The videowork Grid (2010)
is part of
Van der Helstplein Videobiennale
24/7 present at a display window
of the Van der Helst Plein, Amsterdam
December 13, 2019 – March 13, 2020.
Author Archives: Frans
Two sides of a door
On either side of a closed door, two people hold the handle. They do not move the handle, just hold.
After a certain time one of the two pushes down the handle and opens the door.
The second steps aside and makes way. Continue reading
WHAT REMAINS
on the sacred, the lost, and the forgotten relics of live art
curated by ieke Trinks
February 2020
Defibrillator Gallery
ARC Gallery, 1463 W Chicago Avenue, Chicago, IL 60642
La Biennale de Momon
July – November 2020
www.labiennaledemomon.org
Cooperative project with: Sarah Boulton (GB), Marc Buchy (FR/BE), Joan Heemskerk (NL), Frans van Lent (NL), Susana Mendes Silva (PT), Josh Schwebel (DE/CA), Lisa Skuret (US/GB), Elia Torrecilla (ES).
Maumont is a small village in the Perigord in France. It consists of 15 houses, around 30 inhabitants and there is no church, shop, café or other public facility. Only a few original residents are still living in the village; most of them died over the years, others left to live elsewhere. Today many inhabitants are pensioners coming from other (Western European) countries. Twenty years ago you could still smell the farms everywhere. Herds of cows and sheep were led through the village every day. Nowadays you mainly see quads, mountain bikes and parents, leading their children on donkeys.
The village has changed from a place where everything was related to soil, work, growth and the seasons, to a place where the inhabitants mainly stroll, relax and dream. Continue reading
An exercise in symmetry
We were both walking in unspecified areas.
We called each other and we kept our phones close to our ears.
We did not speak but listen for 30 minutes, synchronise our rhythms.
With Elia Torrecilla,
12:00-12:30 PM (CET), December 5, 2019
The Second Night of Experimental Boredom
222lodge, Singel 222, 3311 KV Dordrecht (NL)
January 17, 2020
The Second Night of Experimental Boredom is not about boring art.
It is about boredom as a subject for art, boredom as a first step in the creative process.
The program includes works by:
Martin Adolfsson, Katina Bitsicas, Greig Burgoyne, Robert Ladislas Derr, Jessica van Deursen, Bartolomé Ferrando, Natalie Fyfe, Peter Horneland, Maarten Janssen, Stefan Klein, Frans van Lent, Boris Marinin, Almudena Millán, Vinny Montag, Marnik Neven, Nico Parlevliet, Lucia Peiró, Liz Rodda, Pepe Romero, Ron Sluik, Topp&Dubio, Elia Torrecilla, ieke Trinks, Casper van der Veen and Vonk.
The Second Night of Experimental Boredom is an initiative of Unnoticed Art and 222lodge.
© Greig Burgoyne
No problem, maybe another time.
Please, feel welcome to visit this site again!
Frans van Lent
Thanks for your support!
If you sent me your address, I will send you a signed and numbered surprise!
If not, please fill in the contact form.
Frans van Lent
Pain location (exercise)
Momon, July 2019
Thirty days in a row I walk the same route through the village.
Every time I approach one specific location, I try to imagine a headache.
After passing that location, the headache should fade away. Continue reading
Please contribute to my projects. Every donation will be appreciated and will be rewarded with a small, signed and numbered surprise sent to your home address. Current donations will be used for the new project I am developing:
La Biennale de Momon
This project will take place in July 2020.
Maumont is a small village in the Perigord in France. It consists of 15 houses, around 30 inhabitants and there is no church, shop, café or other public facility. Only a few original residents are still living in the village, most of them died over the years, others left to live elsewhere. Today most inhabitants are pensioners coming from other (Western European) countries. Twenty years ago you could still smell the farms everywhere. Herds of cows and sheep were led through the village every day. Nowadays you mainly see quads, mountain bikes and parents, leading their children on donkeys. The village has changed from a place where everything was related to soil, work, growth and the seasons, to a place where the inhabitants mainly stroll, relax and dream.
Momon is the old (Occitan) name of the village, no longer in use since the French name ‘Maumont’ was chosen. For me, the name Momon is the village as it exists in the mind. It is no longer physically linked to the location, but it is linked to memories, coloured by nostalgia.
On the other hand the place is still what it always has been: earth remains earth and stone remains stone. The Biennale de Momon starts from there but the physical village will only be used as a starting point. Not by changing anything but, on the contrary, by keeping it the way it is, by maintaining continuity. The project is about the thin line between two sides of reality, mass and energy: air touches the earth, the sun moves over the land. Objects are illuminated, heated and perceived but not changed.
On the other hand the place is still what it always has been: earth remains earth and stone remains stone. The Biennale de Momon starts from there but the physical village will only be used as a starting point. Not by changing anything but, on the contrary, by keeping it the way it is, by maintaining continuity. The project is about the thin line between two sides of reality, mass and energy: air touches the earth, the sun moves over the land. Objects are illuminated, heated and perceived but not changed.
The project might consist of texts, scores, routes, images and sounds, everything that can live online without actually touching the physical ground. In the village there will be no objects that refer to the project, apart from a sign with the web address. La Biennale de Momon will be approachable online only. Of course you can choose to visit the actual village (phone in the hand), but without expecting to see something different than what it always was, a small village in the Perigord.
For this occasion I have invited seven artists with different artistic approaches, but with a certain preference of creating work without a material body, without physical traces. Their names will be published soon.
Already for 28 years we own a small house in the village; we witnessed a lot of changes and we were of course also part of those changes. We offer the participating artists the opportunity to use the house for a week in the first half of 2020, to get acquainted with the environment, the village, the residents.
In July, as a vernissage, we will invite all inhabitants of the village, to have a meal in our house, while we present them the (online) works of La Biennale de Momon. They know the area very well, so through them the artist’s contributions will be confronted with the physical reality of the village.
In July, as a vernissage, we will invite all inhabitants of the village, to have a meal in our house, while we present them the (online) works of La Biennale de Momon. They know the area very well, so through them the artist’s contributions will be confronted with the physical reality of the village.
For that specific occasion we decided not to invite the artists, to prevent the focus to move away too much from the actual village to their artistic representation.
Some time after the summer we plan to organise a small public conference in the Kunstmin theater in Dordrecht, the Netherlands. This conference will also be called La Biennale de Momon. We will invite all participating artists to this occasion, to meet each other and to talk about their work. Also we intend to invite some other professionals with a possible relation to the subject. I am thinking about actors, writers, journalists, scientists.
Please visit biennaledemomon.org for updates.
Some time after the summer we plan to organise a small public conference in the Kunstmin theater in Dordrecht, the Netherlands. This conference will also be called La Biennale de Momon. We will invite all participating artists to this occasion, to meet each other and to talk about their work. Also we intend to invite some other professionals with a possible relation to the subject. I am thinking about actors, writers, journalists, scientists.
Please visit biennaledemomon.org for updates.