Workshop – Voice and Space

Workshop on the 3rd of June from 2 to 6:30pm with a public presentation at 6pm.

For more than ten years Janneke van der Putten’s own voice has been an essential medium for her interactions with landscape, space and contexts, in connection with e.g. natural phenomena, mythologies, cycles and time. In addition to her studies of textile design and Artistic Research Janneke van der Putten learned the North Indian singing „Dhrupad“ with Amelia Cuni and Marianne Svašek in Berlin and Rotterdam. The learned technique has been essential for her understanding of the voice as a physical experience and less as a medium for speech or even singing. – „How can I travel with my voice, my jaw, tongue, spittle, and breath?“

This workshop explores the voice in relation to a spatial experience. Through a Deep Listening session and blind-folded sound walk we will explore our senses and become more aware of our own body, movements and sounds. We will continue with a simple body warm up followed up by a basic vocal exercise. The workshop will consist of group interventions and performances, exploring the acoustics and characteristics of the space, using amongst other our own voices. We will reflect in drawing and conversation.

Janneke van der Putten (Amsterdam, 1985) is a visual artist and vocalist based in Rotterdam. Her practice involves experiences of listening, performances, sound and video, documentations in image/text/textile, workshops, music projects, and creating platforms for cultural exchange. Her voice is her main tool, guiding her through physical and sonic explorations in different landscapes. Engaging with specific sites and local contexts, and through her personal experiences, she investigates (human) responses to her surroundings, and their relation to natural phenomena and transitions, such as the sunrise.

She graduated with a BDes from TXT (Textile), Gerrit Rietveld Academy (Amsterdam, 2003 – 2009) and completed her MMus in Artistic Research, Royal Academy of Art & Royal Conservatoire (The Hague, 2011 – 2013). Van der Putten trained in classical North-Indian Dhrupad singing with Amelia Cuni and Marianne Svašek (Berlin & Rotterdam, 2009 – 2014) and is autodidact in various extended vocal techniques. She is co-curator of the Aloardi Exchange Programme, inviting Peruvian artists to present their work in the Schengen Area (2016 – 2017). The project ‘Invisible Architecture’ with Christian Galarreta, for which they published a vinyl in 2014, has been presented at amongst others exhibition Make the Audition: Meetings Between Art and Sound in Peru, Museo de Arte Contemporáneo (Lima, 2016) and nxnwfestival (Cologne, 2015). She was artist-in-residence at the Centre international d’art et du paysage (Île de Vassivière, 2014), and exhibited with solo shows All Begins With A at TENT (Rotterdam, 2015), Directed to the Sun in Quartier am Hafen (Cologne, 2017) and Quitsa at CINNNAMON (Rotterdam, 2017). Upcoming will be a fellowship at Akademie Schloss Solitude (Stuttgart, 2019). 

Janneke van der Putten’s travel to Austria is supported by CBK Rotterdam (Centre for Visual Arts Rotterdam).

Workshop - Voice and Space