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.