The art of casting the creative team

"i am always looking for balance and since real balance is a continuous movement between two points, always in motion. the two points that keep me in balance in my work: acting is personal and faithful acting in a fabricated situation. logic brings you from a to b, imagination takes you everywhere. art partner is able to bring the connection between art and companies to a 2.0 version, because the connection is established between the person behind / in the company and the person behind / in art. and that makes me curious about the future with the full conviction that i am going to be surprised there." with rosetta we work, a.o., for kpmg, where she is one of the trainers for the masterclasses 'pitching skills: making an impact' that we developed especially for kpmg.

i draw and play with light and am interested in man as a powerful and powerless being in relation to his environment. drawing is the basis of all my work. by working on location, looking and drawing, i create my own framework, stage or 'drawing area', with the audience as part of the work. a place has its own information, visible and invisible, memory and history. i want to make this physically visible and tangible, and for this i use different media. i prefer to work with an analogue large-screen light projector in the public space on, for example, a facade of a building, so that the public can become part of my work. sandra boer and robert tordoir, together with art partner, had the courage to create a new space for the artists, which was not yet existing at the time. i am proud of them and have been involved in this story. now it seems almost obvious, but the support and conviction they give to the employer, client, the art and the artist is enormous. i still find it special that both art partner and clients give me the openness and the confidence to look, investigate, question and develop new work. with machteld we worked together with kpmg, vumc, inholland university of applied sciences, the hague university of applied sciences, horizon college, van doorne lawyers and notaries, mn and sail amsterdam. www.machteldaardse.nl en www.debeeldvormers.nl

"... how much you can see if you take a step backwards and only look very carefully. people say so much without being aware of it. by being somewhere for a longer period and observing them, they forget at a certain moment that you're there. and then the party begins: subtle changes in body language, facial expression, position, groups that form and pull the cart or just seclude, with exuberance or visible boredom. the moment the energy drops or is released ... by taking the time and space to only look very closely at what is happening around me, inspiration is never far away." kyra sacks and machteld aardse worked together for the first time in an assignment for the municipality of almere. this has led to their company www.debeeldvormers.nl. it is very special to see how a new creative company can emerge from an assignment that we work closely with. with kyra we worked together with: municipality of almere, kpmg, the hague university of applied sciences, inholland university of applied sciences, bartiméus, eiffel, horizon college and vumc. www.kyrasacks.nl and www.debeeldvormers.nl

i watch and listen to the world around me and try to understand it in all its beauty and cruelty. i try to translate that impression as clearly and directly as possible by writing or by giving it back to the world in another way. language is the one closest to me because we have been sentenced to that powerful but also vulnerable medium. my work is located between different disciplines and worlds and connects them. art partner is the first organisation that has appointed what i actually do and how i do it in the form of a talent and skill. sandra and robert have the gift of linking two worlds that apparently have nothing with each other and know how to forge them into a marriage. a marriage in which all parties meet their needs and take major steps in their development. the secret is that they can work with everyone on meta and micro level and have found a language that transcends frameworks.  

what surprised me the most during the assignment (s) i did with art partner was that companies that work with art partner dare to do things differently, that they dare to experiment and step into the unknown. it has become clear to me over the years that these companies dare because art partner combines these two worlds from a great deal of trust both to the client and to the artist. the client convinces the artist and the artist convinces the client. a new quality arises from this respect. with silvia we worked together with kpmg, de haagse hogeschool, & samhoud and a private bank. www.silviarussel.nl

"what surprised me the most during the assignment that i did with art partner is the courage of the bank i worked with. they were vulnerable in a period when banks presented themselves as unassailable for the trust of their customers. this assignment was not a marketing project to represent the image of the bank, but a collaboration in which both the board, employees and i went outside our comfort zone, which resulted in images and interventions that surprised me. it has changed my view on what art can do forever." www.heidilinck.nl

teun castelein (1980) is an artist known for a wide range of entrepreneurial adventures. he calls himself a 'one-man conglomerate' operating from the city of amsterdam with the ambition of overtaking the world. with his projects he researches and questions the functioning of the free market and the chances of survival for the artistic and humanistic. castelein graduated from the sandberg institute (ma program of the gerrit rietveld academy) in 2007 with offering advertisement space on the façade of the institute. for almost five years he is teaching 'branding' at the willem de kooning academy in rotterdam and since this year 'social dreaming' at the university of the underground. his work is widely covered by national and international media. for his shipping company 'lampedusa' he received a peace pigeon at international peace day 2017. castelein was nominated 'citizen of the year 2016' by the municipality of amsterdam. he is also a member of pop rock collective 'the geert wilders'. with teun we worked together with a.o. kpmg, ncd, nvtz  

in a mixture of installation, performance, audio and video work, graphic design, drawing, painting, language and unexpected circumstances, i create moments of chaos, stillness, confusion and surrender in which the spectator often cannot help but take an active position. i use the power of art to question the absurd human condition through humor, critical entertainment and uninhibited engagement. to break through prevailing views and structures, whereby success and failure are equally used as a strategy. i play, pinch and tilt a situation until it totters and falls. after which i kindly help it up again so i can safely tilt it into another direction without any concern. i see the challenge to disarm everyone by letting the imagination seize power, precisely there where art is not self-evident. which then results in shared insights by receiving the unknown and unexpected with open arms.

