morals. I asked people if they can forgive easily or if they are hungry for revenge….







By Hommes in the exhibition Bridgin' and by the V.O.R.K art-fair the theme for conversation was about the notion of 'The Other', but not the other outside, but the other in yourself, moment when you cannot recognize yourself, and feel a stranger to yourself, your voice is not your voice, your face is not your face....





& The Other @ Gallery Hommes in Rotteram South during the exhibition Bridgin'



On the Auction of Ongekend (Unknown) Passportraits was interested in the relation of people with money, especially in a time of ‘financial crisis’ that makes many to feel so uncertain. Some of the questions were asked: Have you ever being in a situation where you almost didn’t have money, or otherwise, suddenly you got a big unexpected amount of money? How did you act? Do you give money easily a way? Can money make you ‘happily ever after?...




At the Beeld Fabriek and By Gil & Moty Homegallery we talked about Heroes, momemt when you feel yourself like a hero,
situations you succeded to ovecome your fears, or not... What do you consider a heroic act?? ....

PASSPORTRAITS Travels in The Netherlands: Frysland, ID-art in Den Haag and Sauna in Amsterdam...

PASSPORTRAITS @ Oldeberkoop Juli -August 2010
Even though it was beautiful, green and peaceful in Oldeberkoop (a small village in Frysland), I couldn’t find rest in my mind.
And this is because I have read an article of a known Dutch neurologist Dick Swaab. He claims: “We are our brains”, everything we do is already ‘programmed’ in the womb of our mothers and by genetics. I decided to approach my sitters with this disturbing subject: The FREE WILL, does it really exist?










PASSPORTRAITS @ ID ART Den Haag 2008
In Den Haag I met some teenagers, I approached them with the theme Heroes again. In this age it seems a difficult question...


PASSPORTRAITS @ Sauna Fenomen Amsterdam Juli 2008
Passportraits Performance was invited for a weekend in a sauna in Amsterdam. It was for me the first time I entered a sauna, and I saw everybody walking naked, men and women. I felt emmberessed. I was thinking aboud Paradise, the time before Adam and Eve ate the apple, before they knew what is shame. I wondered, why I feel a shame and where does this shame come from?... some people just don't have it. and you?...




PASSPORTRAITS @ The ABC American Book Centre
Freedom of Choice