Kunsthuis SYB

In May and June, Lotte van der Woude will be staying at Kunsthuis SYB. During her stay in SYB, Lotte researches the history of Frisian shipping based on her own ship, the Anthonio Maria from 1905, and her family history.

SYB is open every weekend from 1 – 5pm
Final presentation: Sunday, June 27 at 15:00 (please sign up by e-mail)
During the final presentation Lotte will give an introduction to her research and work. 

Lotte grew up on the Anthonio Maria and became the owner of the ship two years ago. The Anthonio Maria was in bad condition and was thoroughly restored last year by a yard in Heerenveen. Before the renovation, she found a plastic bag with old photos in the engine room. They turned out to be family portraits. After investigation, Lotte found out that both the ship and she herself are linked to a very old skipper family from Heerenveen, Jubbega, Sneek, and Hindeloopen; the Eijer and Van der Woude family.

For the next 6 weeks, Kunsthuis SYB will be a stage for old skipper stories. With the help of the Frisian Maritime Museum (Fries Scheepvaart Museum) in Sneek, Lotte investigates the history of her ship as a sailing ship, motor ship, and its current function as a houseboat. She will also interview family members and others involved about the history of the ship and Frisian shipping. The Anthonio Maria’s skin is read as a socio-political history that began in iron, joined by rivets, and ended in welded steelwork. A skin marked with traces of human inattentiveness, ferocious boat trips, and sometimes endless friction of the same. Lotte therefore not only processes her research in audio and video fragments but also in a sculptural installation.

About the artist
Lotte van der Woude (Amsterdam, 1986) graduated as a political scientist and visual artist. As a child of two theater staff, she often sat watching the performance offstage. For her, the performance was always twofold: on the one hand, what happened on stage, and on the other, what happened simultaneously behind the scenes. Today Lotte makes experimental documentaries in which she headlines the process prior to the performance. It is her aim not to see a visible result as a fixed fact, but as an agreement of different interests or in some cases the outcome of a historical process. In her work, Lotte shows how performance is structured and hopes in this way to provide a stage for the fallibility of underlying decision-making processes.

Call
For her research, Lotte is looking for people who can tell something about the skipper’s past of the Eijer and Van der Woude family. Do you have more information? Please contact Lotte van der Woude: lottevanderwoude@gmail.com.

This project is kindly supported by: