ESNS Art 2023

Three temporary artworks will adorn the centre of Groningen during the upcoming edition of ESNS. The artworks will be placed as part of ESNS Art, a collaboration between Kunstpunt Groningen and ESNS. The surprising encounter between art and music introduces festival visitors and residents of Groningen to local and national visual arts talent. On show will be a sound installation by Davey Smand, a metal sculpture by Eirik Jahnsen and a light artwork by Nicky Assmann and Joris Strijbos. The artworks will be scattered in Groningen city centre from 18 to 22 January. On the Grote Markt, the Nieuwe Markt and in the Glass corridor in the Oosterpoort.

Glass corridor Oosterpoort

NORNS is an interactive sound installation that can be set in motion by the spectator himself. It consists of four trolleys, with a speaker, microphone and sound equipment on each trolley. Visitors can push the trolleys through the Oosterpoort's glass corridor, recording ambient sounds. Participants in this installation are in control, controlling where a sound recording is made, and when, using the green button on the push bar. The sounds are then sampled and distorted and sent back into the room. Then the microphone picks up the sound again, which is slightly altered by the acoustics of the room, and repeats the process again. Until the original sound is no longer recognisable, and an entirely new sound is created. In this way, Smand illustrates the phenomenon of transformation through time.

Media artist Davey Smand (1991) graduated from Academy Minerva in 2019. After this, he founded Studio HEX. Under that name, he has been making installation and media work ever since, focusing on scientific and philosophical issues. He approaches these by combining mythology and technology.

Grote Markt

Eirik Jahnsen's large sculpture on the Grote Markt stands still but, at the same time, is constantly in motion. The weather, surroundings and light constantly cause the mirrored work to change appearance. Jahnsen has worked the steel in such a way that it looks almost liquid, or like crumpled paper or draped textiles. The dents and bulges in the plates make you see a distorted version of the surroundings, which you as a spectator experience even more clearly when you walk around the work. This immediately offers the chance to play an image-defining role: as soon as you see yourself reflected in the mirrored steel, you have become part of the artwork, and have altered its appearance. For a moment. At 3.80 metres, the installation is Jahnsen's largest work to date, marking a new step in his artistry.

Eirik Jahnsen (1985) lives and works in Groningen but grew up in Bergen, Norway. There he drew a lot of inspiration. "I was surrounded by an impressive landscape with mountains on the one hand and city life on the other. That's an interesting clash between two worlds. So in my work, I often use things that don't normally belong together." After Eirik obtained his bachelor's degree from Academy Minerva in 2017, he will graduate as Master of Painting from the Frank Mohr Institute in 2021.

Nieuwe Markt

It looks like mechanically moving light beings have landed on the Nieuwe Markt. They are part of the kinetic light work Parallel Strata, which literally means 'parallel layers'. The rotating lights with stroboscopic effect, revolving in the top of the sculptures, create a constantly changing shadow play on the ground. As you move through the spatial work as a visitor, you become part of the generative composition. The moving spectacle in shadow and light results in a field of dynamic patterns where the visitor is immersed in an abstract visual world.

Nice to know: nearby is another spectacular light artwork by Nicky Assmann, Wervel. This twenty-metre-long undulating LED sculpture displays a constantly changing light composition of intense colours. You can find Wervel in the car park under the Forum.

NB: the artwork in the Forum garage is freely accessible between 9am and 9pm. The car park can be accessed via the bicycle basement / connecting door to the garage. Without a parking ticket, you can use the i-button next to the door to contact the control room, which will then let you in. Or take the car entrance.

Nicky Assmann
With a background in film and ArtScience, Nicky Assmann (1980) combines art, science and cinematic elements in her work to create sensory experiences. The intangible and intangible nature of light, colour and movement is the starting point of her work.

Joris Strijbos
Joris Strijbos (1981) studied ArtScience at the KABKand then obtained a master's degree at the Royal Conservatoire in The Hague. In his work, he plays with technology, focusing on the interaction between movement, light and sound. Strijbos' audiovisual installations and media performances are at the intersection of art, science and technology.

Kunstpunt presents a tour of light art in Groningen's city centre during ESNS Art. The tour goes past existing work and the new temporary artworks by Eirik Jahnsen and Nicky Assmann & Joris Strijbos. It will also dwell on some other undiscovered gems. The tours take place on Thursday 19 and Friday 20 January and start at 7.30pm. Tickets at €2.50 are on sale in Kunstpunt's webshop.

Since the 1970s, millions of teenage rooms have been filled with images of these artists, but to this day they are still unknown to many: the London design studio Hipgnosis. With the world's first major retrospective, the Groninger Museum honours the designers of legendary album covers for major international artists.

At the Groninger Museum, from Thursday 19 January, the exhibition The Art of Hipgnosis: Pink Floyd, Led Zeppelin, Genesis, Paul McCartney, Peter Gabriel & 10cc will start. As a visitor to ESNS23, if you book online, you get a 20% discount from 19 to 22 January. Book your time slot for an adult or student ticket via tickets.groningermuseum.nl and enter the code ESNSVOUCHER in your ordering process. Show your museum ticket and ESNS wristband at your museum visit. Valid from 19 to 22 January 2023.

It is by now a well-known phenomenon among visitors of shows in Vera; the beautiful screen prints made by the Vera Artdivision. They make a unique copy for each show, which, for visitors to the show with a bit of luck, can be taken off the wall. This year, the Vera Artdivision's thirteen designers are exhibiting at the European Poster Explosion in Pictura, Groningen. Upstairs in the gallery space is the exhibition of all kinds of posters from Vera shows. Downstairs, you can watch how screen printing is done. Besides screenprints, prints and other merchandise are sold.

The European Poster Explosion is open from Wednesday 18 to Saturday 21 January, from 13.00 - 18.00 in Pictura, Sint Walburgstraat 1, Groningen.

On Tuesday 17 January, the Pride Photo Exhibition 2022 opens on Groningen's Akerkhof. It is the second year in a row that Pride Photo will visit the city with its open-air photo exhibition. This year's theme is 'Celebrating the Unseen', through which Pride Photo aims to highlight the most unseen groups and unknown stories from the lhbti+ community.

The exhibition consists of 20 large panels. Besides the winning photos, several urgent, surprising and beautiful 'Unseen' visual stories will also be displayed, such as the extent to which lhbti+ people worldwide have been hit hard by the pandemic. But also the suppression of lhbti+ human rights, homosexuality in sports, loneliness among 'pink' elderly people and violence against trans people.

Groningen is the finale of the Pride Photo Exhibition 2022, which has been travelling throughout the Netherlands since 1 April and has visited all provinces. The exhibition is free to visit until 6 February.