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Esther Polak and Ivar van Bekkum collaborate as an artist duo under the name PolakVanBekkum. Their work focuses on movement and landscape, or, to put it more abstractly, on mobility and the effects it brings.
Drawing from a connection to Dutch landscape painting, the artists use new technologies to capture that deeply personal experience of space, both in the countryside and in the city. Their work almost always emerges from a collaboration, whether it be with people, objects, or sometimes even the rays of the sun.
PolakVanBekkum works internationally and has exhibited at venues such as Transmediale in Berlin, Ars Electronica Linz, ZKM Karlsruhe, IMAL Brussels, Museo for Image and Sound São Paulo, the fringe program of the Marrakech Biennale, and the Philadelphia Percent for Art Program. Their films have been shown internationally, for example, at FID Marseille, NEMAF Seoul, and the Netherlands Film Festival.
Drawing from a connection to Dutch landscape painting, the artists use new technologies to capture that deeply personal experience of space, both in the countryside and in the city. Their work almost always emerges from a collaboration, whether it be with people, objects, or sometimes even the rays of the sun.
PolakVanBekkum works internationally and has exhibited at venues such as Transmediale in Berlin, Ars Electronica Linz, ZKM Karlsruhe, IMAL Brussels, Museo for Image and Sound São Paulo, the fringe program of the Marrakech Biennale, and the Philadelphia Percent for Art Program. Their films have been shown internationally, for example, at FID Marseille, NEMAF Seoul, and the Netherlands Film Festival.
Oeuvres d'art
Articles
Médias
Points forts
Recommandations
Collections
Expositions
Position sur le marché
CV
Oeuvres de PolakVanBekkum
Médias
Dog is part of 250 Miles Crossing Philadelphia, a media art project executed in Philadelphia in 2014 and finished in 2015 by the artist duo PolakVanBekkum. This project introduces radical and innovative visual approach showing a landscape of satellite images with real time routes and sounds. It balances between voyeurism and empathic co-traveling and the meditative experience questions our contemporary techo-society, where eavesdropping and social connectivity coexist.
À propos
over 'De Rit' in NRC
Polaks verdriet boort zich in mij. Haar film voelt als verboden terrein, voor mij, over haar. Mooi voor mij, ondraaglijk voor haar, mag ik daar wel bij? Maar: er is een kassa, publiek is de bedoeling. Ze speelt hoog spel. Dubbelspel.
Joyce Roodnat, schrijver en columnist
over 'De Rit'
Wat een schitterend werk is dit. Documentaire op een metaniveau getild (geweldig idee om de personages af te beelden via hun hartslag), abstractie die iets concreet maakt wat blijkbaar met geen andere mogelijkheid zo concreet te maken is. Een geheel open werk dat door z’n onbestemdheid uiterst precies tot die plek in onze ziel weet door te dringen waar we allemaal zo’n catastrofe hebben meegemaakt. Ik was er het hele weekend nog aangeslagen van.
Arjen Mulder, schrijver en bioloog
over Amsterdam Realtime
Amsterdam Realtime has become one of the canonical works of the first wave of so called locative media art, exploring the tension between location as monitored position and as lived space.
Robin van den Akker, cultural philosopher at Erasmus University, Rotterdam in Frieze Art Fair
PolakVanBekkum
The work of Esther Polak and Ivar van Bekkum […] showed their understanding of the possibilities of GPS as a medium. The work is ecological in a true sense: it illuminates ourselves and the habitats, urban and non-urban, that we share with each other and other living beings. It is thus both personal and planetary. […] Here the GPS tracks become real by imposing them on an illusion, the pre-recorded planetary surface as recorded on Google Earth. And yet this illusion is apposite for it reminds us that by the time we see the track it is itself also illusion.
Murdo Macdonald, Emeritus Professor of History of Scottish Art at the University of Dundee.
Het Parool
De routes van mens, dier en machine door Philadelphia graveerden ze als lijntekening in papier. Ook die gravures zijn mooi. Raadselachtig mooi.
Jan Pieter Ekker, schrijver en journalist
tentoonstelling Driver's Dog
De eigenlijke hoofdpersoon is steeds het landschap, zowel de woestijn als de stad. De dieren en de planten, de schaduwen en de gps, dienen als middelen om je tot je omgeving te verhouden.