art partner allowed me to immerse myself in fascinating work environments where i would never have ended up as a director. the mutual inspiration that it yielded by working in places like kpmg but also bartiméus i have experienced as very valuable. the great thing about working with art partner is that you, as an outsider, enter an organization, but that enough time is taken for research, so you keep your fresh look as a newcomer, but you come to the essence of the organization. i am amazed every time how well this works and that at the end of such a collaboration i really feel that i have learned and contributed something essential. i always search for the best fitting medium for the story i want to tell. sometimes it is a film, then a tv program, a radio play, theater piece or even an online interdisciplinary platform. the story is always leading. my strength is to investigate and address things that are sensitive in an integere but also humorous manner. with eefje we worked together with: bartiméus and kpmg. www.eefjesuijkerbuijk.com https://zwelgplek.op.vpro.nl (online platform vpro) https://www.instagram.com/sugarsnaps_official/  and nice to mention: in pursuit of the zwelgplek, eefje is now working on a vpro theme evening that will be on npo3 on 4 january 2019: 'de nationale zwelgavond', an 80-minute tv evening that is all about of all moments in life that things are not going so well.

"it was with great pleasure that i, as an anthropologist, entered a whole new experience of the working world. because i was the strange artist, people were open and shared information with me, from management to client. it amazed me how i went along and really wanted to think along in the challenges of the organization to come up with solutions. how it all really concerned human connections and the shortages in them. i saw heads communicating with each other but each other's hearts were not touched. there was no group feeling, connectedness. then the challenge to come up with an artistic intervention that would make the hearts speak. being active together, making something together and creating together, a radio play of sounds together, of other sounds, of sounds made by them themselves, to listen again and to hear other sounds. it brought us to the core, everyone wants to be heard. only then can you continue."

"actually, everything i do is about communication, both what you say to others and what you call to yourself all day in your head. "is not it a crazy combination, theater and therapy?" i hear that question regularly, because i work both as a therapist and in the theater. of course, they differ in many areas. but as far as i am concerned, there is also a big agreement, because both theater and therapy make an attempt to go beyond the everyday form of communication, to change the basic understanding of people about themselves and their world. theater is best when it is personal. that became very clear to me in a juvenile prison. there i did a project with studio 52nd from amsterdam. as a writer, i was linked to one of the boys who sat there and did various exercises with him. so i asked to describe his first night in prison. to write down all his thoughts, feelings, ideas and fears. then i asked him to write how he thought people were looking at him from the outside. that evening we had several scenes played by actors who were with us, that was a very intense evening with heavy stories. also the first night of the youngster i worked with was told by one of the actors. i saw that he (the boy) struggled to control his tears when he heard his story. i am not busy with solving anything or creating a form of healing, just looking for the most theatrical, where the pain is, the conflict and where it is abraded. at the end, one of the regular escorts came to me and said that what we had achieved in one day with that group was what they had not done in a year. " erik teaches at the royal conservatory in the hague as a lecturer in stage performing and teaches at the academy for theater and dance in amsterdam. he gives nlp training and is a teacher of ericksonian hypnotherapy at two institutes in the netherlands and also has his own practice in amsterdam as a hypnotherapist. graduated from the theater school in amsterdam (amsterdam school of the arts) in 2004 and made or played performances at o.a toneelgroep amsterdam, the new heroes foundation and the noord nederlands toneel. we work with erik o.a. with: kpmg (masterclasses making an impact) www.hypnoworks.nl  

"in everything i do i am curious about the sources that live in people. what kind of knowledge is there in you? what kind of experiences live inside? and do you translate these into wisdom and a drive? i like to work with people, groups, artists, colleagues, etc. we often look forward, focus on the things we lack or find that we have not sufficiently developed. that what makes us who we are, we might experience as (too) self-evident. i like to turn it around. how can you make better use of who you are and what you carry with you? nothing is self-evident! " the work of annemiek puts you face to face with vulnerability; with a unique inspired inner world that contains so much beauty and can evoke emotion. annemiek has been affiliated with the hku since 2004 as a lecturer and since 2015 at the lectoraat muzische professionalisering. based on her experience, she developed the masterclass return-to-sender, a unique and special masterclass for teams that dare to go further.

in my work, i investigate what it takes to have an encouter and to establish a relationship. a relationship where vulnerability and empathy can unfold, where the personal is experienced as political, and where norms and power relations around this relationship are acknowledged and investigated.

i enjoy working with storytelling, performative interventions, film, and that what the body wants to tell us. and i constantly challenge myself to do so together, hand in hand, with softness, playfulness, poetry and care; even during the moments that i do not agree with you at all, or what you represent could exclude or hurt me. discomfort can be a fertile ground for building an equal relationship.

