It is true because I feel it, 2021
4K video installation with 5.1 surround sound, 12:27 min

The body – house of our emotions. The setting – a dark, immersive space without visible doors, roof, walls. The players – anonymous men and women of various ages dressed in eco-friendly leisure wear. The participants are brought together by a common search for connection and intimacy as a teachable discipline, a course in basic self-optimizing. Search, find and heal through spiritual guided tours by yoga or mindfulness instructors. These are trending activities of those of us who can afford optimizing the privileges we already have. Teachers in personal development, spirituality, health, sustainability, and social activism preach and practice weaving mindful movement and contemplation into our daily lives.
Ad-hoc couples in face-to-face, safe encounters, exposing mutual vulnerabilities, and exploring soothing, non-intrusive touching as healing. Surface contact. Let it all out. Try an eruptive outpouring of stranger-directed intimacy although we’re actually only in excessive interaction with ourselves. “Display Intimacy” as a substitute for real intimacy? We’re here to work on our pain. Let’s train intimacy in the times of hyper individualism.

The only reason..., 2019
Video installation with three synchronized hard drives
HD video and 10 synchronised audio speakers, surround sound
8:49 min

The only reason for mass homelessness is that you turned our living spaces into objects of financial speculation. “In her three-channel video work, JR presents an apparently endless tracking shot through downtown Los Angeles, past huge parking lots guarded by fences and filled with cars, past empty luxury real estate waiting to be leased and – in contrast – endless successions of dilapidated buildings. The viewer doesn’t seem to resemble the other drivers who occasionally come into view and, both isolated and armored, fight their way forward through the traffic. There is no protection, on the other hand, for the homeless persons who have set up their refuges on the sidewalks. Clustering their last possessions around them, they endeavor to defend themselves against their environment, against violence and abuse”, Catalogue, Good Spaces, Villa Merkel, Esslingen, 2019

Changeroom, 2019
Video Installation in a public space in Amsterdam
3 synchronized vertical screens, metal frame
4K video, silent
06:25 min

Having been invited to produce a work in public under the header “social capital” to show that there are still functioning neighborhoods in Amsterdam, I decided to film and exhibit in the biggest gentrifying cultural mall in Amsterdam, De Hallen. I cast the few remaining eccentric, older neighborhood residents I could find and set up a film shoot in a fictional dressing room: a group of younger people made up to look like the eccentrics.
The suggestion is that the real estate company advertising our neighborhood as a creative, lively place is running an operation where the eccentrics are working in shifts and are mostly paid younger people made up to look like the original residents, like Mickey Mouse in Disneyland. During the shoot, one of the older men was stopped by a young mother who wanted to take a picture of him and her daughter...

Ridders (Horsemen), 2019
Video installation with two synchronized screens
4K video, stereo sound
07:38 min

A group of young men, bike couriers, dressed in bomber jackets and hoodies, hanging out together. The setting of the scooter get-together is a no-man’s land of empty lots, of city architecture in geometric concrete and brick patterns, with stretches of waterfront roads – neither private, nor public. The young men move in unison, swarming, more or less one with their scooters and in control of their engines. Formations converge, withdraw and regroup to the music of roaring engines – secretly they leave their role as adolescents and ride ballet.

Matters recorded, 2019
Installation with 16 drawings 120x70, 70x50 cm and 6 blank pages 70x50 cm
Two speakers with voice-over in space, audio loop 4:30 min

Excerpts from voice over: "Young male lions stay in the pride until they are sexually mature, only returning to the pride when they are strong enough to defeat the older males. After violently taking over the pride, the new coalition of males will attempt to kill all living cubs. (…) Among humans, the struggle for influence and survival is often sublimated and not overtly life threatening. [It] may be cultivated into initiation rites, where a far lower number of participants die in the outcome and power can be retained for a lifetime. (…) [T]he rich usually generate their money through inheritance and wide-scale exploitation of natural and human resources. Members of the ruling class use their access to power and excessive capital to maintain structures that protect their investments. The surplus of poor people not necessary for further wealth accumulation is culled in a variety of manners, including wars, religious conflicts, drugs, poor or no healthcare, bad housing and education, and a lack of social justice."