Tracy Metz, schrijver, journalist
expositions
Dans la collection corporative:
UMC Utrecht
CV
Esther Polak - Ivar van Bekkum
PolakVanBekkum: media artists/multidisciplinairy artists
PolakVanBekkum explore choreographies of daily life: walking, cycling, driving, flying, wandering. In their view, the drive to move creates
a world or space rather than taking place in an already existing one. Rooted in the history of the Dutch realistic landscape depiction, they
express personal experiences of moving and space. Their projects are often informed by collaborations with participants, be it humans,
animals, or even the rays of the sun. PolakVanBekkum is/are supported by the Mondriaan Fund.
Filmography
Lost on Arrival, (November 2020, 8’00”, short experimental documentary)
De Rit/The Ride, (November 2019, 12’14”, short experimental documentary)
Gaan om te Zijn/Go Move Be (2018, 9’50”, short experimental)
The Fortune (2018, 1’, short experimental)
A Collision of Sorts, 2017 (17’12”, second short experimental documentary)
Homestead II (2017, 1’ - short film, loop)
Once We Get There (2016, 49’50”, first mid-length documentary)
The Mailman’s Bag (2014, 60’, mid length experimental video (art work)
pi-boy (2013, 9’, first short experimental documentary)
What is done cannot be undone (2011, 6’05”, short experimental music film)
2009-2022 main projects and works
• Graaschoreografieën/Grazing Choreographies, project and book, hand drawn grazing patterns of cows (2021-ongoing)
• Watertekeningen/Water Drawings; drawings of streams, vortices and waves on watercolor paper (2022-ongoing)
• Het Geluid Vaart.The Sound Sails; sound art and podcast (Oerol 2020, 2021, 2022)
• Op Drift/Adrift; Installation, printed vehicle tires on watercolor paper (2021)
• 250 Miles Crossing Philadelphia; web art (2014)
• Fronting Motion; web art, ANPR camera and Vessel tracking based video (2014-2020)
• Urban Fruit – Street Wrapper; print on demand, hacked Google Streetview images as fruit wrappers (2013-2018)
• The Fisherman’s Handwriting on the Surface of the Sea; light drawings/panorama (2012)
• #Sandmapping, topographical performances in public space (2012 - ongoing)
• Google Earth hack(2010)
• Souvenir Zeeland - the landscape as a place of work; sand drawings edition (2009)
• NomadicMilk (2008-2011)
• MILKproject (2004-2006)
• Amsterdam Realtime (2002)
Main residencies
De Ruimte, Deventer (BRUT, dEVENTer en Kunstenlab), 2025
Binnenlandatelier Mondriaanfonds, Drawing Centre Diepenheim, 2024
Buitenlandatelier Mondriaanfonds, IBB, Curaçao, 2021
From Bits To Paper, Straatsburg, FR, 2016
Percent for Art Program Philadelphia, 2014, 2015
Representation
- Galerie DudokDeGroot, Amsterdam
- Film distribution: EyeFilm, Amsterdam
- Film distribution: LIMA, Amsterdam
Collections
Work by PolakVanBekkum is part of the collection of the Amsterdam Museum, Eye Film Museum, Zentrum für Kunst und Medien
Karlsruhe, The Latvian National Museum of Art, City Archives Amsterdam, LUMC Leiden and various private collections.
Publications (selection)
- Graaschoreografieën, uitgeverij Müller, bilingual/tweetalig, 2021
- From Bits To Paper, edited by Filipe Pais, les presses du réel, July 2018
- Patterns that connect, Saskia Monshouwer, 2017
- Fascinerende schaduwen in een lege woestijn, Tracy Metz, NRC, 2015
- Een roadmovie door stemmige stills, Jan Pieter Ekker, Het Parool, 2015
- Walking and Mapping, Artists as cartographers, Karen O’Rourke, Leonardo book series, 2012
- Space Inscribed, Esther Polak and Ivar van Bekkum at HICA in conversation with Murdo Mcdonald – 2010
Education
Esther Polak studied at the Rijksakademie for visual Arts in Amsterdam and the KABK in Den Haag, NL
Ivar van Bekkum studied Journalism at the School for Journalism (HICO), Kampen/Zwolle, NL
Exhibitions, film screenings and presentations
2024
June Amsterdam Realtime Het Nieuwe Instituut Rotterdam
June Spookrijder (installation) Kunst van Hier to Ginder Overijssel
June/July Berichten uit het Platte vlak - solo tentoonstelling Kunstenlab Deventer
March Lost On Arrival IDFA documentaire paviljoen Amsterdam
January Lost On Arrival IFFR Rotterdam, NL
2023
October Walking The Machine Becoming Machine, Artsect Gallery London, UK
