Feiko Beckers - Being surprised is admitting you were wrong (2015)

One of Piet Slegers’ objectives in creating Earth Sea (Aardzee), his Land Art work near Zeewolde, was to break the monotony of the Dutch polder landscape. The work creates swaying movements in the otherwise monotonous farming fields. Where most artists would indeed opt for breaking monotony, Feiko Beckers is exploring the notion of bringing things back to normal and restoring flat surfaces.

For his performance Being surprised is admitting you were wrong (2015) he took on the Land Art work’s slopes and bends in an attempt to demonstrate that predictability is a good thing. Beckers’ performances make an unlikely combination of minimal sculpture and stand-up comedy, placing the figure of the artist himself in a force field of grand notions, daily decisions and the ever present possibility of failure. His battle with the slopes of Earth Sea was played out over four acts, ending – all is well that ends well – in song.

Have a look at the videoclip of The Song That's Surprisingly Good, with Steven Jouwersma on bass guitar and directed by Sander Houtkruijer:

Feiko Beckers (NL, 1983) was a resident at the Rijksakademie van Beeldende Kunsten in Amsterdam. His work was recently shown at Palais De Tokyo in Paris, De Appel and Jeanine Hofland Contemporary Art in Amsterdam.

Images of the performance by Geert van der Wijk

A video impression (Jasper van den Brink, Dwarsboom Studio):

Credits

Thanks to: Carlotta Bailly-Borg (set), Steven Jouwersma (bass guitar), Irena Radmanovic (performance), Seamus Cater (sound), Audio Electronics Mattijssen, Fred Bos (audio technology), Celine Wouters (design), Jasper van den Brink (video registration), Geert van der Wijk (photography), Sander Houtkruijer (clip direction).