The Hare, 2018
Video installation with four HD videos on variable-sized screens on wooden structure in various configurations
4-6 min depending on setup

Rituals of power, representation and self-assurance; recording of business people in the Amsterdam business district with a sexist gaze

Small social rituals disturbed, 2017
Performance
Vacuum machine, transparent bags, poster with instructions
At Bei Cosy, a new interpretation of a bar and art space
Bei Cosy (1969-1981) by Cosy Pièro, Munich.
By Philipp Gufler and Richard John at RONGWRONG , Amsterdam

Instructions: Please wear your cell phone with the screen towards the room, to add illumination. After your phone is vacuum-sealed, you won't be able to use it to text, take photographs, or record videos, till you leave the space and we cut the seal. You cannot drink the drinks you brought yourself – please exchange them with your fellow visitors. Check whether the name on the cell phone bag matches the name on the beverage bottle a person is holding, and if this visitor still has drinks to exchange: approach them and get a drink. Please don't drink out of a bottle that has the same name on its tag as the name on your cell phone bag.

Threshold, 2015
HD video, videostills
09:30 min

Celebrity villas, projections of fantasies; longing dreams of adoring fans. Do celebrities really live in these houses? How do they manage to appear on site so quickly? At the downtown restaurants or the clubs away from Beverly Hills Calabasas? How far do those tunnels reach? An attempt to access their houses on foot, by air, and virtually. Are we getting closer?

Believe, 2014
Live Performance on faith, ideologies and charismatic speaking at the Museum of Arts and Design, NYC

The performance addresses capitalism as a faith among collective, religious, and individual (self-help, neo liberalism, etc.) belief systems. It also presents the seduction of persuasive speech in these systems. A language that appeals to instincts rather than the intellect: a mesmerizing, dazzling happening, which overpowers its content. I invited five speakers of religious, secular and capitalist persuasions with highly performative speaking techniques. A Priest, an Imam a Republican, a Scientologist, Kabbalah Master. The piece is structured as a poetry slam. All speakers get a limited amount of time to engage in the same subject: The Pursuit of Happiness, and why their belief system is the best way to achieve it. To the non- art world speakers, this is framed as an opportunity to reach an audience they normally don't have easy access to (the contemporary art-going public). Some people who were in the audience told me later that this was their first encounter with speakers of a belief system they had always been critical of, but at the moment of the performance when they were able to address the speakers, they couldn’t remember what they had been planning to ask, or why they had been critical of the belief system in the first place.

Liaison, 2013
Video installation with two synchronised hard drives
HD video, stereo sound
9:37 min
English audio

In a domestic setting of affluence, sophistication and love of the arts, couples who look like they could live there play around and engage in a silent, seduction-fantasy game with a range of guns. Though playful, stereotypical action-movie gestures of domination, submission, temptation and aggression with the weapons heighten the strange attraction and thrill: an aphrodisiac of eerie intensity. The reality of the couples is that of taste and privilege – in an orderly and civilized environment. The luxurious interiors shift to exteriors of lush landscapes, bringing to mind the power of irrational “natural” instincts.

And I For No Woman, 2013
HD Video, stereo sound
09:38 min
English audio

The departure point of this work which was made in 2013 was the realization, that the favored androgynous beauty standard of the art world was all about class. One had to have the money and time to maintain the effortless natural slender look. But at the same time, lot of people from the art world were fascinated with people like the Kardashians and make-up tutorials on the internet, and loved to go to drag parties or gawk at sex clubs, but how many of the people they would like to surround themselves with in their nightlife would they invite for brunch at their loft? I was, and still am, fascinated by the democratic nature of a beauty that can be created instantaneously – with a lot of training of course – if it looks as good as with the participants in the video, but the possibility of being beautiful in this way has a much lower financial threshold; it’s truly accessible. In And I For No Woman, I invited the most physically beautiful and interesting people I knew from clubs and dating sites to have a jaded brunch at a collectors’ loft in NYC before they went to a rehearsal of As you like it, a comedy where gender is played with and constantly switched around – not only by the characters within the script, but also by the original all-male cast when it was played in Shakespeare's time. From the constant gender swapping, a new, “free-floating” gender and beauty emerges.

