Nadine Stijns

Talk held at bent #83; rain or shine

Artist Nadine Stijns will speak about her site-specific public installation for CONTACT 2019 at The Bentway, against the backdrop of the social space she has created, which invites interaction. Stijns’ long-term photographic projects focus on migration, diasporic communities, and national identity in post-colonial regions. For A Nation Outside a Nation (2012–14), she draws attention to overseas Filipino workers and the evolution of their communities and cultural practices abroad. Stijns explores the large-scale phenomenon of labour migration—an essential reality for many Filipino families—from the perspective of the small-scale exchange of tax-free goods that occurs across borders: specifically, the custom of the balikbayan box. Presented within shipping containers at The Bentway, her project opens up conversations around migration and the ways in which new communities can come together through evolving traditions.

Nadine Stijns (b. 1977) graduated from the Akademie voor Kunst en Vormgeving St. Joost, Breda, studying fashion illustration (1995–97), and the Royal Academy of Art, The Hague, studying photography (1997–2001). Currently based in The Hague, Stijns has given workshops and has lectured on labour migration and the Filipino diaspora; has exhibited locally and internationally in solo and group exhibitions, including the current exhibition at Kunsthal Rotterdam of the collaborative project The Anarchist Citizenship (with researcher Amal Alhaag). She has received numerous awards and grants for her work, and is represented by LhGWR.