Attention: due to popular demand, this event is now fully booked. Learn more about the visit to Awoiska van der Molen's studio. 

Awoiska van der Molen’s approach to nature in her images can best be described as ‘sensuous’. In the evening of February 18, Foam organizes a session on sensing the landscape through the artist’s lens.

Awoiska van der Molen seeks landscapes in which nature is dominant – where she can allow herself to be ‘absorbed, devoured, but also protected’ by the landscape. She invites the viewer to experience her photos with a sensitivity similar to that which she feels herself when photographing her landscapes. Within this framework landscape philosopher Eric Brinckmann will let his thoughts run free in a personal reading of her work. Maartje van den Heuvel, researcher and curator of photography at Leiden University, will deliver a lecture in which she will place Van der Molen’s artistic practice in an art historical context. In response to this, Foam curator Mirjam Kooiman will go into a dialogue with the artist, followed by a panel discussion. Of course there is opportunity for the audience to ask questions. In addition to the session, you are welcome to have a drink in the Foam Café.

ABOUT BLANCO
The exhibition Blanco shows the monochrome landscape photography of Awoiska van der Molen (b. Groningen, 1972) that she has been working on since 2009. It covers the results of long periods of isolation, in which Awoiska van der Molen penetrates deep into the essence of the remote world in which she creates her photos. For extended periods of time she moves through deserted nature, sleeps there, wanders around, and thus gradually removes herself from daily actualities. She takes time to experience the landscape in a different manner, beyond its initial appearance. This gradual and solitary working process continues in the darkroom, where her analogue photographs are printed by hand.

ABOUT AWOISKA VAN DER MOLEN
Awoiska van der Molen studied architecture and photography at the Academie Minerva Beeldende Kunst & Vormgeving in Groningen. Her first photobook, Sequester, published in September 2014, was nominated for the Paris Photo / Aperture First Book Prize and won the silver medal in the ‘Most Beautiful Book in the World’ competition at the Leipzig Book Fair. Awoiska van der Molen is represented by Kristof de Clercq Gallery in Ghent (BE) and Purdy Hicks Gallery in London (UK).

ABOUT ERIC BRINCKMANN
Eric Brinckmann is a landscape philosopher and director of the Lankheet Estate in Haaksbergen. He studied law and philosophy at the Erasmus University Rotterdam. He has worked for various educational institutions , consulting firms and was involved in several landscape projects. He gives lectures and courses on the philosophy of the landscape and is the author of the recently published guide Filosofische wandelingen: denken over binnen en buiten door de eeuwen heen [Philosophical walks: thinking about inside and outside throughout the centuries] (2015).

ABOUT MAARTJE VAN DEN HEUVEL
Maartje van den Heuvel is curator of the photo collection of the Special Collections of the Leiden University library - the oldest museological photography collection of the Netherlands. On a regular basis, she is guest curator for museum exhibitions in the Netherlands and abroad. She is currently finishing her PhD research on contemporary Dutch landscape photography.