“i felt challenged to just step inside the organization, to stay open and close to myself. i felt challenged to embrace resistance as vulnerability. i felt resistance to the amount of expectations that you have to deal with and that you ask for in return. i was amazed at how difficult it is to really name problematic things. i felt moved when you said that you’ve also felt the value of small personal steps in this process. i felt moved when i saw your face change from skeptical and reserved to open and engaged. i am moved to have met you.”

the collaboration with art partner has given me, as an artist with a migration background, the special opportunity to stand in the middle of the dutch society, with my work but also as a person. through art partner i was able to give my political engagement a new form through my artistic practice.

i felt acknowledged in my different sides and talents.
i felt supported to  experiment and grow.
i was able to draw long lines of research and to deepen them.
i felt inspired by their gentle leadership and strategic approach that never lost sight of what is human.
i have experienced their efforts in sticking to empathy.

the idea of ​​transforming a ‘change trajectory’ into a transformative experience and an encounter instead of a business assignment. the creativity to see and approach business partners as fellow citizens.

i have the opportunity to work with partners and people whom i normally would never meet.
i am challenged to view issues that are very important to me as a citizen and person from the perspective of decision makers.
i entered to places where i would usually never come, but places that do have an influence on the quality of my life, of our lives, of our society.
i have seen and experienced real changes through our work.

"looking for the place of trouble, where it becomes cloudy, is for me always a place that gives energy, which i also like to encounter, while i never really know how to plan it actively, i try to keep space for not knowing, how difficult it is (time pressure, pressure to 'make something') and every time the surprise to find something that is right and yet also very different from what i was looking for. the gifts that are hidden everywhere remain a constant source of wonder. that moment when a company or organization really becomes my studio, that moment .... what surprises me the most during the assignments i do with art partner is the amount of capital that is always present in organizations. in people as a matter of fact. and what kind of fire is involved as soon as you make room to play. how much people really want to say yes, and that they do, but how little space is experienced to act accordingly. while i often see that space very well as an artist. because that space is indeed there. so the discrepancy between what is and what can be and the willingness to move in it. and what happens when those insights become shared and clear .... and yet every time that - in an attempt to keep an overview - one overlooks what is beneath our noses ... " with anook we worked with: abn amro, theodoor gilissen bankers, & samhoud, kpmg, future female leaders, almere municipality and heineken. www.anookcleonne.nl and www.hetblauweuur.nu  

"in my theater performances, i give voice to women of strength who have gone their own way and have strongly influenced the world. i believe that the world longs for strong women and their voices. and i encourage people to find their own strength to tell their story on stage. i use my experience as a performer and my knowledge of breathing techniques to coach them. i like to do interventions in a theatrical way to make the voices of women within an organization stronger and clearer." with julika we work(ed) a.0. for kpmg and de haagse hogeschool.

studio wessels boer animates public spaces with objects or sculptural interventions that make you feel at home, connect you to your surroundings and inspire curiosity. the work is often integrated into the existing architecture or the infrastructure of a space and brings about a bridge between the public and private. “what surprised me the most during the commission i did with art partner was the openness and enthusiasm of those involved. the original assignment in the henrick de keijserstraat in amsterdam asked for a façade artwork, but i came up with a large permanent street rug. both the client (stadgenoot) and the municipality dared to do this and went for it. no one saw too many bears on the road. the permits were no problem and with minimal resources the result was a real metamorphosis. the implementers found it very nice to spray something other than a bike path. the reactions of the residents were very moving. in short, a super collaboration.” with marjet we worked together with: stadgenoot    

"we have an inexhaustible fascination with how people struggle with themselves and the situation they are in. our theater work is inspired by current, poignant stories from society, on their beauty and their pain.

in the assignments for art partner we experienced the enormous power of 'imagining'. at kpmg we gave a theatrical lecture at the foundation of their women's network. before that, we had interviewed 100 men and women. we caught on what was said between the lines, we asked, challenged. on the one hand, women were annoyed at how tough the corporate culture was with regard to women, but on the other hand, it was perfectly normal to think that a woman who works part-time is laughed at: 'yes, we just do that here'. we showed this contradiction in the interactive performance. if we had 'just' told them this ', the message would not have stuck. but it stuck in the concentrated context of the theatrical reading."

