buren

'buren' is a collaborative project of Oshin Albrecht and Melissa Mabesoone. The term ‘buren’ was found in Heideggers' 'Building, Dwelling, Thinking' in which ‘buren’ falls together with building and living. What does it mean to nest oneself, to keep a household? In our individual practices, making work happens in negotiation with the space. The space becomes 'our own', while at the same time, it can never be. In the process of work and discussion a shared practice came about, where buren functions as a noun and as a verb. Together we research, amongst others, subconscious sensations and desires (of our work and life), ways of dealing with commodity and property, the promise of happiness and a unique identity. In the performance 'buren' that originated from this research, we combine installation, video and performance. The videos portray women doing certain gestures that stem from daily activities. They reflect on how women are depicted in art history, contemporary art and in our society. The performance is a combination of tutorials, house tours, advertisement, etiquette and games, all with a great deal of care. The result is an installation that refers to domestic architecture, a constantly changing scene in which videos are shown and where the scenography is a performance. In buren we juggle with the role of the spectator and of the visitor. He becomes aware of his presence because of the direct and indirect interaction with the performers. Through text we use the visitor's imagination to enter new spaces and create a different glance on the installed space again and again. Now we are preparing to work on a 'buren' film. In 2014 we will be working at BijlmAir in Amsterdam. You can support our project by voting via https://www.facebook.com/TentooPayrollServices/app_1403050053259035. Thank you and we hope to meet you soon! All images/text are © 2013 Melissa Mabesoone & Oshin Albrecht - unless otherwise noted