Liesbeth Bik

Since 1995, Liesbeth Bik and Jos van der Pol work as Bik Van der Pol. They work and live in Rotterdam (NL).

Through their practice Bik Van der Pol aim to articulate and understand how art can produce a public sphere and space for speculation and imagination. This includes forms of mediation through which publicness is not only defined but also created. Their work follows from research of how to activate situations as to create a platform for various kinds of communicative activities. Bik Van der Pol’s mode of working consists of setting up the conditions for encounter, where they develop a process of working that allows for continuous reconfigurations of places, histories and publics. Their practice is site-specific and collaborative, with dialogue as a mode of transfer; a “passing through”, understood in its etymological meaning of “a speech across or between two or more people, out of which may emerge new understandings”. In fact, they consider the element of “passing through” as vital. It is temporal, and implies action and the development of new forms of discourse. Their practice is both instigator and result of this method.

In 1999 had a residency of the P.S.1 Contemporary Art Center in New York) and in 2011 at Bard College (CCS). In 2010 Bik van der Pol were awarded te ENEL Contemporanea Award, and in 2014 the Hendrik Chabot Award for Visual Arts by the Prins Bernhard Cultuurfonds South Holland.