Works | Frans van Lent

Neutral ground

Collaboration with Martine Viale,
Portbou (border), Catalunya,
12 October 2024

Carrying

Carrying a stone
down to the glass,
carrying a stone
up to the sky.

Browse

In many different places
I visited the same web page.

Origins

Today
I took a walk along a gravel path.
At regular intervals
I picked up small pebbles
and collected these in a bag.

A day

I walked westward from sunrise (05:19)

until the sun reached its highest position (13:42).

Stoel staan, Maumont, 2012

Tenerife, Spain 2010

Route de la Petite Forêt

in Northern and in Southern direction.
10 February 2024, 13:50 (CET)

A 7.4 km circular walk,
ascending and descending,
through woods, across fields,
over asphalt, through grass, dead leaves,
over gravel, through mud and puddles.
Maumont (F)
26 January 2024
Stereo sound file
01:17:40

Junction

Please watch the video full screen with sound on.

The camera moves along four paths at a junction in the forest near Hautefort, France.
At the same time, through a phone call A describes what they observe
as they simultaneously make the same movement at the intersection of two roads in Chicago
during the morning rush hour.

Points of view

The treetops in the forest,
downwards from above
and upwards from below.

Someplace else

Someplace Else is a durational walk for two performers in two very different places. Adrian Wood and Frans Van Lent take a walk in their respective cities - Chicago, IL and Rotterdam, the Netherlands – taking turns calling one another to report their surroundings. While one reports what they/he sees, hears and smells from standing still in their location, the other walks and listens. They trade off, creating a rhythm of phone calls that punctuate the durational 90 minute sound walk performance.

Sky between us

We were facing each other,
500 kilometres apart,
simultaneously filming the sky between us.

Intervalle

24 hours

14/15 June 2023

For 24 hours, I drove an improvised route,
with a 10-minute break every hour,
eventually arriving back at the starting point.
The total distance was 892 kilometres.

Twice

Llauro, France
May 2023

Click on the images to enlarge.

On the same day,
I took the same walk twice.

Reversed

Rotterdam-Maastricht-Rotterdam
6 June 2023

During a train journey,
I sat at a window.
I voiced what I saw outside,
and recorded it with a sound recorder.
On the return journey,
I sat in the opposite seat, wearing headphones
and as I looked outside,
I listened to the reversed audio file.

Focus

1 May 2023
I was looking at the lens of the camera.
And in doing so, I was also looking at myself,
still hidden in the future.

Original footage recorded in 1998
SD, no sound 9.55 min.

Au Grand Pont

La Têt 2: Rope

Perpignan (F)
10 May 2023
in collaboration with Martine Viale

Duet

La Puebla de Castro, Spain
14 May 2023

From the trees overhanging the path came the sound of a nightingale.
I recorded the sound with my phone and then played it loudly.
The nightingale responded and sang a duet with its own captured song.

Horizon

Pantà de Sau, Spain,
May 2023
photography

Slate and cork

Llauro, France
11 may 2023

Logs

I found a random composition of logs under a sawn-off tree
and accurately mirrored the arrangement.

Matter and mind

Bernina (CH)
April 5 2023.

Anchor

During a train journey from St. Moritz to Zermatt, across the Alps, I wrote continuously for eight hours.

The places we were  

On 24 July 2018, while walking in the Perigord, I had phone conversations with friends about the places we were at the moment: The places where we are (or would like to be). During these talks, we sent each other pictures of our surroundings.
For me, this occasion connected the conversations to the specific places; they became inextricably linked.
I cannot walk past these places now without thinking of the person I was talking to there, and of the conversation we had.

La Loue

Walking the river.
An audio portrait composed of sound recorded at a series of locations,
further and further downstream.

Places

Mingle 2

Hautefort, France.
1 January 2023

14:00 - 16:00

I called you. We didn’t speak.
Our phones were connected for 60 seconds, the speakers at full volume.
The sounds of our surroundings mingled, somewhere between us.

Journeys

Between Rotterdam and Breda
8 December 2022.The train ran from A to B in sixty minutes.
During that time, I walked from the back to the front of the train.

