The artistic practice of Liesbeth Bik and Jos Van der Pol, working under the name Bik Van Der Pol, is collective, leaving the studio as a place of production and using the artistic workplace itself – practice – as the site of research and production. This is a conscious political and artistic choice, and also sets the conditions for a (social) space generated by dialogue and collaboration where an encounter may happen that might result in a work of art. Their work has shown an increasing focus on when and how public space ‘takes place’; on its conditions and (terms of) accessibility, exploring where and how art can create forms of knowledge. Similar to artistic practice, public space is a space of dissensus – a space of learning (by doing), of negotiating differences, of speculation and conflict. It is not a clean, pre-set space, but one that is murky, full of noise and continuously contested. They are advisors at the Jan van Eyck Academy and they run a temporary Master program at the Sandberg Institute in Amsterdam under the name The School of Missing Studies. Bik and Van der Pol have worked collaboratively since 1995; and they live and work in Rotterdam.
Mar 16 \ Liesbeth Bik and Jos Van der Pol \ proposition for reclaiming a space