October Walking The Machine The Wrong Biennale ’23/‘24 Online/London
September Spiral Drawing Sunrise Amsterdam Art Weekend meets XR Amsterdam
September Fregata Magnificens Big Art Amsterdam
September Lost on Arrival Intermediaciones-Video art/Experimental film Medellin, Col
June Graaschoreografieën Galerie dudokdegroot Amsterdam
April Het Geluid Vaart STRP - frequencies Eindhoven, NL
March The Fortune Exodus, Bijbels Museum & Buitenplaats Online
Doornburgh
2022
November Het Geluid Vaart - Grote Knip Framework Radio Online
October The Fortune Miami New Media Festival, atelierWG Amsterdam
and Arts Connection Foundation
July-Sept Graaschoreografieën - versie IJsselstein Museum IJsselstein IJsselstein, NL
June The Ride What You See is What You Get, Filmhuis Den Haag, NL
June Het Geluid Vaart III Oerol Terschelling, NL
Mei Lost On Arrival Amsterdam Art @ EyeFilm - Harvest I Amsterdam
2021
Sept-Dec Residency IBB Curaçao (Mondriaan buitenlandatelier) Curaçao
December Lost On Arrival Bogoshorts, Colombia
November Lost On Arrival Braunschweig Film Festival, Germany
November Lost On Arrival dokumentART, Germany
Sept Lost On Arrival Reykjavik International Film Festival Iceland
Juni-sept Op Drift installatie IJssel-biënnale/Museum De Waag Deventer, NL
Juni Lost On Arrival Eye on Art/Eye Experimental Amsterdam, NL
Juni Het Geluid Vaart II Oerol Terschelling, NL
June Solo Expositie/book presentation gallerie dudokdegroot Amsterdam, NL
April Lost On Arrival 38th Busan International Short Film FestivalBusan, S. Korea
April Fronting Motion installatie on site Upstream gallerie Amsterdam, NL
March-June Lost on Arrival Berlinale Forum Expanded Berlin, DE
March The Ride Centre Culturel Suisse Paris, FR
Jan Mailman’s Bag "Shaping the Invisible World " Basel, CH
House of Electronic Arts
Jan The Fortune "Shaping the Invisible World " Basel, CH
House of Electronic Arts
Jan What’s the Story? | How To Move Close viewing with LIMA/Kriterion online, NL
2020
November Lost on Arrival IDFA, in competition short film Amsterdam, NL
November Graas Choreografieën Het MOW Bellingwolde, NL
November The Ride Seoul International New Media Festival Seoul, Z Korea
September Fronting Motion online Upstream Gallerie Amsterdam, NL
September Shadows Move Right Oude Kerk Amsterdam, NL
June Het Geluid Vaart Oerol Online, NL
Mei The Ride Oberhausen Short Film Festival Online, DE
Mei The Stream Nieuw Dakota/Corona Archives Online, NL
April Shadows Move Right Oude Kerk/Mr Motley Online, NL
April The Ride Visions du Réel, Nyon Online, CH
international competition (A+FF)
2019
Nov The Ride/De Rit IDFA Amsterdam, NL
Sept. Pendule BIG ART Zaanstad, NL
Sept. Daily Life at the Crossing Nieuwe Instituut Rotterdam, NL
Sept. The City as Performative Object ZKM Karlsruhe, DE
Sept. Gaan Om Te Zijn/Go Move Be VideoVortex 12 Malta
Sept. Gaan Om Te Zijn/Go Move Be Besides the Screen São Paulo, Brazil
Sept. Gaan Om Te Zijn/Go Move Be Unseen Festival Denver, USA
Apr A Collision of Sorts Iowa City International Doc. FF Iowa City, US
Jan. The Ride (solo - installation) De Oude Kerk Amsterdam, NL
2018
Sept. Gaan om te Zijn/Go Move Be Netherlands Film Festival Utrecht, NL
Juni. A Collision of Sorts Chicago Underground Film Festival Chicago, US
Jan. Nomadic Milk Grounding the Map | Mapping the Ground, Zone2Source Amsterdam, NL
jan-dec The Fortune traveling program of one minutes International
2017
Dec. You have two cows Kalmar Museum of Art Kalmar, Sw
Nov. 250MilesCrossing Philadelphia Abington Art Center Philadelphia, US
Nov Gaan om te zijn CBKZO Amsterdam, NL
March, Aug, Sept. A Collision of Sorts , NFF (in competition Gouden Kalf), Utrecht, NL/ NeMaf, Seoul/ Rencontres Internationales
Paris/Berlin
PolakVanBekkum: media artists/multidisciplinairy artists
PolakVanBekkum explore choreographies of daily life: walking, cycling, driving, flying, wandering. In their view, the drive to move creates
a world or space rather than taking place in an already existing one. Rooted in the history of the Dutch realistic landscape depiction, they
express personal experiences of moving and space. Their projects are often informed by collaborations with participants, be it humans,
animals, or even the rays of the sun. PolakVanBekkum is/are supported by the Mondriaan Fund.