De Leegte

For about 20 minutes,
I stood motionless in three different spots in a room.

Speed

Between Düsseldorf and Munich
23 October 2022.
In a train,
running at high speed,
I moved as slowly as possible.

Streams

An hour of continuous writing*,
my feet in the water.

Tower

Same

As I woke up this morning,
at exactly the same time as yesterday,
I decided to try the day all over again:
same walk, same meal, same read.

Script of a walk (no breaks)

This walk took place on 16 September 2022,
over a distance of 8.4 km and lasted 126 minutes.

Sleeps

I invited friends
to make a ten minute long audio recording
of someone close sleeping.

In editing I superimposed the recordings
as layers into one combined file,
a document of collective intimacy.

Binoculars

On a walk in the forest, I stopped at an intersection.
I turned around and, looking through my binoculars,
I imagined myself walking on the path behind me a moment earlier.

Then I turned back again and, looking at the path in front of me,
I imagined myself walking there a moment later.

The Virtual Reality

I sit in front of a map and a notebook.
I look at the map and in my mind I follow a path I have walked many times before.

I imagine the walk in real time. I make notes of what I pass, of what I might see and of the directions I follow.
It takes 42 minutes, just as long as it takes me to actually walk the route.

In the light of the full moon

In the light of the full moon
I took a picture
of a stone and a little sand
on a piece of black cotton.
Maumont, July 13, 2022

La Têt

Perpignan (F)
18 June 2022
In collaboration with Martine Viale.
We stand motionless facing each other on both sides of the river, at the boundary of the water. Our spread arms confirm the direction from which the water comes and to which side it flows.

To Hiroomi

Click to enlarge

As a friendly gesture to Hiroomi Horiuchi,
I walked and recorded the first hour of the route
from my home in Maumont, Hautefort, France
to his home in Kichijōji, Musashino, Tokyo, Japan.

June 12, 2022

A chain

Click to enlarge

Hautefort, France
I drove my car to the castle and parked at the top of the hill.
I left the car, picked up a pebble (1) and walked down the hill. At the fork, I dropped the pebble and picked up a dandelion leaf (2).

Night-time

For three days, the studio was open to the public from 11:00 to 19:00.
This means the artworks were left alone sixteen hours a day .
With no one around, the works have no need to interact,
they are simply objects without meaning, like any other.

Mingling

In the morning I walked into the woods, carrying an audio recorder.
After a while, I stopped and listened to the sounds around me.
I pressed the record button.

Sunday

Crossfaded stereo sound recording
of the first 15 minutes of sunrise at 8:20 AM (left channel)
simultaneously with
the last 15 minutes to sunset until 17:57 AM (right channel).

45° 15′ 00″ N 1° 06′ 19″ E

I am here.
I call a friend and she answers the call.
Via a video connection I lead her through the scenery
and I describe in words what we are looking at.

My description structures the first few minutes of our conversation.
After that, our talk meanders naturally in all directions.

Merging spaces

in collaboration with Elia Torrecilla

Two simultaneous improvised sound walks in the streets of Valencia (Spain) and Badefols d'Ans (France).
Sounds were created through the improvised use of everything we encountered while walking.
The continuous exchange of the live sounds over the phone allowed for immediate feedback and reaction.

Both recordings were superimposed in the editing process,
and retained their own stereo structure,
making them part of a shared sound space.

Distances

Click on the photo to enlarge.

I am standing in a field in southwest France.
My phone is in front of me in the grass.
A is standing in a field in southeast Scotland,
with his phone to his ear.
Our phones are connected.

Spill

At the Río Segura I filled a glass with water, and I walked up the mountain.
I stopped at a spot from where I had a clear view at the valley and the river below.
With the glass in my hand, I bent down slowly and repeatedly,
synchronised with the rhythm of my breathing.
With each bending movement, water spilled from the glass onto the ground.
The work was finished when the glass was empty.

Empathic exercise

I walked beside the river,
adjusting constantly my steps to the speed of the current.

