Sophie Kahn | Lisa Parra | Body-Traces

Sophie Kahn | Lisa Parra | Body-Traces | Warmenhoven & Venderbos blog

Sophie Kahn | Lisa Parra | Body-Traces | Warmenhoven & Venderbos blog

The above video shows an interesting collaboration between Lisa Parra and Sophie Kahn which carries the title: Body/Traces.

Parra created the choreography on video and send this “plan” to artist Sophie Kahn who re-enacted the choreography and translated the movement into “stop motion” or “stills” created with a 3D scanner, After that she reconstructed these stills again into an animation. Body/Traces is a video installation that examines the body and representation through the interaction of three dimensional media, movement, sound and environment, constructing a dialogue between the language of movement and perception. The installation is an imperfect document of the traces left by the dancer’s body in space; an abstracted record of the motion of the body at a specific point in time.

Composer Sawako Kato created a sound score by recording field sounds of the EMPAC building and moving bodies within the space, focusing on the interaction between bodies in motion and the environment. The final audio is a collage that weaves industrial/spatial sounds together with sounds of the moving body.

Sophie Kahn | Lisa Parra | Body-Traces | Warmenhoven & Venderbos blog

Sophie Kahn | Lisa Parra | Body-Traces | Warmenhoven & Venderbos blog

Video and screenshots by Sophie Kahn, Lisa Parra | Lisa Parra website | Sophie Kahn website |

Grimes | Live at work

Grimes | Live at work | Music performance on KEXP | Warmenhoven & Venderbos blog

Grimes | Live at work | Music performance on KEXP | Warmenhoven & Venderbos blog

The above video shows live performance of Canadian artist Grimes ( Claire Boucher ) on Kexp.
It is fascinating to see her live at work, directing her electronic tools and adding just another live voice layer to the music while she sits on the floor.
Grimes turns the Kexp studio into a kind of “teenage room” with a homely atmosphere and isn’t afraid to show vulnerability or make mistakes.
Her music does remind us of the “ethereal” dream pop genre but goes beyond that. Grimes uses an eclectic mix of styles and experiments with elements such as loops and layering techniques in an industrial way. The result is a unique musical statement.

Grimes | Live at work | Music performance on KEXP | Warmenhoven & Venderbos blog

Grimes | Live at work | Music performance on KEXP | Warmenhoven & Venderbos blog

Video by KEXP | screenshots by W&V | Grimes website |

Jesper Norda | The centre of silence

Warmenhoven & Venderbos | Jesper Norda | The centre of silence | conceptual art

We recently stumbled upon this fascinating conceptual art installation by Jesper Norda. At first glance it would be a perfect, silent and serene place to project random thoughts into. It could be related to minimal art pieces where the light plays an important role in transformation and meaning or it could be a totally boring and uninteresting place which perhaps is completely unnoticed by the audience. But the voice of a man starts describing the space and some of the things which go on in it at the very same moment the viewer looks at it or stands in it. The man projects the scientific reality onto the space. He describes the rooms dimensions and moves on to the amount of air molecules, the weight of the air,how the air molecules behave differently when exposed to different kind of sound waves.The space is suddenly not so empty anymore. It fills with violent movement and vibration, the invisible reality reveals itself and influences the thoughts of the viewers/listeners. The voice of the man goes on about the intense air pressure in the room and the intense air pressure in the cranium of the listener and the balance between those two spaces: the state we call silence.

Warmenhoven & Venderbos | Jesper Norda | The centre of silence | conceptual art

The centre of silence
Kalmar Konstmuseum,Sweden, 2009
Curated by Bengt Olof Johansson.

Voice (interleaved by silence, sinus-wave and white noise). White filter on window.

Video and photos by Jesper Norda | Jesper Norda website |

Christoph Draeger | Schizo

Christoph Draeger | Schizo (Redux) | Warmenhoven & Venderbos blog

Conceptual artist Christoph Draegers projects take form in installation, video, and photo-based media to explore issues pertaining to disaster and media-saturated culture. The video posted below caught our eye and intrigued us. In this film from 2004 Draeger layers the remake of “Psycho” by Gus Van Sant over the original version by Alfred Hitchcock. Anthony Perkins and Janet Leigh overlap with Vince Vaugn and Anne Heche. They interact, melt and merge with each other and the viewer gets lead into new and previously unexplored layers of content and meaning. The  22 minute video fragment shows at the end one of the most iconic scenes of Pshycho and maybe also in Schizo? We are not yet sure about this last thing and have to watch it a couple of times more.

Draeger about this work: ”The film superimposes one film over the other digitally, thus creating a double vision: the “Psychos” become “Schizo”. It looks like one of those 3-D movies only that there are no glasses to reconstruct the image — it remains schizophrenic.”

Christoph Draeger | Schizo (Redux) | Warmenhoven & Venderbos blog

Christoph Draeger | Schizo (Redux) | Warmenhoven & Venderbos blog

Christoph Draeger | Schizo (Redux) | Warmenhoven & Venderbos blog

Schizo (Redux) 2004
VHS to DVD, 89 min, Ed of 5

Schizo installation:
Synchronized two channel video installation, 2: 30 min loop
Two projections, translucid shower curtain, 2001

Video and screenshots: Christoph Draeger | Christoph Draeger website |

Kjell Varvin | Unstable Variables

Kjell Varvin | Unstable Variables | Warmenhoven & Venderbos blog

Kjell Varvin | Unstable Variables | Warmenhoven & Venderbos blog

We have been following Norwegian artist Kjell Varvins ”online” installations now for some years and the works keep fascinating us. He creates temporary minimalistic installations consisting of insignificant objects in a corner of his studio. He does this similar compared to writing in a daily dairy. After manipulating the objects in a certain composition he documents them and publishes them on the internet. He sees this work , which he titles Unstable Variables, as proposals in the context of art and not as final statements. The works contain mostly neutral elements to avoid symbolic associations. By doing this, a context is created where the spectator can wander with his eyes through the installation without hanging on to elements that can generate ideas about things they already experienced or fantasized. He has worked as an assistant to conceptual artist Sol Lewitt who had influence on his work however where Sol Lewitt used perfect strict written rules during the execution of for example a wall drawing, Varvin leaves room for imperfection and deviations. We for sure will keep following Varvins proposals and explorations of composition, objects, space and time.

Kjell Varvin | Unstable Variables | Warmenhoven & Venderbos blog

Kjell Varvin | Unstable Variables | Warmenhoven & Venderbos blog

Kjell Varvin | Unstable Variables | Warmenhoven & Venderbos blog

Photos from top to bottom:
Unstable Variables 1.1.2013
Unstable Variables 4.12.2010
Detail: Unstable Variables 4.12.2010
Detail: Unstable Variables 13.2.2011
Unstable Variables 13.2.2011

Photos by Kjell Varvin | Kjell Varvin website/blog |