Video-artist Kim Engelen

Malmö/Sweden, Week 52, 2011

I see my art as music. Not in the sense that art is music (although it can be). But in the sense that music has no boundaries. Is has no limits to the receivers. The texts and sounds may go wherever you allow them to go. And physically it may go everywhere where it can be received the best possible way, and this can be for example in an artist studio, a museum, a catalog, magazine, internet or on the streets. Whoever likes the music or wants to hear the music is welcomed by the musician to listen to their music. This is how I see my art as well, my art can be experienced by everybody who wants this. Around me I hear that some artists want their art to be judged by ‘star’ artists or art connoisseurs, or that they make art for people who have read the same books. No, I want to believe that art has no rules and is free. To me it is a wonderful experience when art touches the heart, and at the same time stimulates the mind. I guess the artist unique way of looking at the world and their soul is what makes art special (to me).

• Current screening/exposition:
• Dec 1-30, 2011: PS1 Public Space One, Elsewhere, Iowa/USA
• Fonlad - the On Line Festival for Digital Arts, presents at the Non Biennale twelve videos hand made by phones, my video ‘I am in your Hands’, curator: José Vieira, view»

• Read:
  
• Vilan van de Loo, Het nieuwe onbehagen, op naar een derde feministische golf (The new unease, onwards to a third feminist wave), 2005
• Hephaestus Books, Islam in the Netherlands, Including: Pim Fortuyn, Arab European League, Ayaan Hirsi Ali, Theo Van Gogh (Film Director), Geert Wilders, Christiaan Snouck Hurgronje, Allochtoon, Islamitisch College Amsterdam, the Caged Virgin, Turks in the Netherlands, 2011 
• Heather Williams, bell hooks Speaks Up, 2006, online article»

• Expo-visits: Bonnefantenmuseum Maastricht/NL, see pics»

• Films:  Noam Chomsky, America and Israel-Palestine (2011), watch online»

• Email feedback: Gregory from athousandstories.com, I enjoyed the bicycle film and its combination of motion with the two different languages. There’s something very meditative and private about the film, and it is easy to see the deep thought that goes into your work and your statements.

Lydia Anne McCarthy, ‘Self’ from the Shadows and Reflections series, 48x60”, Digital C-print, 2011