with anne gehring and vera ketelaars (together gehring & ketelaars) we worked a.o. together with: kpmg and the hague university of applied sciences. www.gehringenketelaars.nl  

"from a story or need, i look at an environment or space and adjust it accordingly, by creating a seating object and sometimes by bringing or removing light or sound. in my work i always look for clear solutions to a problem and to the smartest way to make complex questions and /or stories understandable. i always prefer objects and environments with an unmistakable identity. through art partner i can focus on what is important. the questions and clients often come from a direction that is less accessible to me. the art partners often see opportunities that i do not see. sometimes they ask me while i myself am not 100% convinced that i can contribute something positive to the project, but they are always right in the end. by embracing their enthusiastic and open attitude and their way of experiment, innovative and surprising results emerge." studio rogier martens was founded in 2006 and specializes in product and exhibition design and always works in a varied team of specialists. with rogier we worked together with a.o.: kpmg, bierens en unilever. www.rogiermartens.nl

"my work is about converting frustration, via not knowing, to wonder. it is an investigation into how i can help people to look at so-called self-evidence in other ways. as an artist i have a lot of experience with working in assignment situations. the way art partner works, gives me the opportunity to concentrate completely on my work, and not to lose myself in keeping the parties involved happy. i have discovered that the result of this working method can be more valuable and meaningful for all parties. if the different interests do not have to be mixed, but can meet each other on the basis of strength and vulnerability, there is, apparently automatically, space for magic. with martijn we worked with kpmg. www.circusengelbregt.nl

"in essence, my work is about connecting, the arbitrariness and poetry of human action, putting it into perspective and expressing it. and if i had to explain it to a nine-year-old, i would say that i often wonder about what people make. and that i respond with constructions, photos and words. what surprised me the most during the assignment(s) i did with art partner was the great drive, dedication, and involvement of sandra and robert! and in addition, all the attention again and again for the customer as well as for the participating artists, that is no small feat." with ellert we worked together with sail amsterdam and the municipality of almere. www.ellerthaitjema.nl

i move people. emotionally on stage through a touching performance, mentally, through coaching with dialogue that resonates and finally i move them physically by connecting their bodies and breath. i am a performance artist which means developing skills to play and create new relationships, to cross borders (political and emotional) to grow through studying life from different perspectives and to explore being yourself and another at the same time. and i am committed to supporting others to do this too, in different environments other than the stage. in the corporate business world, i connect bodies and breath, i connect intentions to voice and movement, and help turn values into actions for individuals and teams. i have 40 years experience teaching, performing and producing on and off stage. i was astonished to hear sandra and robert defending my value as an artist. no one had done that for me before. i don’t know the ‘codes’ for translating what i do into return on investment for the corporate world and a creative can’t always be visible and logical. they represented my skills, perspective and process and then gave me the space and trust to do my job. they are a clear bridge between corporate and creative, making thorough explorations and interviews with both artist and client to make sure there is a match on every level. met grainne werkten we o.a. met: kpmg, de haagse hogeschool, heineken, eiffel, ymere en de marketing queens  

i love listening. and the effect that that listening has on you as a person. and what i find completely magical is that everyone does that in a totally different way. i can also see that in organizations. the same sound evokes all kinds of thoughts in one person, another is carried away by a feeling, another disappears in an old dream. when i work with teams, i let them make music. they express themselves, they listen to each other and experience the tension between the two. i find it really fascinating to see and hear that when teams make music, that sounds exactly as they are in essence. often without them knowing it for themselves. a fast marketing team goes on and on, while a team with insecurity stops playing after a minute. to listen, it is necessary to slow down, stand still, listen around you. as a composer i am looking for that delay and i have noticed that this is also very valuable in organizations. www.diederikrijpstra.com photography: keke keukelaar

"i see the theater as a community laboratory, where you as a visitor always consciously or unconsciously occupy a position.with my social playgrounds, i want to give people the opportunity to do, let and think, where the personal and the political touch. i use the imagination to hack thought patterns, to (re) identify and practice important values, and to shape your own viewpoints and important stories for you. i work in different forms: for example, i have developed a number of games for groups of people to play and i like to give thought experiments. the nice and exciting thing about this research method is that nobody knows what the end result will look like. with a good starting question and your curiosity you can design a process with a group that can be a work of art in itself. furthermore, i give feedback training in the dasarts feedback method, in collaboration with art partner, to groups outside the art world. it is nice to see how an instrument that has been developed for groups of artists can also be so enriching for others. " read our blogs for management & consulting about what we can learn from the theater when it comes to giving and receiving feedback: blog | feedback. or fast forward? blog | agile feedback: the power of thinking together www.emkeidema.nl photography: bas de brouwer