Festival at Felix Meritis
Nov 24th 2022
presented by
Amsterdam Fund for the Arts
and Bureau Broedplaatsen
Wander through the Felix Meritis on the 24th of November. Fifteen young, talented artists will present their artistic research with fruitful results. The artists represent a great diversity of nationalities and art disciplines. Each talent shows a unique production. You will walk in a cabaret show, watch new documentaries on queer identity, experience bio art, and join dance and music performances. This is your chance to meet outstanding young talents.
The free festival is part of the 3Package Deal, a program for international artistic talent. The program is curated by Bogomir Doringer and produced by Rafael Kozdron. Deputy mayor and alderman of arts and culture and nightlife Touria Meliani will open the event.
Film: Daniel Donato / Fashion: Irene Ha / Theater: Cherella Gessel / Music: Anne Lieke Heusinkveld / Visual art I: Monica Mays / Visual art II: Ghita Skali / Publishing performance: Frédérique Gagnon / Public Realm: Pankaj Tiwari / Dance: Gianine Strang / Engaged Art: Tasha Arlova / Autodidact: Doris Wennekers / Cabaret: Lisa Ostermann / Social Design: Yara Said / Interhistoricity: Ima-Abasi Okon / Bio Art and Design: Philipp Kolmann
Festival at Felix Meritis
Nov 24th 2022
presented by
the Amsterdam Fund for the Arts
and Bureau Broedplaatsen
Wander through the Felix Meritis on the 24th of November. Fifteen young, talented artists will present their artistic research with fruitful results. The artists represent a great diversity of nationalities and art disciplines. Each talent shows a unique production. You will walk in a cabaret show, watch new documentaries on queer identity, experience bio art, and join dance and music performances. This is your chance to meet outstanding young talents.
The free festival is part of the 3Package Deal, a program for international artistic talent. The program is curated by Bogomir Doringer and produced by Rafael Kozdron. Deputy mayor and alderman of arts and culture and nightlife Touria Meliani will open the event.
Film: Daniel Donato / Fashion: Irene Ha / Theater: Cherella Gessel / Music: Anne Lieke Heusinkveld / Visual art I: Monica Mays / Visual art II: Ghita Skali / Publishing performance: Frédérique Gagnon / Public Realm: Pankaj Tiwari / Dance: Gianine Strang / Engaged Art: Tasha Arlova / Autodidact: Doris Wennekers / Cabaret: Lisa Ostermann / Social Design: Yara Said / Interhistoricity: Ima-Abasi Okon
Daniel Donato
Brazil/FILM/
Daniel is a cinematographer and director. He did his film education in Brazil, and his master's degree in cinematography at the Film Academy in Amsterdam. The themes of body, migration, gender and queer identity are central to Daniel's work and research. These themes are reflected in his collaborative project with Agnes Geneva.
His latest film, "Hello my first love, over and out", premiered during the 39th edition of the Visions du Réel film festival. His work as a cinematographer has been screened at the Locarno Film Festival, Sheffield Doc/Fest, DOK Leipzig, Netherlands Film Festival, Helsinki International Film Festival and Uppsala International Short Film Festival, among others. Daniel is currently developing his first feature film. By rediscovering the memories and life experiences of its main character, they create new stories in a mix between fiction, musical and real life.
PRESENTING
“Discovering Agnes or Searching for Agnes”
In this exhibition, we enter a journey that started in 2015 when I first met Agnes at Lellebel, a drag queen bar in Amsterdam. I was fascinated by her and I instantly knew I wanted to be her friend. Our collaboration documents Agnes’ transition into a transgender woman, the evolution of our friendship, and the search for my style and language as a director.
Two factors are fundamental: having a ‘real’ character (focusing on a biographical characterization) and using a methodology that comes out of practice (research by making). From my character’s experiences, I create fictional situations inspired by real life. We play a game in which we fictionally rewrite parts of their history. Working within a space between fiction and life, we create a place where they can play different versions of themselves, relive critical situations, and create a different reality in which past events can be changed.
Irene Ha
Netherlands/FASHION/
Operating as Baby Reni, Irene Ha metabolises bliss not as obliviousness but as hypersensitivity to relentless input of information; a fullness with everything at once. At the foundation of her artistic macrocosm is her own bedroom. Feeling alienated from the categorical expectations of cultural dichotomies, she takes shelter within her own four walls and turns to the digital realm, where all events have long become equal. Why be anywhere when you could be everywhere?
PRESENTING
BLISS, as a small pop-up defile in the hallways of Felix Merits as part of unpacking the 3Package Deal, Baby Reni doubles down on the fascination with exhibitionist domesticity. An embarrassing moment becomes a luxury item — a glass nose ring resembling a snot bubble. The acetone-printed hoodies recycle previous works into wearable memories, which are more lounge than streetwear (and too deliberately white for reckless inner-city posturing anyway).
Cherella Gessel
Netherlands/THEATER/
Cherella shapes her personal voice and perspective as an Afro-Caribbean queer woman with a mastery of different disciplines who does not shy away from experimentation and collaboration.