Flock, 2013
HD video
01:12 min
Cantonese audio, English Subtitles

In a fabric warehouse in Guangzhou, a young worker separates himself from the crowd by participating in a film shoot. One sees him giving into the idea of temporary fame, realising the implications of this new attention.

Rituals, 2012
Video Installation with two synchronized hard drives
HD video, stereo sound
11:53 min
Cantonese and English audio

While in China, I searched for a common ground between the Western culture I am familiar with and Chinese culture, which I found in the form of actions and gestures derived from the overarching global phenomenon of capitalism. Advertising imagery is seductive, dominating attitudes, style, and body language in China just as it does elsewhere. It forms a common language between two seemingly different cultures. The viewer first encounters young, androgynous men posing seductively amid traffic. The discrepancy between the poses and the surrounding scenery reveals the artificiality of the gesture itself and the commercialized eroticism therein, while simultaneously bringing the role of the young boys into question. As the boys eagerly embrace these global gestures, a magician turns one RMB into a hundred RMB (a tiny fortune in 2012), while poor men shower small bills and coins on working class women, recreating the eternal dance of marking their territory with power and disposable wealth.

Teens selling furs, 2012
C-Print
Diptych
39.5" x 26.5" each

In a capitalist system, very cheap labor and inexpensive goods are constantly rebranded and sold for much more than their production value. The price of the goods is not determined by the quality but rather by their label and the value perception this label could obtain. The ready-mades, Skins, are low-brow attempts at this mechanism of capitalism: cheap furs, mostly sourced from wild dogs, are printed to resemble tiger or leopard furs, but – much like their big-brand counterparts – still clearly look like imitations, only they sell for less. These real furs that imitate more exotic real furs are then sold by young men wearing cheap imitations of expensive branded clothing – successfully harnessing this aspect of capitalism.

Translations in Shanghai, 2010
Performance
1 speaker, 4 English-Mandarin government interpreters, 5 noise canceling headphones, 5 speakers, 5 microphones, 5 wooden stands, video projection of Rites of passages, re-edited for the performance..

For a performance in Shanghai, during Expo 10, I wrote a speech about words and power about rites of passages and political debauchery. The speech is translated four times, with each interpreter only hearing the wording from the interpreter before her in her soundproof headphones. Meanwhile, the audience, who can hear all the versions, listens to the story changing while being translated. The speech is followed by a re-edit of Rites of passages, a work I shot during the US election campaign in 2008, about power, obedience and charismatic leadership, being live translated four times over as well.

One of Us, 2010
Video installation with two synchronized hard drives
HD Video, stereo sound
28:44 min
English audio

One of Us, 2010: By staging romantic scenes between real-life lovers, One of Us conjures up the ideal of the happy couple like a hologram that the artist herself steps through, interrupting the illusion of intimacy by inserting herself in the image. The pairs clearly draw their sense of self from their relationship, practicing a form of “individualism for two”. The words exchanged between the lover’s echo phrases from pop culture’s ubiquitous representations of love and happiness. And yet these are their own genuine feelings, which are unexpectedly distilled by the maker’s many interventions. She watches and touches the lovers in their most tender moments and is met with complete indifference as they remain totally absorbed in each other.

Dressage, 2009
Video installation
HD video, stereo sound
8:59 min
English audio

Dressage features wealthy 10-12-year-old girls – Upper Eastside Manhattan, 21st-century socialites of the future – dressed in child-size designer clothes, immaculately groomed. The film begins with the girls picking out chic outfits and chatting among themselves, latest model cell phones in hand. A concentrated hush falls over the room as they set about expertly applying their make-up. But the mood shifts as the girls, with an attitude of blasé entitlement, begin systematically and violently tearing apart their surroundings. As their wordless, perhaps mindless destruction goes on – during which they never really completely lose their demeanor – it becomes clear that there is no outside, no real breaking “free”, or that breaking free has become one of the many fashion affectations: punk, hipster, revolution?

