About
Hans Christian van Nijkerk (b.1982, Amsterdam, the Netherlands) is a performance artist, visual artist and musician who lives in Stavanger, Norway. After a successful career as middle-distance runner and years of gaining stage experience through music performances, he studied at the Tromsø Academy of Contemporary Art.
In his performances, he inhabits a variety of stage personas ranging from energetic and charismatic motivational speakers to more introverted eccentrics. Both serious and playful, he toys with the audience. Voluntarily or involuntarily they become test subjects for his social experiments through their predictable or unpredictable reactions (or lack thereof), following or disobeying instructions and games. His more recent video works use elements of the documentary genre, while experimenting with storytelling, self-staging and sound.
Since 2015, Hans Christian has shown his work in 8 countries. He has organized performance art events and exhibitions as a member of Performance Art Bergen and BLOKK and has received grants from Arts Council Norway (2013 and 2018) and working grant from Billedkunstnernes Vederlagsfond (2016-2018).
In his performances, he inhabits a variety of stage personas ranging from energetic and charismatic motivational speakers to more introverted eccentrics. Both serious and playful, he toys with the audience. Voluntarily or involuntarily they become test subjects for his social experiments through their predictable or unpredictable reactions (or lack thereof), following or disobeying instructions and games. His more recent video works use elements of the documentary genre, while experimenting with storytelling, self-staging and sound.
Since 2015, Hans Christian has shown his work in 8 countries. He has organized performance art events and exhibitions as a member of Performance Art Bergen and BLOKK and has received grants from Arts Council Norway (2013 and 2018) and working grant from Billedkunstnernes Vederlagsfond (2016-2018).
Recent Works (2019)
Dinner Party!
Performance with Hiroko Tsuchimoto at Gallery Club in Podgorica, Montenegro.
Exhibition from December 12-31.
Organized by Centar Savremene Umjetnosti (The Contemporary Art Centre of Montenegro)
REW FFW / Reversible: Alcampo City
Performance at Alcampo City Hypermarket in Plaza Rio 2 in Madrid, Spain.
From the Reversible / REW FFW series.
Toastmaster
Excerpts from Hans Christian van Nijkerk's performance "Toastmaster" from the "Carbon Reflections" seminar of the 2019 edition of PAB OPEN at hotel Terminus in Bergen, Norway.
Dinner Party
-invisible theatre with Hiroko Tsuchimoto at Edge Gallery in Dhaka, Bangladesh.
Organized by Dhaka Live Art Biennale.
I Am Who I am, I Am What I Am, I Do What I Do
-duo performance with Hiroko Tsuchimoto at Curzon Hall in the University of Dhaka, Dhaka, Bangladesh: Organized by Dhaka Live Art Biennale.
This duo performance with Hiroko Tsuchimoto analyzed the impact of social media on human behavior and how it has created new ways of communication. We especially addressed the phenomenon of online self-presentation and social media bragging, and created playful conversations for the performances.
In the performance “I Am Who I am, I Am What I Am, I Do What I Do” in Dhaka, we invited audience members to Curzon Hall, the historically significant building for the Bengali Language Movement and had a scripted conversation assembled from social media quotes, which can be interpreted as another language invasion in the global context. After that, we divided the audience into pairs and assigned each pair to have a bragging conversation with their partner.
In the performance “I Am Who I am, I Am What I Am, I Do What I Do” in Dhaka, we invited audience members to Curzon Hall, the historically significant building for the Bengali Language Movement and had a scripted conversation assembled from social media quotes, which can be interpreted as another language invasion in the global context. After that, we divided the audience into pairs and assigned each pair to have a bragging conversation with their partner.
Contact Info
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Contact info: Hans Christian van Nijkerk
e-mail: kerk@kerkart.com Tlf: +47 924 46 715 Org. nr: 994978470 Studio Address: Misjonsveien 58A N-4024 Stavanger Norway Cover Photo: Acción!MAD |