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Dries Verhoeven: The Recruitment

The documentary The Recruitment (2021) by Dries Verhoeven in collaboration with Wouter van Elderen, tells the story behind the creation process of the artwork Broeders verheft u ter vrijheid  (Brothers, Exalt to Freedom) (2021). The documentary depicts the journey to Bulgaria where Dries Verhoeven seeks out people with experience as labor migrants, interviews them, and asks them to sing a Dutch labor song. The Recruitment portrays the search for these singing labor migrants and explores the practical, artistic, and moral issues that arose along the way.

About the maker

Dries Verhoeven (1976) is a theater maker and visual artist. In 2020, he was appointed a member of the Academy of Arts.

He creates installations, performances, and happenings in museums, on location, and in public spaces. On the border between performance and installation art, he sharpens the relationships between spectators, performers, everyday reality, and art. In his work, the viewer is directly involved or has the opportunity to steer their own experience.

Dries Verhoeven highlights aspects of the social and societal reality we live in. He is not concerned with conveying a stance toward that reality but rather with activating the viewer's thinking, encouraging critical reflection. He hopes to sow doubt about the dominant systems that imperceptibly shape our lives and thoughts. In recent years, the current crisis thinking and the influence of digital media on interpersonal relationships have formed the basis for his work.

WORK WORK WORK

During WORK WORK WORK, Frascati will open its doors as a museum for performance art for four days. Each day the building will be open for eight hours, representing a working day. Dries Verhoeven co-curates the programme with his own work and that of others into a large number of performance, fine art and video works about the relationship between employer, employee and (art) consumer. Together, the artists explore the politics of the working body now and in the future.

Check out the other works of WORK WORK WORK