Liesje van den Berk – visual artist – drawing and (drawing) performance
nederlandse versie

Research project : A line drawn together (working title)
I research the social dialogue of drawing: an interchange with other people and the environment through immersive nonverbal actions of drawing. I investigate the possibilities of intimate communication by drawing together in the public space. This research starts in April in DRAWinternational in the public space of a picturesque village, Caylus (FR) and evolves further in the city of Amsterdam (NL) with presentation in July 2019. My earlier projects such as Drawalks, I give you a line and Should I sharpen my pencil or soften my voice? will be the starting point for this research. Through my drawings, (drawing)performances I want to create a dialogue that will challenges the audience to new thoughts about their surroundings, the other and themselves. This research results in various site-specific interactive drawing performances and exhibitions in France and the Netherlands.

This project is supported by the AFK (Amsterdam Fund for the Arts)

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the people around me
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Artist Statement
My drawings and performances are actions and interventions in different cultural environments to create social dialogue between the individual, the communal and the surroundings. Through the sensory experiences of material and environment, I react to physical space and participate with the audience. I explore the relationship between a body and the traces it leaves on a surface, such as paper or a floor. The dust of found objects and graphite pencils mark memories of a temporary presence, an expression of identity in a site-specific place.
Drawing is the core of my work. Instead of pre-thought drawings that lead to controlled final results I create starting points and principles. I set up interactive situations and provide frameworks in which there is room for diversity and where I encourage non-verbal encounters between people with different cultural and social backgrounds. People are invited to join, a theatre maker, a dancer or a musician, a casual passer-by or the public from the performance. Traces and memories gradually emerge as reflections of the act.