Culture for Friends
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Transcript of Culture for Friends
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Culture for Friends is an international newsletter produced by Euro Business Translations (EBT)
Almere, the Netherlands, and distributed to 2250 organisations and individuals worldwide. Copy for
future issues of the newsletter, preferably with photo material, is welcome. You can send your contri-
bution in any language and we will translate it into English – after all, translation is our business!
Culture for Friends is produced by EBT to highlight the cultural and creative activities of companies
and individuals, and new revolutionary trends in business enterprises. We look forward to receiving
your contributions. Euro Business Translations: Tel. 00-31-36– 540 27 85. Email: [email protected]
Issue 18
1 December 2012
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De bijzondere vomrentaal van een bijzondere architect: René van Zuuk
Marian Verdonk conquers the world of clothing as a free spirit
PUNCHING - Sewing without yarn, painting with textile
Punching is a new, innovative way of sewing garments, textiles and
fabrics together. Marian Verdonk: ”It’s like painting with fabric and
wool, without using any water or paint.” At Punch Workshops, each
participant can buy a special punching machine and attend a day work-
shop free of charge.
Marian Verdonk’s
Golden Scissors sym-
bolize the start of her
company.
She received them as
a present when she
purchased ten pun-
ching machines.
Using the scissors,
she “sails” through
textiles and fabrics.
Marian Verdonk (48) is the initiator of
PUNCH! Workshops in Breda, the
Netherlands. She is a scenographer,
visual artist, ceramist and a costume
and textile designer. She set up
PUNCH! Workshops in early 2012.
Marian: “Punching means creating your
own, new, unique piece of material. It’s
not difficult. All you need to do is learn
how to operate the punching machine.
That is a machine without any yarn or
reels, which has five bearded needles.
You can’t end up with your finger under
the needles. The bearded needles mix
the fibres of two pieces of material and
fit them together.”
Marian completed her studies as a
visual artist in monumental design and
painting at the new AKV St Joost
academy in Breda. She then graduated
with a distinction from ABV Fontys in
Tilburg, the Netherlands, within 2 years
(this course normally takes 5 years).
There she specialised in ceramics and
other art forms. Her ceramic work be-
trays her background in textile design.
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Marian Verdonk has developed her punch
workshops into a cooperative venture that
goes off the trodden paths. When the
workshop is based on one specific theme,
this will lead to very personal results
which together form a coherent whole.
Afterwards, Marian combines the indivi-
dual results into one large tapestry or in-
stallation.
Marian Verdonk is a textile artist, costumier
and expert in materials, which she manipula-
tes creatively and poetically. She went to the
Fashion Design Academy in Eindhoven.
With a lot of enthusiasm she set up PUNCH!
Workshops for groups, individual partici-
pants, people with impairments and compa-
nies in 2012. While looking for new ways of
working with textile, she came across the
punching machine. It was love at first sight.
Punching meant that she could “colour outsi-
de the lines”. That’s what she wanted!
Marian, a qualified art teacher for all levels
of secondary education, has extensive expe-
rience in art and theatre. “My strength lies in
helping people to get over their inhibitions
and encouraging them to discover their own
sense of freedom.”
THE POWER OF PUNCH-WORKSHOPS: CREATIVE DEVELOPMENT AND TEAM BUILDING
With PUNCH! Marian Ver-
donk provides inspiring
workshops for private indi-
viduals and companies in
Breda. She likes an uncon-
ventional approach to
textile.
Marian: “Textile is a great
material and you can do
lots of things with it.
I have treated it in all kinds
of ways: with gas burners,
wrapped in chicken mesh
and submerged in chloride,
and painted with large paint
strokes.”
M
Marian Verdonk: “I want to make life more beautiful with textile.”
Marian Verdonk: ”Punching can yield tremendous results.”
Modern, creative men can also be inspired by punching
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Using your intuition, you can guide the fabrics under
the punching machine and create the most beautiful
colours and pieces.
Fashion for Freedom is a label for individua-
listic designers who want to express the
meaning of freedom.
As a costume designer, Marian Verdonk worked
for Folkloristisch Danstheater and Rotterdamse
Dans Academie, now called Codart. She provided
the costumes and decors for many contemporary
dance, theatre and mime performances. She pro-
duced costumes for well-known choreographers
such as Itzik Gallili,Hilke Diemer, Matthew Haw-
kins, Bianca van Dillen and Henriëtte Brouwers.
