Maaijke Middelbeek
1979, Nijmegen NL
Currently lives & works in Vienna AT
I make visual art that primarily shows an organic process, eg. fermentation, decomposition of material with fungi, or photosynthesizing algae. 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 the 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. I longed to work with life's great connectors, with symbionts, in order to understand them better, to be with, become with and make an attempt to think with.
Currently I interact 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
Künstlerhaus Wien, exhibition with the selected artists from the 'On the road again' Call: www.ontheroadcall.at
THROUGH OOZE and SLIME: Solo exhibition with Österreichische Kulturforum Zagreb, BMEIA Außenministerium in Galerija Na Katu, Zagreb
2022
POROUS PROJECTIONS May 05th - June 30th, in Afro-Asiatsisches Institut Graz
Publication: POROUS PROJECTIONS interview about contamination, cultivation, symbiosis, the pandemic and being an other-mother
OTHER-MOTHER photo exhibition in collaboration with art-historian & framer Veronika Korbei, in the frame of Foto Wien
MY ARTIFICIAL WOMB in Soho Studios Vienna with QM&A. 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 during July'21. Collaboration with Question Me & Answer.
2020
TERRAIN VAGUE in Galerie SPZ Prague with Kunstraum Super Oct. 29 - Nov. 20, 2020
August 26 Gugging Sommerfest: drawing Tastsinn for #freudebereiten
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. Every 3 months SPZ selects a new artist to make a design for the flagpole.
July 5 - August 8, 2019 Transitionen
Group show with Kunstraum Super in Antichambre Düsseldorf.
2018
September 25th - 30th. From one skin to another
Parallel Vienna, a Project Statement with Basement Autonomes Kunstraum. Duo exhibition with artist Christina Boula.
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.