Filmography
Lost on Arrival, (November 2020, 8’00”, short experimental documentary)
De Rit/The Ride, (November 2019, 12’14”, short experimental documentary)
Gaan om te Zijn/Go Move Be (2018, 9’50”, short experimental)
The Fortune (2018, 1’, short experimental)
A Collision of Sorts, 2017 (17’12”, second short experimental documentary)
Homestead II (2017, 1’ - short film, loop)
Once We Get There (2016, 49’50”, first mid-length documentary)
The Mailman’s Bag (2014, 60’, mid length experimental video (art work)
pi-boy (2013, 9’, first short experimental documentary)
What is done cannot be undone (2011, 6’05”, short experimental music film)
2009-2022 main projects and works
• Graaschoreografieën/Grazing Choreographies, project and book, hand drawn grazing patterns of cows (2021-ongoing)
• Watertekeningen/Water Drawings; drawings of streams, vortices and waves on watercolor paper (2022-ongoing)
• Het Geluid Vaart.The Sound Sails; sound art and podcast (Oerol 2020, 2021, 2022)
• Op Drift/Adrift; Installation, printed vehicle tires on watercolor paper (2021)
• 250 Miles Crossing Philadelphia; web art (2014)
• Fronting Motion; web art, ANPR camera and Vessel tracking based video (2014-2020)
• Urban Fruit – Street Wrapper; print on demand, hacked Google Streetview images as fruit wrappers (2013-2018)
• The Fisherman’s Handwriting on the Surface of the Sea; light drawings/panorama (2012)
• #Sandmapping, topographical performances in public space (2012 - ongoing)
•
• Souvenir Zeeland - the landscape as a place of work; sand drawings edition (2009)
• NomadicMilk (2008-2011)
• MILKproject (2004-2006)
• Amsterdam Realtime (2002)
Main residencies
De Ruimte, Deventer (BRUT, dEVENTer en Kunstenlab), 2025
Binnenlandatelier Mondriaanfonds, Drawing Centre Diepenheim, 2024
Buitenlandatelier Mondriaanfonds, IBB, Curaçao, 2021
From Bits To Paper, Straatsburg, FR, 2016
Percent for Art Program Philadelphia, 2014, 2015
Representation
- Galerie DudokDeGroot, Amsterdam
- Film distribution: EyeFilm, Amsterdam
- Film distribution: LIMA, Amsterdam
Collections
Work by PolakVanBekkum is part of the collection of the Amsterdam Museum, Eye Film Museum, Zentrum für Kunst und Medien
Karlsruhe, The Latvian National Museum of Art, City Archives Amsterdam, LUMC Leiden and various private collections.
Publications (selection)
- Graaschoreografieën, uitgeverij Müller, bilingual/tweetalig, 2021
- From Bits To Paper, edited by Filipe Pais, les presses du réel, July 2018
- Patterns that connect, Saskia Monshouwer, 2017
- Fascinerende schaduwen in een lege woestijn, Tracy Metz, NRC, 2015
- Een roadmovie door stemmige stills, Jan Pieter Ekker, Het Parool, 2015
- Walking and Mapping, Artists as cartographers, Karen O’Rourke, Leonardo book series, 2012
- Space Inscribed, Esther Polak and Ivar van Bekkum at HICA in conversation with Murdo Mcdonald – 2010
Education
Esther Polak studied at the Rijksakademie for visual Arts in Amsterdam and the KABK in Den Haag, NL
Ivar van Bekkum studied Journalism at the School for Journalism (HICO), Kampen/Zwolle, NL
Exhibitions, film screenings and presentations
2024
June Amsterdam Realtime Het Nieuwe Instituut Rotterdam
June Spookrijder (installation) Kunst van Hier to Ginder Overijssel
June/July Berichten uit het Platte vlak - solo tentoonstelling Kunstenlab Deventer
March Lost On Arrival IDFA documentaire paviljoen Amsterdam
January Lost On Arrival IFFR Rotterdam, NL
2023
October Walking The Machine Becoming Machine, Artsect Gallery London, UK
October Walking The Machine The Wrong Biennale ’23/‘24 Online/London
September Spiral Drawing Sunrise Amsterdam Art Weekend meets XR Amsterdam