Upstream

Along the Segura,
I walked upstream
carrying two 5-litre containers of drinking water.

Blanca, Spain
10 November 2021
b/w-photo

Related to:
Up Stream (2016)

Stone and ball

From the street the artist throws a stone into the gallery,
from the gallery the curator throws a ball into the street.

Performed on 6 November, 2021
at FantastikLab, Valencia, Spain.
Curator: E.Torrecilla.

Memory Allocation

In the Parque De Las Cuevas (38° 10′ 36″ N 1° 22′ 06″ W) in Blanca, Spain, there is an empty semi-circle of sand measuring about 60 by 30 metres. At the outer edge of the semicircle are ten benches, arranged in groups of four, two, three and one. The benches face the centre of the space. Between and beside these groups of benches, there are five straight walkways, which are directed towards the centre like radials. The Rio Segura runs along the flat side of the semicircle.

Watching waters flow

while travelling in a southerly direction:

seven times ten minutes
standing in a frozen position
arms beside my body,
watching waters flow.

Blanca, Rio Segura

Route de Maumont

Participation to La Biennale de Momon.

Route de Maumont
For most of us, Maumont proved to be an impossible destination. We had to approach it by means of just our imagination. Knowing the village for so long, I created a walk to show the real Maumont from a distance in seven photo positions. As soon as we can travel again, we could walk this route to emphasize and celebrate the long unattainable heart of our project.

Download a pdf of the route in your language to use offline on your mobile:

Untitled (2021)

A Scene #32: Back and forth

30 October, 2021.
I am standing on a bridge over the Río Segura in Ojos (38° 08′ 58″ N 1° 20′ 22″ W), Spain.
At the same time, G. is standing on another bridge over the Río Segura, in Blanca (38° 10′ 46″ N 1° 22′ 41″ W), 7 km upstream. Our phones are on speakerphone and the volume is on maximum.

At 2.20 pm (CEST) I call G.
She picks up. We don’t speak a word, but keep the line open.
We point our phones down at the fast-flowing water under the bridges.
Ten minutes later, at 2.30 pm, we disconnect.

In collaboration with Giuli Grippo.

About Scenes:
On this website and on Facebook I announce small events that will take place at a certain location and at a certain moment in the near future.
Everybody is invited to be at the exact spot at the exact time to contribute to the scene with his/her own simultaneous activity (or inactivity).

A Scene #31: Both sides

October 9, 2021. 5 pm (CEST)  Calle Nueva de Blanca 23, Blanca, Murcia.
38° 10.7269′ N, 01° 22.5945′ W

I am sitting on a chair on a terrace. On the table in front is a glass of beer. Opposite me, at the other side of the street, is a wall to which a galvanised drainpipe is attached. The wall is plastered in a dark brown colour to about 1.20 metres high. Above that, the wall is pink. The pavement in front of the wall consists of grey tiles, stained and dirty.

Yesterday I was standing there, in front of that pipe, from 5:00 pm until at least 5:05 pm.
I was wearing sunglasses, a black short-sleeved shirt, grey shorts and black sandals. In my left hand I had a notebook. I was looking at a plastic chair, behind a rattan table. I imagined myself sitting there today. I had no idea what I would be wearing and what drink I would have in front of me.
That is what I remember.

About Scenes:
On this website and on Facebook I announce small events that will take place at a certain location and at a certain moment in the near future.
Everybody is invited to be at the exact spot at the exact time to contribute to the scene with his/her own simultaneous activity (or inactivity).

A Scene #30: A street where nobody speaks

On Friday, August 20, between 1 p.m. and 5 p.m., users of the Neißstraße (between Weberstraße and Uferstraße) in Görlitz (D), were personally addressed, and asked not to speak or to make any other noise. Small cards were handed out with the following texts:.