Cleave, 2009
Immersive installation in former Goldman Sachs building, Downtown, NYC
Rotating fans, mirror blades, neon lights, electrical wiring, drop ceiling, original shelf system on rails

Cleave was inspired by the downtown heliport where the rich fly in. From a distance, the helicopters look like toys or insects with unpredictable movements. At closer range they become noisy and powerful. This installation reconceptualizes this sensation in the storage space of the abandoned Goldman Sachs building (their former data hub). It utilizes the preexisting metal shelves and a drop ceiling along with ceiling fans, mirrors and fluorescent lighting. The fan blades act like projector shutters, chopping up the light. The interplay of sound, light, wind and motion come together to create an ambient chamber that suggests a sense of imminent danger juxtaposed with the repetitive hum of office tedium.

Rites of Passage, 2008
Video installation with two synchronized hard drives
HD video, stereo sound
14:00 min
English audio

Set in traditional office and lounge settings found in Washington D.C., the film explores the game of power and dependence, domination and obedience played between influential political figures and interns at the beginning of their professional career in government. The ambivalent relationship between politician and intern, master and pupil, is observed as an almost erotic game where the sex appeal of power is a prevalent ingredient of “charismatic leadership”. Screened as a synchronized double projection, documentary footage is interwoven with staged sequences based on real interviews and observed gestures.

Clementia Pia, 2008
Video installation with two synchronized upright monitors
HD video, stereo sound
12:12 min
Dutch audio

SKOR and the Protestant Diaconate Amsterdam invited me to make a piece for their art manifestation: the Samaritan. All participants were asked to appear in the work because they could be considered contemporary Samaritans. The composition of the video images were inspired by portraits of rich donors and supporters of the church in paintings from the Dutch Golden Age. In fact, the participants had their portraits painted while being filmed in conversation. The content of the videos isn't a report of their good deeds but focuses on the question which personal satisfaction or gain they derive from helping others.

Adrift, 2007
HD Video projection, stereo sound
4:50 min

The twenty people assembled are seated inside an anonymous waiting room, drifting between the waking world of bureaucracy and administration and a childlike state of dream and vulnerability. The room bobs and sways, knocking the sleepers’ heads from side to side. Amidst the tumult of the room, the unconscious sleepers shift about, trying to remain comfortable despite the unusual movement.

Rocker, 2007
Installation at DAC, Brooklyn, NYC
Wooden structure on car springs, aluminum drywall framing, wallpaper, floor tiles, chairs, water cooler, fluorescent lights, drop ceiling
3,70 m length x 5 m width x 2,50 height

A full-size generic waiting room is built on car springs, allowing the entire room to be shaken by the slightest movement of a person inside the room. It can even be rocked with one hand from the outside. The room can hold up to 20 people at a time. The reference to endless waiting in repressive bureaucratic environments is subverted as the room acts like an oversized toy.

Forever, 2006
Video installation with two synchronized projections
SD video, stereo sound
16:40 min
English audio

I cast five US women of a certain age for their beauty. They pose by upscale private swimming pools and contemplate their ideas of beauty, ways to obtain it and its relationship with privilege. The women are shown responding to questions about intangible ideas, such as what it means to be happy and/or beautiful, but the audience does not hear these questions. The video is punctuated by the women taking self-portraits with a Polaroid camera.

Where do we migrate to, 2005
SD Video projection with stereo sound
7:10 min

A collection of behaviors that I filmed while on a return visit to Germany, some observed in the wild, some staged. The video looks at Germany and its inhabitants through the eyes of an imagined person arriving to the country. The video was made for the exhibition “Migration” in Cologne, Germany.

Economic Primacy, 2005
SD video installation with two synchronized projections, stereo sound
17:56 min,
Dutch audio with English subtitles

I selected five men for the video: a lawyer, a spin doctor, a media advisor, a millionaire and a senior executive. They are filmed pacing around in a generic office space that was specially constructed for the video. While they appear talking to themselves, they are in fact responding to questions I am asking them over a hands-free phone. In their “monologues”, they talk about the importance and omnipotence of money.