She combines both textual theater and physical play – in theater and film – with dance, spoken word, modelling, hair styling, and make-up. In 2014 she started her career as an actor, where she discovered that theater would become the cohesion of all disciplines. From her own frame of reference, she started making separate scenes and performances and became part of various performances.
PRESENTING
Musical performance including songs from her upcoming album “YONIVERSE ’’
Gianine Strang
Netherlands/DANCE/
Gianine graduated in 2020 from the Amsterdam University of the Arts (UC/JMD). Besides being a performing dancer, she has also developed a love for making over the years. This past year she has specialized in different healing modalities because she believes that the body is so much more than just the physical aspect.
“Dance is about energy; transfer, move and absorb energy. During the training, we mainly learned the western view and culture. Anatomy, injury prevention, nutrition, etc. From a holistic point of view, everything is interconnected, and you can, therefore, keep your body and mentally healthy by seeing it as a total package. The mental can influence the physical.” With her sister Sherise, Gianine has the ambition to restore the balance in the individual and collective field through dance and choreography through Shamanism, Winti and other healing methods.
PRESENTING
Katamasi is a journey within. It is about your inner world being projected outwards. It is about the healing powers of movement and all the wisdom that in our bodies resides. It is a dance performance in which we move through the physical layers of trauma, repression and freedom.
Choreographers: Gianine & Sherise Strang
Dancers: Julie Ouwehand, Dylan Kuyper & Jason Winter
Lieke Heusinkveld
Netherlands/MUSIC/
Lieke Heusinkveld is a 27-year-old songwriter, producer and instrumentalist who performs by the alias of 'la loye'. Her music could be described as alternative folk, but it's unique in its own existence. Lieke does not explore the beaten track of human consciousness but wanders along the exciting elephant paths, dark sprawl and beautiful open plains.
PRESENTING
During the course of her 3Package Deal year, she has focused on writing and recording her debut album, called 'sweet dreams, see you tomorrow’. It is an astonishing body of work in which she has drawn inspiration from her youth, day to day life, connecting with her queer identity and finding peace in a fast-moving city like Amsterdam. Lieke will perform songs from her new album at the festival. She will also show a series of photographs to accompany the music. As a visionary thinker, the album's imagery has been an important part of Lieke's work and will give you a whole experience of the world she has created.
Stimulating and facilitating top talent with affordable living and working space, a budget and a network – that is the goal of the 3Package Deal. This successful program of the Amsterdam Fund of the Arts (AFK) and Bureau Broedplaatsen in collaboration with renowned Amsterdam institutions is now regarded as the best practice in the field of talent development.
The Amsterdam Fund for the Arts (AFK) invests in the arts which enrich the experience of life in the city of Amsterdam. The AFK encourages the quality, dynamism and diversity of the arts in Amsterdam, and contributes to the city's strong and richly varied cultural climate. The fund is available to all disciplines within the cultural sector, for cultural organizations and artists. The AFK supports both experimentation and proven quality, established organizations and those that are relatively new, the professional arts and amateur arts - from every district of the city. As a metropolitan cultural fund, the AFK offers support to high-quality cultural activities, it functions as a booster for the arts within the city and is an investor in a sustainable future for the cultural sector.
Bureau Broedplaatsen is part of the municipality of Amsterdam. Its task is to realize more affordable studios and (residential) workspaces for artists and incubator groups. Bureau Broedplaatsen does this in collaboration with target group organisations, city districts, central services, corporations, real estate agents, developers, and banks.
We thank our partners, the renowned Amsterdam cultural institutions listed below who take part in the 15 coalitions that select the participating artists and provide them with guidance and a supportive network. They are of vital importance to the program.
Film: Filmacademie / IDFA / EYE / Fashion: HTNK / Rolien Zonneveld / OSCAM / AMFI / Visual Art I: FOAM / Rietveld Acadamie / De Appel Arts Centre / Visual Art II: Stedelijk Museum Amsterdam / Kunstverein / Rijksacademie / Engaged Art: Veem House of Performance / De Balie / De Ateliers / Public Realm: NDSM-Werf / Over het IJ Festival / Das Arts (AHK) / Theater: Academie voor Theater en Dans / Amerpodia / Theater Bellevue / Dance: ICK Artist Space / Frascati Theater / AHK / SNDO (AHK Dans) / Music: Conservatorium Amsterdam / Muziekgebouw aan het IJ / Melkweg / Cabaret: Academie voor Theater en Dans / De Kleine Komedie / Amsterdams Kleinkunst Festival / Interhistoricity: Oude Kerk / Museum van Loon / H401 / Reinwardt Academie / Performance: Werkplaats Typografie (ArtEz) / If I Can’t Dance / Sandberg Instituut – Critical Studies / Social Design: Waag / Hackers&Designers / Framer Framed / Autodidact: Likeminds / Theater Bellevue / Theater De Meervaart / Bio Art and Design: Waag / Mediamatic / VU Amsterdam
Event credits:
Curated by Bogomir Doringer.Event production by Rafael Kozdron.
Felix Meritis production by Rivka van der Berg.
Project leaders: Johanna Brils (AFK) and Naïma Bouchtaoui (Bureau Broedplaatsen).
Press contact: Emma Heinhuis (AFK)