Luca-project proposal

Project Proposal

1 What do you want to make?

The work(s) I wish to make this year are two short videos. And If time allows me I’d also like to make a work of 3 miniature sculptures. All works talk about elements that make a person's identity/the story of how we are. I aim to focus on people and their search for identity. Who are we? Where do we belong? How malleable is our identity? I’d like to show that people never know or possess one identity but that it consists of many layers and different "characters' ' that we can discover and alternate in a playful way.

The works:

1 THIS IS US is a video in which you see a group of four people in five different scenes. Every scene shows how the group wants to be identified as a whole. “I belong therefore I am “. The style of the video is characterized by the four performers, wearing distinct coherent costumes in a minimal scenographic setting. THIS IS US has a non linear dramaturgie, and can be seen as a collage of moments.

2 In the short video LOOK A LIKE / LUC A LIKE, we see three different size screens. On each screen we see Luca being dressed up in a different costume. In every scene we see her looking different and she’s doing all kinds of small gestures, like reading a book or having a phone call, looking around, crying, laughing, wondering….ect. The video is somewhat like a catalogue of all kinds of characters Luca tries to embody. LOOK A LIKE / LUC A LIKE is an image based resurge into the different characters one person can embody. By doing so it's questioning if this one person acts or becomes all these different characters. “By imitating many others I may find a self “

3 Optional SMALL THINGS MATTER Is a series of three miniature sculptures. Every sculpture refers to something my mother ever did or said that had an impact on me.

2 How do you plan to make it?

For THIS IS US I’d like to study the books; In the Name of Identity: Violence and the Need to Belong by Amin Maalouf and Homo Ludens by Johan Huizinga. I’ve always wanted of read these books because they talk about themes I like working with. So it's time to not only think but learn what they really have to say. To be inspired in writing short scenes I'll reread the book True stories by Sophie Call and start reading The Collected Stories of Lydia Davis. I'll start writing short scenes myself with 4 characters in mind. Next to that I'll make drawings of the ‘dream sequences’ that will be complementary to these short scenes. I'll make a final visual and written script.

LOOK A LIKE/LUC A LIKE starts with collecting many images of people on the web. I thoroughly study the photography works of; Jo Spence, Phototherapy, Ana Mendieta Self portraits, Ari Versluis & Ellie Uyttenbroek Exactitudes, Cindy Sherman portraits, Gillian Wearing self-portraits. Erwin Wurm, one minute sculptures. Next to that I’ll look at the styling work of Ibrahim Kamara. I’ll reread the book; What Artists Wear by Charlie Porter and take a closer look at the videos; Manifesto by Julian Rosefeldt and Becoming by Candice Breitz. After being overloaded by these inspirations I'll make categories of the two elements most important in this video: characters and gestures. i'll decide which character does what gesture. And last but definitely not least, I collect material such as clothing, wigs and make up to work with.

Making SMALL THING MATTER consists of a long term writing exercise. In this exercise I try to write down everything I remember my mother saying and doing which had an impact on me. If I have enough memories I'll start making drawings of them. After making a selection of three works I’ll call my mother to set a date for the making process that i'll do together with her. To be inspired i'll look at the books; MOM by Charlie Engman and Rachel Monique By Sophie call. For the writing process I read: I Remember by Joe Brainard. And to visually be inspired I'll look at the sculptural works of; Rebecca horn.

4 Why do you want to make it?

I wish to make THIS IS US to further discover a (for me) form of dramaturgy. That means I want to look for a dramaturgy that offers me the ideal combination of abstract images and a narrative form. The video works that I have made so far are formalistic and visual, and I have a longing to add a narrative layer to it. I am fascinated by narrative structures that are non-linear and are not based on the direct action of a character, but on his or her psychological inner world. After all, the complicated inner world of man is not linear, but fragmented and contradictory. I want to deepen this by investigating the narrative structures of Roy Anderson and diving into the work of Federico Fellini. In the case of Anderson, because his story structure is characterized by a fragmentary approach and Fellini because he masterfully captured both reality and fantasy in his film language. In this way I would like to investigate the following question: in what way (technically and substantively) do Fellini's absurdist scenes enter into a dialogue with the realistic scenes? This can help me with my own video language, as I want to alternate realism and absurdism without the works losing their sense of unity. With the making of THIS IS US, I wish to develop a narrative structure that combines the concrete with artistic freedom, accessibility with innovation and intelligence with emotion. Because how do you create a story that is as clear as possible, while creating a lot of artistic freedom on a visual level? How do you ensure that the viewer does not experience an "anything goes" feeling? That the artistry of the video actually reinforces rather than hinders the story? Where do the suspension of disbelief and artistic wonder meet? I now imagine THIS IS US to have a dramaturgy in which tableaux vivants show the inner emotional world of the characters, in combination with realistic situations. In that sense, the video will play with the dividing line between realism and fantasy, the real world and the playing world, and between story in language and story in images.

I want to make LOOK A LIKE/LUC A LIKE to discover how many charters I myself dare to embody. And this work functions as a kind of medicine; I’m in a better mental state if I'm creating so it's good to have a smaller video project like this to keep me in motion. Staying in this state I believe will also help me with the creation of THIS IS US.

I want to make SMALL THINKS MATTER to cherish and show the impact small things can have. And with this work I hope to show how the things we remember may tell us something about how we are; not everyone remembers the same thing while having the same experience. And I want to work with my hands and do non computer work.

5 Who can help you and how?

The actors; Adina Macpherson, Tim Bogaerts and Willemien Slot can help me by playing with me in the THIS IS US video. I find them very talented, inspiring and they all possess a different way of acting which I believe can give an interesting acting style to the video. The filmmaker Marvin Beekhuijzen can help me with filming THIS IS US. My mother Beau Tichelman can help me with the making of the actual sculptures. She is very good at collecting materials and knows how to build everything.

6 Relation to previous practice & 7 Relation to a larger context

In 2018 I made THISISANDTHATISANDABITOFTHISANDALOTOFTHAT A short video in which you see a series of moving portraits of me. In every portrait, I look totally different but the narration always introduces me as the same person “this is me…..”

Last year I made THIS IS THEM a video in which you see Branda and Hilda, playing in a room. They play different characters and scenes. Every scene is introduced by the narrator, always starting with; “this is them…” the girls long for a big life worth living but are scared to go outside and live beyond their imagination. So they stay and try to create a vibrant life right there in that room.

And I made a work in a commission that existed out of three miniature sculptures:

These projects are in relation to topics such as how we as humans seek to connect with one another and therefore ourselves - The endless surge for how we are and what rol our family members play in defining that.

8 References/bibliography

Jo Spence phototherapy,

Ana Mendieta self portraits,

Ari Versluis and Ellie Uyttenbroek Exactitudes,

Cindy Sherman portraits,

Gillian Wearing self-portraits,

Erwin wurm one minute sculptures,

MOM Charlie Engman,

Rachel Monique By Sophie call,

I Remember by Joe Brainard,

Rebecca horn sculptures,

In the Name of Identity: Violence and the Need to Belong by Amin Maalouf,

Homo Ludens by Johan Huizinga,

true stories by Sophie call,

The Collected Stories of Lydia Davis,