A perfect week in Tilburg

Last week I was in Tilburg, Holland for the Apprentice/Master programme there, run by Kunstpodium T.  It involves art students from colleges all over Europe and I went with several other graduates and post graduates from the Limerick School of Art and Design.  The aim is to create networking opportunities for emerging artists in order to further and develop their practices.  We had to present our work to all the other students, and the Master Artist Thom Puckey, who together with the organisers would be putting us into groups based on our work.  Later this year, or next year, we will work with this group and an artist to create a group exhibition in one European city.

The presentation part was nerve-wracking and looking back, I wish I had presented a more general selection of my work rather than just the degree show.  But I suppose that's what these events are for - to make you think about how you present yourself and what work you can use to fully illustrate your practice. It was fascinating to see how the ethos of the college was reflected in the students, lots of conceptual and object based art in all the European colleges, compared to more socially engaged work works from Limerick.  As a printer, I felt a bit archaic but it was good to be part of the mix.

We also got to visit De Pont, a fantastic art gallery with some great works, housed in a former woollen mill.  Photographs of some of them are below.

I loved Tilburg, especially the bicycles.  I am almost wishing I get a Dutch city just to ride bicycles again.  Here are a few photographs - my camera died whilst I was over there as an indirect result of my beachcombing.  All the sand at the bottom of my bag got into the lens mechanism.  So I'm back to my trusty but heavy DSLR.