“Liebe FuBgängerin, lieber FuBgänger,
Heute, am 20. August, ist diese StraBe ein Ort der Stille. Bitte tragen Sie dazu bei, indem Sie während
lhren Spaziergang nicht sprechen oder Lärm machen. Wir danken lhnen herzlich für 1hr Engagement.”
–
“Drogi przechodniu,
Dziś, 20 sierpnia, ulica ta jest miejscem ciszy. Prosimy o nie rozmawianie i nie halasowanie podczas spaceru. Dziękujemy za Państwa zaangażowanie.”

A Scene #30 was part of STRE!FEN performance festival

A Scene #29: The real world

On Saturday, March 13, 2021 at 2:20 PM (UTC + 1) I stood in front of the door of a house,
Grotekerksbuurt 36, in Dordrecht, the Netherlands (lat: 51.813892, long: 4.66324, alt: 0).
On the door was a poster, showing the exact location, date and time.
I stayed there until the time ran out.

A Scene #28: A parallel improvisation

in collaboration with Steef van Lent
On Saturday January 9, in the afternoon, we drove through the city of Rotterdam.
S drove his car in the northern part of the city, while I drove in the southern part of the city.
At exactly 2:20 pm I called S on the hands-free phone. During our call, we both spoke out loud the names of the streets we were driving through. The conversation took 25 minutes and was recorded.
Later I drew the routes on the satellite photo of Rotterdam. I connected the mentioned streets on either side of the river.

Nycthemeron

installation

Nycthemeron shows the course of a rowboat through the canal around Fort Maarsseveen.
In 24 consecutive hours, 24 fragments of the tour were rowed and captured on video.
The accumuluated time is 10’24 minutes, which is the time it takes
to row around the fortress in one continuous run.
The video was played in an endless loop.
Nycthemeron is a one-screen installation,
presented at Fort Maarsseveen during the Waterdicht-project (July 3 - September 26, 2021).

Video of the work: Nycthemeron
In this online presentation, the video is playing 3 times in a row (31'11 min. )
camera: Steef van Lent

Nycthemeron is related to:
L’espace vingt-quatre heures (2020) and
24 hours (2023).

Horizon

photographic print

Text line:
After taking this picture, I went to where the horizon touches the right-hand side of this work.
From there I walked to the left, to where the horizon touches the left-hand side.
Walking this line took 19 minutes and 24 seconds.

Leave

Leave was a performance, ending in a series of photographs.

During a walk, in private and public space, I focussed on leaving places.

I avoided experiencing my movements as arriving at a place.

Camera

for an hour
I walked with my camera
its size is 10 x 14 x 15 cm
its weight is 1.021 gr
I carried it in my hand.

Shared darkness

In collaboration with Manuela Macco

15 minutes
We are standing
motionless
at different locations
in shared darkness.

Biella, IT. - Dordrecht, NL.

After two try-outs (1 December, 4 January),
we carry out the work every first night of six consecutive months,
from 12:00 a.m. till 12:15 a.m. (USC+1), starting March 1, 2021.

What is left

Walk a straight line of 100 steps,
walk 90 steps in the opposite direction,
reflect on what is left.

Staan

an ongoing series of exercises

On a balcony in Recklinghausen (photo Ton Kraayeveld)

1. For 15 minutes I stood on a balcony at the first floor of a hotel in Recklinghausen, Germany. My face toward the East, my arms beside my body.

L'espace vingt-quatre heures

I walked around the village 24 times in 24 successive hours.
I captured all walks on video.
I merged 24 fragments, 1 fragment of every walk,
into one combined video.

Skinless

I measure my body temperature.
I wait until the outside thermometer shows about the same value.
I find a wind-free spot in the shade and imagine my body is skinless.

A Scene #27: Private, dark mode

On Saturday 12 December at 02:00 (UTC+1) I was standing motionless at the window of my living room (51.8137612 N, 4.671336 E) for 15 minutes, and looked into the nocturnal street. My face to the South, my arms beside my body.

A Scene #26: Private

On Saturday, October 31, 2020 at 2 p.m.,
I was standing in the backyard of my house for 15 minutes, with my eyes closed, my arms beside my body. Because the frontdoor was closed, it was not possible to join the scene on location. The event was documented live on video and presented in realtime on the facebook event-page.

A Scene #25: Time, Rate, Distance

On Monday 28 September 2020 at 2:28 PM (CEST) I was standing outside my studio (51.8085854, 4.6706976), with my back to the front door.
I set the timer on my phone at 2:44 PM.
I checked the compass which direction I am facing.
At exactly 2.30 pm I started to move forward. I walked round blocks when necessary, to get as far as possible in the direction I was facing.
When the alarm on my phone went off at 2:44 PM, I stopped moving for two minutes.
At exactly 2:46 PM I turned 180 ° and walked back the same route at the same speed.
At 3 PM I arrived at the starting point and entered the building.

This work was performed simultaneously by approximately 40 people at different locations in the Netherlands.

A Scene #24: Leave the Place

On Saturday July 4 2020 at 2 p.m. (CEST) I was standing in front of the bronze doors of Blaak 10, Rotterdam (5155.1223,N, 00429.3217,E).
At exactly 2.20 pm I walked towards the train station (Blaak), descended the stairs, went to platform 3 and took the first train in southern direction.

A Scene #23: Acceleration

Acceleration is the rate of change of the velocity of an object with respect to time.

Saturday June 27.
I was standing at Hofplein, Rotterdam (5155.4866 N, 00428.6858 E), facing Coolsingel.
At 2:00 (CEST) I walked in the direction of Beurs metro station, where I earlier parked my bicycle. I took my bike and cycled on in the same direction, Schiedamse Dijk. I passed Erasmus bridge, Wilhelmina square and stopped at Kop van Zuid, where I earlier parked my car. I put my bicycle in the boot, got in the car and continued my way in the same direction.
About A Scene #23: Acceleration

A Scene #22: Call

On Saturday 23 May 2020 at 2:20 PM (CEST), I stood in the middle of the food market at Statenplein, Dordrecht, the Netherlands (5148.8870 N, 00440.1692 E).
I looked around until I recognised someone, and while I was looking at this person I grabbed my phone and called him to ask how things are. After a while, I made clear that I was within visual distance, stopped the conversation and raised my arm to say goodbye. I left the market.

A Scene #21: Up and Down

On Saturday, April 11 2020, from 2:00 till 2:30 PM (CEST) I was pacing up and down between the iron gate and the front door of the studio building Singel 222, Dordrecht (51.8085854, 4.6706976).
Please, keep your distance!

A Scene #20: Ocean

On Tuesday, February 18, 2020 at 2:20 PM (CET) I was standing in the aisle of a flying Boeing 767-300 between the Netherlands and Iceland. With my eyes closed, my arms beside my body, I was for 15 minutes contemplating the enormity of the ocean below.

In memory of Antoinette Reuten.

A Scene #19: Doubts

On Saturday, January 18, 2020 at 2:20 PM (CEST) I was in the middle of a field at Ons Park, Feijenoordstraat, 3071 LN Rotterdam, (51 ° 54’53.5 “N 4 ° 29’50.4” E).
I considered the direction where I came from and I considered and reconsidered where to go from there.
When I made a decision, I left in the chosen direction.

3 Nocturnal walks

Three recordings of public silent walks:

On July 22, 2020, from 4:30 till 5:30 AM, I made a silent walk in the city of Dordrecht.
I named the audio recording after Adri, with whom I made my very first silent night walk 50 years ago.
The audio recording is an unedited realtime track.

West wind

I am standing on a windy beach in Hook of Holland, Netherlands.
By text message I contact a friend who is walking in Bond street, Brooklyn, NYC.
I ask him to turn up the volume of his phone as loud as possible. I then call him.
We don’t speak a word but we let the buffeting wind noise of my phone
sound through that street on the other side of the ocean.

Thanks to Ed Woodham.

Silences

I invited twenty artists to make a ten minutes long audio recording of Silence.
Each one of them decided where, how and in what conditions they wanted to do this.
I superimposed all submitted recordings as layers into one combined file.

¿Cuánto es 1km?

