BLOOM

During BLOOM, seven local, young makers presented their work in the public space of Groningen. BLOOM was part of the Noorderlicht International Photo Festival: REGENERATE. BLOOM is a recurring part of our festival and takes a different form in each edition. For instance, this year consisted of two ‘show’-containers behind the Akerk in Groningen.

The artists involved in BLOOM entered into a working project at Noorderlicht in May 2023. They presented six different projects by seven different artists. These artists responded to the festival theme REGENERATE. REGENERATE questions how we as humans relate to nature and in what ways we can work together to improve our well-being and of the planet. Accompanied by Noorderlicht, the works were presented in public space, so you could visit the exhibitions at any time of day. The presentations varied from video works by Maaike Meindertsma in the Spanish landscape and large photo prints of the queer community in Groningen made by Ro de Ruiter to the artistic research on the Monster Process in Faan by Siem de Boer and Michiel Teeuw. Eva Brank explored how to capture the way of connecting, Julie Tuinman captured different hands and Sverre van der Velde rediscovered his surroundings through photography.

Exhibiting in a public space is a different experience than in a gallery. It creates different opportunities, obstacles and reactions. We asked Ro and Eva about their experience.

Experience of Ro:

“For me, working in the residency boxes was a completely new experience. I was personally so used to using a photo studio for my work so being outside of that changed the way I had to think about the more technical aspects of my work as well as how I interacted with the people who I took images of. Because of the transparency of the space, our conversations would start of a bit more distant, but as time went on and people got used to being in there, they would open up more and we all forgot that there was an outside world.”

Photo: Ro de Ruiter

Photo: Ro de Ruiter

Experience of Eva:

“Each element of this project was remarkably fulfilling for me because of our wonderful team that was unexpectedly created along the way. It is not a strict form of a team nor does it have a specific work ethic, rather it’s a group of people who were willing to take a dive with me and support my vision for the creation of people’s mental states when it comes to forming and sustaining relationships with others, i.e. attachment styles. Be it in the form of the most diligent and proactive production assistant (Dina), the surging bold designer (Agne), the reliable witty source of writing inspiration and support (Kris) or the imaginative, delicate dancers who were willing to share their intimacy for a little while, they were all here. I’m trying to say teamwork came about naturally and so many more people ended up playing a significant role in the making of Ways of Holding on than I would have expected at the beginning which is not to be taken for granted because group dynamics are precious and sensitive. I’m satisfied with the visuals, yet I recognize I have the time and the space to further develop my approach to art-making which makes me feel mostly hopeful and excited for the future.”

Photo: Eva Brank