Maaijke Middelbeek
1979, Nijmegen NL
Currently lives & works in Vienna AT
I make visual art that primarily shows an organic process, eg. fermentation or photosynthesis. 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. Through interconnectedness we can overcome the oppression and loss deriving from social and environmental disconnection. 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 the ancient life forms.
Currently I interact with multispecies in my studio-lab; bacteria, fungi and algae. Besides I make research on bio-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 other selected artists from the 'On the road again' Call from the Österreichische Kulturforen
Solo exhibition with Österreichische Kulturforum Zagreb, BMEIA Außenministerium in Galerija Na Katu part of KIC Zagreb
2022
POROUS PROJECTIONS May 05th - June 30th, in Afro-Asiatsisches Institut Graz
Publication POROUS PROJECTIONS interview about contamination, bio-technology, 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 Vienna 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.