This day, May 2, 2020, the first day after a 40-day Corona-quarantine, residents of Spain will be allowed to go out for sporting or hiking on fixed time slots. This is only permitted within a radius of one km from home.
The Spanish government opened a website (https://1km.geomatico.es) where residents can find exactly what this means concerning their own situation.
On this website I discovered where a comparable circle would reach, starting from my home in the Netherlands, in case our government applied the same rules.
Elia Torrecilla and I agreed to take a parallel walk.

Call III

Some time ago I published an open invitation to call me on Friday, May 1, between 1 PM and 2 PM (CEST).
That first day in May I walked in a rural area in the southwest of the Netherlands.
When the phone rang I did not answer the call. Instead I took a picture of what I was looking at on that moment.
I then sent that picture to the number that appeared on my phone. I sent 48 photos.

Level

Two 30 minute digital audio recordings of the North Sea,
made simultaneously (16:00 UTC, 23.04.2020)
on the East coast of Scotland, (56° N.);
and on the West coast of the Netherlands (52° N.).
Synchronised and mixed together into one stereo file.

A Chair as Any Other

performed at the
WHAT REMAINS festival
February 22, 2020
DfbrL8r, ARC Gallery,
Chicago, IL

For nine years the red folding chair was a defining object in the DfbrL8r-archives.
In those years the chair was used in at least five performances of different artists.
I decided to find it a new home, to take it away from the spotlights
and to bring it to a place where it could lose its artistic background
and become the mundane object it was meant to be.

In the performance I read a text explaining the process and results.

Vierkant

At the start of the performance, the attendees are asked not to take any photos or videos.

A square of 200 cm by 200 cm is plotted on the wall with masking tape. The enclosed space is then painted with the same whitewash the walls were previously painted with. When the painting is finished, the masking tape is removed and the floor is cleaned of any spilled paint.
It is still possible to distinguish the square, but as the paint dries, the square will fade and merge with its surroundings.
The attendees leave when all traces have disappeared.

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.

An exercise in symmetry

with Elia Torrecilla

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 listened for 30 minutes, synchronised our rhythms.

Pain location

Maumont, 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.

De Nacht

Pictura
Voorstraat 190, Dordrecht (NL)
September 14 - October 20, 2019

The performance De Nacht (The Night) is not an imagination of the night, it is the night itself. The group exhibition De Salon in Pictura was visited at midnight, in darkness. The exhibited art lost its stories, turned into silent dark objects, into silhouettes.

The front door was opened every Sunday night at exactly 00:00. Whoever was waiting outside was invited to come in. The door then closed again.
The exhibition was visited in silence.

The walk I did not walk

Today I walked in the field.
After every ten steps I turned around and took a picture.

When I returned to my studio, I reversed the order of the pictures.

Please don’t touch! I’ll come and fix it as soon as possible

MÊKH-WEB
Quartair Contemporary Art Initiatives
Toussaintkade 55, Den Haag (NL)
20 September-11 October, 2019

A Myopic Street View

a collective visual research project for 3 to 15 participants.

Synchronize

Hof (start), Dordrecht, Netherlands
1 September, 2019 ~

The work Synchronize consists of a walking route and an mp3 file.
While walking the route you need to wear headphones or earphones to listen to the mp3. Follow the walk as carried out earlier, and synchronize with the sound of the walking feet.

A Scene #18: Facing

On Thursday October 24, 2019 at 10:00 (CEST) I was standing on the jetty at Fondamenta de le Zattere ai Gesuati, Venice, Italy (N45.42914814482034 W12.326794266700745), waiting for the first boat to bring me to the other side of the water: Giudecca Palanca (N45.42678386442304 W12.325501441955568). While waiting I was facing the jetty at the opposite side.
Once on the boat I was standing at starboard and I looked out over the waters in north-western direction.
When the boat moored at Giudecca Palanca I left the boat but I stayed on the jetty, waiting for the first boat to bring me back to Zattere. While waiting I was facing the jetty at the opposite side.
Back on the boat I was standing at starboard, looking out over the waters in south-eastern direction.
At Zattere I left the boat and walk away.