September Fregata Magnificens Big Art Amsterdam
September Lost on Arrival Intermediaciones-Video art/Experimental film Medellin, Col
June Graaschoreografieën Galerie dudokdegroot Amsterdam
April Het Geluid Vaart STRP - frequencies Eindhoven, NL
March The Fortune Exodus, Bijbels Museum & Buitenplaats Online
Doornburgh
2022
November Het Geluid Vaart - Grote Knip Framework Radio Online
October The Fortune Miami New Media Festival, atelierWG Amsterdam
and Arts Connection Foundation
July-Sept Graaschoreografieën - versie IJsselstein Museum IJsselstein IJsselstein, NL
June The Ride What You See is What You Get, Filmhuis Den Haag, NL
June Het Geluid Vaart III Oerol Terschelling, NL
Mei Lost On Arrival Amsterdam Art @ EyeFilm - Harvest I Amsterdam
2021
Sept-Dec Residency IBB Curaçao (Mondriaan buitenlandatelier) Curaçao
December Lost On Arrival Bogoshorts, Colombia
November Lost On Arrival Braunschweig Film Festival, Germany
November Lost On Arrival dokumentART, Germany
Sept Lost On Arrival Reykjavik International Film Festival Iceland
Juni-sept Op Drift installatie IJssel-biënnale/Museum De Waag Deventer, NL
Juni Lost On Arrival Eye on Art/Eye Experimental Amsterdam, NL
Juni Het Geluid Vaart II Oerol Terschelling, NL
June Solo Expositie/book presentation gallerie dudokdegroot Amsterdam, NL
April Lost On Arrival 38th Busan International Short Film FestivalBusan, S. Korea
April Fronting Motion installatie on site Upstream gallerie Amsterdam, NL
March-June Lost on Arrival Berlinale Forum Expanded Berlin, DE
March The Ride Centre Culturel Suisse Paris, FR
Jan Mailman’s Bag "Shaping the Invisible World " Basel, CH
House of Electronic Arts
Jan The Fortune "Shaping the Invisible World " Basel, CH
House of Electronic Arts
Jan What’s the Story? | How To Move Close viewing with LIMA/Kriterion online, NL
2020
November Lost on Arrival IDFA, in competition short film Amsterdam, NL
November Graas Choreografieën Het MOW Bellingwolde, NL
November The Ride Seoul International New Media Festival Seoul, Z Korea
September Fronting Motion online Upstream Gallerie Amsterdam, NL
September Shadows Move Right Oude Kerk Amsterdam, NL
June Het Geluid Vaart Oerol Online, NL
Mei The Ride Oberhausen Short Film Festival Online, DE
Mei The Stream Nieuw Dakota/Corona Archives Online, NL
April Shadows Move Right Oude Kerk/Mr Motley Online, NL
April The Ride Visions du Réel, Nyon Online, CH
international competition (A+FF)
2019
Nov The Ride/De Rit IDFA Amsterdam, NL
Sept. Pendule BIG ART Zaanstad, NL
Sept. Daily Life at the Crossing Nieuwe Instituut Rotterdam, NL
Sept. The City as Performative Object ZKM Karlsruhe, DE
Sept. Gaan Om Te Zijn/Go Move Be VideoVortex 12 Malta
Sept. Gaan Om Te Zijn/Go Move Be Besides the Screen São Paulo, Brazil
Sept. Gaan Om Te Zijn/Go Move Be Unseen Festival Denver, USA
Apr A Collision of Sorts Iowa City International Doc. FF Iowa City, US
Jan. The Ride (solo - installation) De Oude Kerk Amsterdam, NL
2018
Sept. Gaan om te Zijn/Go Move Be Netherlands Film Festival Utrecht, NL
Juni. A Collision of Sorts Chicago Underground Film Festival Chicago, US
Jan. Nomadic Milk Grounding the Map | Mapping the Ground, Zone2Source Amsterdam, NL
jan-dec The Fortune traveling program of one minutes International
2017
Dec. You have two cows Kalmar Museum of Art Kalmar, Sw
Nov. 250MilesCrossing Philadelphia Abington Art Center Philadelphia, US
Nov Gaan om te zijn CBKZO Amsterdam, NL
March, Aug, Sept. A Collision of Sorts , NFF (in competition Gouden Kalf), Utrecht, NL/ NeMaf, Seoul/ Rencontres Internationales
Paris/Berlin
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