Joya: AiR / Claudia den Boer / Netherlands

photo Simon Beckmann

“The light, the light, the light…

“Everything is always in the process of becoming and perishing and never really is” 

– Plato’s Timaeus, John Bowker, God - A Very Short Introduction, p17

At Joya: AIR the days seem to stretch themselves out, from one into the other.

I enjoyed the seclusion of the house in the open hills and mountains, quiet and very lively at the same time. I was surprised to learn the landscape is a desert, while yet so green, beautiful, but not an easy landscape for me to photograph. Within my project When Is A Mountain, I was looking for something particular and this wasn’t within my grasp. A challenge. But the landscape always gives something, so I embraced it as it is while making photographs and video’s of parts of hills and mountains, with the stillness of the softly moving ‘moody trees’. 

Besides the environment, Joya: AIR was perfect for me to work on another part of the same project. In the ever-blazing sun I could make my little studio outside and - with the elements of the landscape - make landscape type images of stones I brought with me from previous travels. Joya AIR was also perfect to experiment with making sequences, to take the time to photograph the movement of light and shadow on the mountains and stones during the course of a day.

Simon and Donna’s house is gorgeous, everything made with great attention, passion and consideration. They’re very welcoming and my fellow artists were great. We had good talks and laughs and interesting presentations. A joyful experience! And every day I saw the sun rise from my bedroom window and enjoyed the sunsets; both gorgeous and never really the same”.

Claudia den Boer (NL)

27/08/2019

Claudia den Boer (NL, 1979) studied visual arts and got her BA in photography at art academy AKV| St.Joost and holds a teachers degree from art academy ABV. Her first long-term personal project Anchors (2016) was made into a photo book, designed by Rob van Hoesel and published by The Eriskay Connection. It was presented at Breda Photo 2016 and was part of the Experimental Book Platform by Punto de Fuga during Paris Photo 2016. In 2017 her work was selected for the collection of FotoFilmic/PULP Gallery in Vancouver (CA). The book has been exhibited at photofestival Naarden (NL), Athens Photo Festival (GR), I Book Show in Brighton (UK) and in St.Petersburg (RU). Claudia participated in two desert AIR-programs; the New Mexican desert (US, 2013) and the Sahara (MA, 2015) and was selected to take part in ISSP (LV) in 2016. Claudia received a partial grand in 2017 for a working period at International Art Residency Can Serrat (ES) where she started working on her new personal project ‘When is a mountain’ and in 2018 travelled to the Georgian Caucasus for this work in progress.

Claudia also likes to collaborate in multi disciplinary projects. In the past she worked with architectural firm Ontwerplab (NL) on research project and publication Verborgen Stad (Hidden City). In 2016 she started collaborating with choreographer Katja Grässli (CH/NL) and became artistic partner of Foundation MoveToMeet. MoveToMeet was funded by Makersfonds (2017), P.B. Cultuurfonds (2017 and 2018) and Impulsgelden (2018) and are working on two long-term projects: project Stil Geluid (Silent Sound) on the subject of silence and intercultural project and collaboration with dancers Beh Chin Lau (MY) and Natalie Wagner (CH/DE) and cultural philosopher Marc Colpaert (BE) titled Cataract. In both of these projects she expands her photography to the space of the decor of the dance performances.