Waan-zin-geving 2024 (EN)
Esther Frank
Waan-zin-geving 2024
How art, madness and meaning meet
06 June 2024 - 30 June 2024
Beautiful Distress is proud to present a new edition of Waan-zin-geving. Together with artists Coen van Rooij, Norbert de Jong and Raf de Wit, we explore how art can offer hope and meaning. This collaboration highlights resilience within mental health care. Beautiful Distress' mission is to use art to make mental vulnerabilities visible, tangible and thus discussable. We want to start the conversation with everyone about the dance between sense and madness and between strength and vulnerability.
The artists
The biographies underneath are written by writer Jeroen Verkroost. Read more of his work within the exhibition.
Norbert de Jong
Norbert de Jong's universe is inhabited by many wondrous creatures. From Paradijsvogels and Dubbelgezicht to psychedelic work like De verdwaalde Phoenix. He paints mostly happy and joyful scenes. Norbert: ‘I want to portray something beautiful, I want to portray something powerful, I also want to portray something that other people can enjoy.’
(IG & website)
Raf de Wit
Raf de Wit breathes art from all his pores. Anyone who happens to bump into him on the street knows immediately, this is a painter. An artist. A bohemian. He wears a black alpinopet askew on his head and his black long coat, hands and leather shoes are covered in multicoloured splotches of paint. He characterises his work as a ‘joyful and exuberant existence. He also wants the structure to show that there is more behind an opaque layer. Like Kandinsky's ‘a sound that arouses you in the image and gives you direction’.
(IG)
Coen van Rooij
Coen van Rooij has more with three-dimensional than two-dimensional art. ‘I think if you can walk around something, if continuously the image changes what you see, there is literally one more dimension, the third dimension. That makes more of an impact.’ ‘For me,’ says Coen, ‘art is a means of communication. What happens in my inner self I try to transform into metaphors. That metaphor comes to me more or less, that image is then usually quite clear.’
(IG & website)
program
Opening: Thursday 06 June, from 18.00 with music by jazz guitarist Durk Hijma
Rsvp here
Open Talk Club special Waan-zin-nig in de liefde with Suzanne Allegonda : Tuesday 18 June, 7.30 - 9.30 PM
Click here for more information (program in English/Dutch).
COLOFON
Artists: Norbert de Jong, Coen van Rooij, Raf de Wit
Initiator: Harry Doef
Curators: Esther Frank, Ezra van der Schaaf, Livia Spies
Special thanks to: Angele de Jong
Biographies: Jeroen Verkroost
With support from: Pascalle Blokker, Lenny Oldenburg, Dominic Mulder, Durk Hijma
This exhibition is made possible by: het Leger des Heils, perMens and de Regenboog Groep