In September 2021, I travelled by car to an art residency in Spain. I realised that for me, this journey was not just a necessary displacement, but took on meaning in itself. In a fortnight I drove, meandering, from Dordrecht (NL) to Murcia.
Along the way, I looked for running water. That search determined my route: driving along waters, the sea, streams and rivers. Facing all that water, I stood for some time, motionless, watching the flow: https://fransvanlent.nl/watchingwatersflow/.

In Spain, I was artist-in-residence at the AADK/Spain, a centre for artistic research in Blanca (Murcia). Two months later, I left Blanca again and drove to France. There I continued working and it felt like a seamless continuation of that working period in Spain. In France, I did not stay in an art residency but in my own house.
I realised that for me, a residency is more a state of mind than a specific geographical location. I decided to make a journey, considering ‘the movement in itself’ as a residency. The starting point was clear; the end would be nothing more than the termination of a process.

De Reis (The journey) was not intended as a metaphor of a work, but it was a work in itself, a composition in time and space. There was no clear geographical goal, there was only the intention to be on the way.
As part of this project, I made impromptu walks, car trips and train journeys in 2022/2023: https://fransvanlent.nl/journey/
In a groupshow (De Salon) at Pictura in 2022, my video installation Untitled (2021) (https://fransvanlent.nl/untitled-2/) was awarded the Pictura Prijs 2022. It is a work that had been created in Blanca during my stay in 2021.
An important aspect of the Pictura Prijs is an exhibition in all spaces of Pictura, to be filled as wished. My exhibition is scheduled from 11 May to 16 June 2024.

De Verplaatsing (the Relocation):
As a follow-up to the project De Reis, the exhibition will be named and themed De Verplaatsing.
The exhibition (in all exhibition spaces) will include text works, photographic, sound- and video works from the project De Reis. My main aim in the exhibition is to make the concept of relocation a conceptual and performative starting point: The exhibition has no fixed form; it will be rearranged by me each new week with basically the same works. As an investigation of form and meaning, just as within a sentence a different order of words can create a different meaning. I want to explore how the movement of works within an exhibition space creates shifts in content.

Five week residency
I will be present in the art space myself throughout the exhibition period. I see the exhibition as a residency, as one continuous performance. I will make works on site, welcome visitors, explain them something about the presentation if I sense their need, serve a cup of coffee, and be open to anything else that comes up. There will be no usher or other staff besides me.

Five guests
Simultaneously, for a separate room of the exhibition space (Derde Zaal), I invited another artist for each of the five exhibition weeks. I have asked them to use the journey from their hometown to Pictura as a starting point for a new work. The journey may result in work within any discipline, in any form they choose. All artists I invited have an art practice that, I believe, resonates with the theme in its own way. I have worked with each of them in previous projects.