Improvisations by Henri van Zanten

One of the main secrets of becoming an omniartist, is collaborating with many different people in many different ways. In a universe of curiosity there are no strangers, there exist only people who don’t want to get to know you. I have intensive contacts with fellow artists and artisans who for example dislike or even hate eachother. What bloody nonsense! The only person you should keep an eye on is yourself. Not to compromise or lose ideals!

A good example of balanced collaboration is this website. Helmuth Ziegenmalte is a precise, modest and friendly person. I am a wild, self conscious and most of the time friendly person. The modest, but wild result you can see for yourself..

Now, in this category i will show different kinds of collaborations. Either I was asked to participate or I asked to participate. And then there are  collaborations that were or are a result of the wish to find an artistic symbiosis on equal basis.

Another beautiful example of an organic collaboration: the PKV, which translates into Passive Art Society: Lonneke Laurijsse and Laura van Putten were attending a workshop i gave at the Willem De Kooning Art Academy in Rotterdam. The theme given was The future. My personal theme: the book about the pamflets and posters during the student revolts in May ‘68 in Paris. Title of the book: Be young and shutup! Already the first day i was struck by their way of working together. There was a lot of silence, and that is a sign of trust. I joined them in silence. And very soon we started joking. Humor and silence, that combination. In the summer of 2007 we ran a Depression Promotion Centre together in a the Gallery Pool 120 hosted by the Harmen Verbrugge. He was a perfect example of how involvement and feedback lead to beauty and joy and bloody good exhibitions and an atmosphere in which art can thrive and demonstrate it’s power. The following series of photographs represent the 4 stages of a life or a process. Seasons as it were…

Birth/Spring

Summer/Life

Autumn/Sadness

Winter/Death

But luckily it’s a cycle….

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This entry was posted on Monday, October 29th, 2007 at 5:33 am and is filed under Improvised Collaborations . You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.

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