Your blood is as red as mine, 2004
SD video projection, stereo sound
15:56 min
Dutch audio with English subtitles

A series of staged interviews and situations dealing with skin color and engrained prejudices towards people who look different than ourselves. This is explored by looking at everyday situations, like, on a technical level, how to expose darker or lighter skin when shooting analog film, and, on a thematic level, how to avoid interpretation or judgment of situations through the way one films. In this video, I experiment with prefixed set-ups or parameters determined by the camera automatically (gain, focus) and elimination of suggestive point of views or camera movement. While recording, I simultaneously took large-format photographs from the same viewpoint as the video camera. Some of the photographs are shown along with the video.

Family Times, 2004
SD video projection, stereo sound
6 min

A montage of found family footage from a public archive in Hungary that depicts day-to-day scenes from an average family’s life, providing insight to their relationships, revealing dependency, abuse of power and voyeurism.

Tagged, 2003
SD video installation with three synchronized projections, stereo sound
13:24 min
Dutch audio with English subtitles

I invited young men who spend a lot of money on clothes to bring their wardrobes to a generic hotel room that was specially constructed for the video. While changing into different outfits, they talk about their backgrounds, their addiction to clothes, why they think that clothes are important for their social standing, and the way they’re stigmatized for it by parts of society. The talks lay bare the vicious circle of mutual prejudice that emerges.

The highest point, 2002
SD video projection, stereo sound
12:40 min
Dutch audio with English subtitles

I placed newspaper ads inviting women to speak openly about their sexuality. Over 30 women responded. Many of them expressed a desire to create a different image of sexuality than the one that’s found in the current media. The women were interviewed in a place that evokes both a private house and a consulting room. They describe their sex lives using dry technical language while demonstrating the positions they would generally use.

Looking at the other/ desire, 2003
SD video, stereo sound
2:50 min

Two young lovers kiss continuously throughout the scene. They seem alternately oblivious to and engaging with the presence of their friend. At first their friend is more absorbed in smoking and carrying his own private conversation, but slowly he begins to orbit the couple, finally coming to observe their amorous spectacle from a very close proximity. Shooting through an upper-story window, literally peeking through the trees, the camera increases the layers of voyeurism, observing the gestures of the “third wheel” as intently as he observes the lovers.

Train, 2001
SD video projection, stereo sound
6:20 min
Dutch audio with English subtitles

I invited a group of young men on the street to participate in a video where they would talk about women and love. In the film, I guide the conversation by asking questions (not shown in the video), but without a script. The roles they played are close to their own roles in the group, but I asked them to exaggerate certain on parts of their opinions on women.

Plush, 2001
SD video installation with three synchronised monitors, stereo sound
3:10 min
Dutch audio with English subtitles

Identical triplets talking about their ideas about romance and love with their parental home as a backdrop. One triplet has left for the city, and her changed, differing ideas provoke an uneasy feeling of a schizophrenic approach to life, as the identical looking other triplets seem to change feelings and ideas within seconds.

Queue, 2001
Four monitor, U-matic, split screen installation
SD video, stereo sound
04:50 min
Dutch audio with English subtitles

An actor I placed in a crowd in front of a night clubs talks about intimate details of his private life when interviewed by a TV crew I placed there as well. The video installation shows the reaction of other people waiting in line to his confessions as well as to the seductive presence of a TV camera.

Untitled, 2000
SD video, stereo sound
1:31 min

Losing it in a car

Interview 01, 2000
SD video projection, stereo sound
4:31 min
Dutch audio with English subtitles

Four actors, meeting for the first time, have been given personalities and relationships to base their dialogue on. During the subsequent interview they are asked to maintain the idea and appearance of their “friendships” while criticizing the other actors as much as possible in front of the camera.

Reconstruction 01, 2000
4/c print, diasec
120 x 117 cm

In order to question the politics and prejudice embedded in visual clichés surrounding migrants and people taken for a migrant based on their appearance, I made a series of photographs where I mixed these "migrant signifiers" to the point of absurdity.

Untitled ‘99, 1999
Nr. 7
4/c print, diasec
72 x 75 cm

Untitled ‘98, 1998
Nr. 3 and Nr. 10
4/c print, diasec
75 x 75 cm