She has a good relationship with Brouwers, who is
currently working as a manager, director and pro-
ducer at the Los Angeles Poverty Department.
Brouwers graduated from the Academy for
Expression through Word and Gesture. In Paris
she studied corporeal mime and Theatre of the
Oppressed. Henriëtte Brouwers is still full of
praise about Marian: ”Her costumes were special
because she became fully engrossed in the theme
of each performance. She was inspired by Giaco-
metti’s clay figures, the players’ movements, and
the setting of the mud flat in Terschelling where
the show was performed. She made the costumes
directly onto the players’ bodies, using unconven-
tional materials which she painted by hand. During
that process she imagined what it would be like to
be Giacometti and, like him, she became a sculp-
tor and a painter.”
Fashion for Freedom - Special “freedom skirts”
were made in 1950 to celebrate Liberation Day.
Inspired by this, Marian Verdonk punched a skirt
in 2012 consisting of pieces of fabric that evoke
many memories.
“I inherited the pieces from my mother. As a typi-
cal West Frisian woman, she always kept every-
thing. That’s very oppressive, but at the same
time textile is the basis of my freedom.”
KIVI foundation
The KIVI foundation wants to make experien-
cing art accessible for everyone, irrespective of
whether he or she has any impairments. This is
exactly what Marian Verdonk wants to achieve
with her workshops. She has therefore joined
KIVI. “Initially I was mainly thinking of children
with autism and ADHD. Punching quickly leads
to a special mindset: no more thinking, action
only. Look at what happens, and respond to it.
It’s really special to watch these children con-
centrate hard on what they are doing.”
Meanwhile, the target group has been extended conside-rably. Punching is also suit-able for people with motor impairments, older people, and clients from psychiatric healthcare. “KIVI truly means Art for Everyone!” The Punch Studio is open every Monday evening. People can come along to punch, or to get spe-cialist help with sewing or pimping clothes.
Punching - Painting with Textile
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HOUSES WITH A CLAY SKIN Marian Verdonk is more than a
costume designer, textile artist
and alternative clothing desig-
ner. She is also a visionary,
thinker, builder and spectator,
and she has a poetic outlook.
The visual artist in her wants to
step beyond the shadow of the
existing world. She has earned
her credentials in a broad artis-
tic field. She punches skirts,
aprons, waistcoats, belts, bags
and mobile phone covers, and
soon she will even punch hats.
She has also created sculptu-
res from fabric and clay.
The clay is the “skin” of fragile,
dilapidated buildings.
Braamspunt, Faint traces of human existence
Marian Verdonk graduated from Fontys Hogeschool in 2010 on the basis of three striking works. She researched how drawing as a final subject at secondary school relates to higher art education. Her picture book: ”Braamspunt, Schrale sporen van menselijk bestaan” (Braamspunt - Faint traces of human existence) describes the evolution of eight ceramic model houses discovered at Braamspunt in Suriname. Her report is based on the theme of “the end of the world” and takes its inspiration from poverty at an idyllic location. It is as if she were a tourist, taking a sightseeing daytrip to look at poverty. She feels embarrassed, but is fas-cinated at the same time. She takes photographs of the dilapidated houses from corrugated iron, driftwood and iron sheets, draws them and then builds them from clay. They are the remains of the most basic form of protection.
Contact Details:
PUNCH! Workshops
Marian Verdonk
Breda Business Park
Konijnenberg 61/
Lijndonk 4 -
BREDA
The Netherlands
Tel. 00-31-6-417 15 226
www.punchworkshops.nl
“The Stone Eye”, OEROL, 1990, by the mime group of
Henriëtte Brouwers. Costumes: Marian Verdonk.
During the same course, Marian Verdonk wrote another book, “Beeldend Theater - Op zoek naar bezielde
kunst”, (“Visual theatre - in search of inspired art”), an abundantly illustrated volume on visual theatre. In this
book she discusses striking philosophical themes (“Are you really touched by a painting?”), talks about emo-
tions involved in experiencing art and interviews prominent figures from the world of theatre. She writes passio-
nately about “drama that brings things to life.”