After hearing many people discussing the documentary on the 11 fountains in Friesland that were recently commissioned in the context of ‘Leeuwarden Cultural Capital of Europe’, I decided to watch the first episode of that documentary. Besides a clash between people from outside and within the art world, there was a second repeating element in the documentary: the question whether or not to compromise based on the reactions, condition, and resources of your surroundings. This question is not limited to artists and their work, but is about tolerance in a much broader context.

It is striking to see many students from the Sandberg Instituut, from different departments, responding to questions like ‘how to adjust to circumstances?’ or ‘do you still feel comfortable in a space you have no control over?’ And, ‘what if you have to be the one who’s adapting, when your surrounding is not?’ Miyuki Inoue makes a group of singers respond to their viewers and the space they are singing in. How will these temporal and constantly changing aspects influence the actual performance? Naomi Credé seems to ask a similar question, but vice versa: how can the visitor’s sensory perception be played with? And maybe even be pushed in a certain direction? Júlia Carvalho de Aguiar is developing a ‘nonlinear, exploration video game’, a medium which makes you end up in another environment you can not escape. Loidys Carnero shows how you can also be subject to certain circumstances in the actual world, reflecting thereby on political and social issues. I am curious to see what sort of work the artists have developed surrounding the idea of adjusting.

Biography
Julia Mullié is art historian. She currently researches the oeuvre of Stanley Brouwn. She previously wrote essays for the Prix de Rome catalogue and reports of Cinema Olanda Platform at Witte de With. She is advisor to the Dutch Culture Council and made the exhibition Making Money For My Friends at the Bonnefantenmuseum Maastricht.