Captured
In Captured, filmmakers Arnoud Holleman and Batya Wolff explore the complex relationship with photography within Batya’s family. Her father, Max Wolff (1926–2025), bought a camera after the war and photography became his coping mechanism for dealing with war trauma. But as he photographed, the war remained ever-present. In Captured, Batya explores her father Max’s vast image archive to tell her own, new story about the lasting impact of the war. A discovery in the family archive shifted her perspective on her family’s traumatic past.
Twice Upon A Time
Videoloop on two screens, 3'29. In collaboration with Batya Wolff, 2022.Twice Upon A Time was part of the installation The Kiss of Life, on view at the Jewish Cultural Quarter in Amsterdam in 2022. Filmmakers Arnoud Holleman and Batya Wolff sought new connections in the immense visual archive in Batya's family. How are photography and film connected to processing the Shoah? What were the motives for photography and filming before the war? And with what after? In Twice Upon a Time, Batya's oldest sister Jozee, first born after the war, is simultaneously filmed by both her father and her grandfather.
Broken Thinker
collaboration with Gert Jan KockenThe Thinker by Auguste Rodin is an iconic misunderstanding. Since its creation in 1881, it has been said that the sculpture expresses the activity of thinking, while it merely expresses the pose of thinking. Once you realize, the Thinker is an empty form on which anyone may project his or her thoughts. This has led to a range of ideas - and clichés - about man who reflects on his existence.
The Trouble With Value
Onomatopee, EindhovenCurator Kris Dittel writes: What practices bring us closer to understanding the potential of art to represent different notions of value in the contemporary? How can we counter the certain apathy of the contemporary to engage with positions that resist this mood and present us with challenging perspectives on value? The project attempts to locate artistic and institutional practices that offer viewpoints beyond the strategy of blending-in and conforming to the rules.
Immovably Centred
De Appel, AmsterdamAt De Appel, Arnoud Holleman invites actors, curators and museum directors to read his text. The title "Immovably Centred" derives from the motto that Rainer Maria Rilke used for his biography about Auguste Rodin: 'The hero is he who is immovably centred'. Rilke puts Rodin on a pedestal as a superhuman genius, Arnoud Holleman stages a contemporary artist who, still, identifies with this kind of artistry.
Time Warp
collaboration with Driessens/Verstappen, Rotterdam. Project duration 2003 - 2024A cinematic report on the processes of growth and change taking place on W.G. Witteveenplein in Rotterdam. Each film began with the construction of the park in early 2003 and shows the various changes that took place in the following twenty years. The films were supplemented four times a year with new material, which resulted in four very short films of 6'35" each.
Artists Anonymous
Lowlands pop festivalFor the last couple of years in a row, artists had been invited who felt at home in a big show environment. This had thrown up a number of lively and playful installations, but this year the budding tradition was in jeopardy: for a variety of reasons there was next to no money for art projects. The only kitty in the budget that might be called upon had been set aside for the printing of the half a million paper napkins that were to be used during the festival.
Lauren & Claudia
collage, double sidedInterview covergirl Lauren Hutton was photographed by Francesco Scavullo in 1973. She's wearing Galanos - from his exciting fall 1973 collection. Accessorized by Galanos, makeup by Way Bandy, hair by Rick Gilette. The photo was re-photographed by Anuschka Blommers and Niels Schumm in 2003, with model Uta Eichhorn posing as Re-Magazine covergirl Claudia. She's wearing a black dress by Hermès. Styling by Katja Rahlwes, makeup by Renata Mandic.
Re-Magazine
collaboration with Jop van BennekomRe-Magazine's great virtue is its willingness to expose sentiments that seldom find public expression, most often relating to the apparently trivial experiences and memories that make up the larger part of existence. Alongside this editorial idiosyncrasy, it is beautifully designed and photographed, each issue adopting a form to suit its subject - Emily King, Frieze, October 2003.
Radio Balzac
Van Abbemuseum, EindhovenDe Balzac van Auguste Rodin staat vanaf 1 februari in Het Oog in het van Abbemuseum, als special guest in een installatie van Arnoud Holleman. In deze tijdelijke opstelling draait het beeld langzaam rond. Bezoekers kunnen het beeld van alle kanten bekijken en de 19e eeuwse schrijver kijkt ondertussen rond, naar onze tijd. Via een online radiozender ? Radio Balzac ? worden meningen, discussies en andere inzichten over het beeld verzameld en uitgezonden.
Driving Miss Palmen
VPRO televisionI understand why you want to be a writer. It?s better to be mediocre and famous than just being mediocre. But the difference between you and me is that I?m able to create a character of myself in a story I choose to live in. And you, I?m sorry to say, are not. That makes me a writer and you just a character in someone elses plot. And as for my work: The big misunderstanding about my work is that critics keep comparing the fictious Connie Palmen with the real Connie Palmen, instead of comparing her to other great characters in litterature, like Madame Bovary, or Lolita...