Edmund Cook, Rachel Koolen, Kirsty Roberts
‘‘‘Eros/Asbestos’’’
Takes place at Het Veem Theater, Van Diemenstraat 410, Amsterdam
15 April 2012 8.30 – 9pm

Video by Alberto Gori, edited by Alberto Gori

Eros/Asbestos is a collaborative performance piece by Edmund Cook, Rachel Koolen and Kirsty Roberts. Dealing with the mechanics and production of pop culture, the 30-minute intimate performance piece has at its origins a sonic intervention over the remnants of a physical theatre play. The performance aims to address and reference the Pop Culture generation, starting from the iconic performances by Marlene Dietrich in The Blue Angel (1930) and Ruby Keeler in 42nd Street (1933).

More about EDMUND COOK, RACHEL KOOLEN, KIRSTY ROBERTS

EDMUND COOK

Edmund’s current research interest includes exploring how objects and bodies, remade from different social specificities, work inside or as an image, and how they can be dubbed with voices and sound, to be re-animated somewhere between self and other.

Edmund Cook (1984, United Kingdom) lives and works in Rotterdam. He is currently pursuing his M.A. Fine Art at Piet Zwart Institute, Rotterdam and completed his BA Fine Art at Leeds University in 2007. His recent and forthcoming exhibitions are No Direct Speech, Magic Bar, Rotterdam, The Netherlands (2012); Videohandel, Piet Zwart Institute, Rotterdam, the Netherlands and Slade School of Fine Art, London, UK (2012); and the Piet Zwart Graduation Exhibition, TENT Rotterdam, the Netherlands (2012).

RACHEL KOOLEN

Rachel’s practice is dedicated to the work of observation, experience and speculative interpretation in the media of video, sculpture and performance. Through these media she gives body to subjects that inhabit and struggle with a world seemingly driven by a media and market logic, especially the interfaces through which we interact with it. Her work often gets behind these surfaces to discover in the reflected light of the invisible-visible interfaces a materiality of that world, along with a keen emotionality.

Rachel Koolen (1979, The Netherlands) lives and works in Enschede. She received her M.A. Fine Art at Piet Zwart Institute in 2011 and was from 2007 to 2009 a fellow researcher at the Jan van Eyck Academie, Maastricht. Her recent and forthcoming exhibitions include Monumentalism, Stedelijk Museum, Amsterdam, the Netherlands (2010) and Magic Trade Love Objects, Art Fair Geneva, Switzerland (2012).

Rachel’s contribution to the production of Eros/Asbestos is made possible with the support of the Mondriaan Fund.


KIRSTY ROBERTS

Kirsty’s current research interests include exploring the possibilities of inhabiting a character such as her mother, a gardener or a renaissance warlord as a mental model for production. 

Kirsty Roberts (1985, United Kingdom) lives and works in Rotterdam. She is currently pursuing her M.A. Fine Art at Piet Zwart Institute, Rotterdam, and completed her BA in Fine Art at Chelsea College of Art and Design, London in 2008. Her recent and forthcoming exhibitions include Life will be Peaches and Cream baby, dream your dream, Piet Zwart Institute, Rotterdam, the Netherlands (2012) and Futurebananamour, Light Bar HotelMariaKapel, Hoorn, The Netherlands (2011).