Maaijke Middelbeek

1979, Nijmegen NL

Currently lives & works in Vienna AT

 

 

I make eco-emancipated art, works that primarily show and occasionally invite to join in an organic process, eg. a live photosynthesis performance or decomposition with fungi. As a counter reaction to our consumerism and the remaining material waste and destruction, I started to work with living organisms and recycled matter, to make bio-artworks that are not necessarily meant to be preserved. Learning about ecology and witnessing the rapid human-induced change in our biosphere, I developed a sense of care and response-ability as an artist and questioned my work and it's relation to living on a damaged planet and in the anthropocene. My concepts are SF, speculative fabulations, string figures, explorations of our multi-species entanglements.

 

 

 

Currently I interact and co-exist with various species in my studio-lab; bacteria, fungi and algae. Besides I make research on bio-material (eg. microbial cellulose) and on the process of decomposing (textile) waste with fungi and other compost organisms, both linked to my background in fashion & textile design. 

 

 

BACKGROUND 

I studied Fashion & Textile design at AMFI - Amsterdam University of Applied Sciences (1999 - 2003, BA). After graduating I worked in different fields of the fashion industry, mostly in journalism (e.g. L’Officiel NL) and copywriting (e.g. Press Only PR). I experienced the rapid change in a volatile fast-fashion-industry and soon felt the need to tell different contradictory stories, in addition I longed to devote myself to more autonomous and conceptual work. In 2015 I moved to Vienna where I found a fruitful base to grow art and set up exhibitions. 

 

 

EXHIBITIONS:

 

 

2023

Febr. 18th - May 21st Künstlerhaus  Wien, exhibition with the other selected artists from the ON THE ROAD AGAIN call. Curated by Simon Mraz and Christian Helbock.

 

Article in Der Standard

 

THROUGH OOZE and SLIME Jan. 18th - 31st - Solo exhibition with Österreichische Kulturforum Zagreb, BMEIA Außenministerium in Galerija Na Katu, KIC Zagreb.

 

Link: Biology students visiting the exhibition

Article in newspaper Jutarji List

 

 

2022

POROUS PROJECTIONS May 05th - June 30th, in Afro-Asiatsisches Institut Graz. Curated by Huda Takriti and Kyungrim Lim Jang.

 

Publication: POROUS PROJECTIONS interview about culturing, contamination and being an other-mother. PDF of the article under Porous Projections.

 

OTHER-MOTHER photo exhibition in collaboration with art-historian & framer Veronika Korbei, side programm of Foto Wien in M2.

 

MY ARTIFICIAL WOMB  at Soho Studios Vienna with QM&A curated by Ale Zapata. From May to Nov. 2021 I joined the Question Me & Answer artist collective. During these months I made research on SCOBY and collaborated with artist Mary Maggic.

 

 

2021

REACTIVE FUNGI WEARABLE at Red Carpet Showroom Karplsplatz in July'21. Collaboration with Question Me & Answer.

 

 

2020 

TERRAIN VAGUE in Galerie SPZ Prague with Andreas Perkmann Berger and Rainer Stadlbauer, Oct. 29 - Nov. 20, 2020 

 

August 26 Gugging Sommerfest: drawing Tastsinn for #freudebereiten

Galerie Gugging

 

My mushroom & mycelium drawings + Tastes like Honey

July 2020, Research Residency Künst in der Natur 

  

 

2019

December 2019 to March 2020  Banner at Galerie SPZ Prague

Kunstraum Super invited me to design a flag as an announcement for an upcoming show in Galerie SPZ in Prague.

 

July 5 - August 8, 2019  Transitionen Group show with Kunstraum Super in Antichambre DüsseldorfCurated by: Wilko Austermann, Andreas Perkmann Berger and Rainer Stadlbauer. 

 

 

2018  

September 25th - 30th.  From one skin to another 

Parallel Vienna, a Project Statement with Basement Autonomes Kunstraum. Duo exhibition with artist Christina Boula www.parallelvienna.com

 

 

2017 

May - June 2017.  Geschichten aus Schichten 

With Format.strk Vienna. Duo show with New Media artist Kevin Daryl Ferdinandus. 

Strategische Kapitulation Website

 

 

2016

September 2016 - Zeitzoo Group Exhibition, Vienna.