During the exhibition ‘The Center of the Story’ hosted by A Tale of A Tub Yeb Wiersma will present ‘Reading Is An Act’. A performative artist talk and walk sharing various found and written tales to be told in and around the residential van Effencomplex where ‘A Tale of a Tub’ resides. (Image: The Tale of Bharat Lachmansingh, Yeb Wiersma, 2016)

For the exhibition Wiersma created the work ‘(In)Tranquilo’ consisting of a public intervention in collaboration with the sanitation department of the city of Rotterdam. The artist, together with the city’s cleaners, performed a ritual gesture prior to their morning departure. Pouring two plant based perfumes (Tranquilo + Intranquilo) into the water tanks of the city’s cleaning trucks. For one day the streets of Rotterdam will be cleaned and ‘cleansed’ with the medicinal and mystical properties of these Botánica perfumes. With this fleeting, provocative moment the artist draws attention to the invisible care and labor of those keeping our streets, bodies and spirits ‘alive’. (Image Yeb Wiersma, 2016)

Review of this work in Dutch newspaper NRC Handelsblad can be read: Here.

On this second ‘This Teeming World‘ expedition, taking Merian’s ‘Book on Surinam Insects’ (1705) as point of departure, we will examine what the Surinamese plant world can teach us today about our Surinamese and colonial memory, history and culture. With ethnobotanist Tinde van Andel, Tropical ecologist Thiemo Heilbron, visual artist Lotte Geeven, Sabrina Lisse Venetiaan from Jursu Kultura and shaman Jurman Blackson. (Image: Yeb Wiersma, dried Busi Papaya plant for medicinal purposes)

The Art Magazine Metropolis M wrote a review:
http://metropolism.com/reviews/the-life-and-times-of-a.-palulu/

An one hour long interview with Luuk Heezen (Amsterdam FM): http://www.mistermotley.nl/art-everyday-life/yeb-wiersma-kunst-lang (Image: Lonneke van der Palen showing the performance and auction platform ‘Choreography in Steel’ by Alexis Blake and Yeb Wiersma.)

This masterclass explores the sensory body, the act of walking and its relation to process of thought and embodied knowledge-making as part of the artistic practice. A week long programme lead by Yeb Wiersma and David Helbich. Alongside a public programme was initiated by Van Eyck and Yeb Wiersma with artists Marcus Coates, David Helbich, Jan Rothuizen, Esther Polak and myself.
(Image: Yeb Wiersma leaping over Mondrian’s remains at Cypress Hills Cemetery. On site research for the short story ‘Carmela and Blanche’, photo by Michiel Ferier 2017)

During this first expedition of the series ‘This Teeming World’ we will rediscover titles from the natural history collection and at the same time – with the audience – observe and discuss how the natural environment is being perceived, interpreted and conveyed in the past and the present. How did our relationship with nature transform over time, how was it mapped and shaped? With cultural historian Erik de Jong and visual artist Martin La Roche. (Video still, This Teeming World with creative movement performer Scott Everduim by Yeb Wiersma & Elisa Grasso, 2017)

For this exhibition Alexis Blake and Yeb Wiersma created a performative auction in which they presented smaller works, sketches and personal notes from the archive of Margot Zanstra; a former dancer, choreographer and structuralist sculptor of large, public works who lived in Amsterdam. Unlike most of her male colleagues at the time, she never got the attention or recognition they owned. Therefore the artists decided to re-appraise her works by playing upon the notion of an auction; re-valuing her artistic currency. (Image: Lonneke van der Palen in collaboration with Alexis Blake and Yeb Wiersma)

‘Departures’ published alongside an article on the death and life of books by publisher Joost Nijssen, Dutch literary publisher. 

Photographic contributions on the occasion of yearly Swiss Book Designs Catalogue 2014, CH.

This Teeming World is established by Yeb Wiersma and Claire Weeda and consists of seven knowledge expeditions departing from the Artis library collection, Amsterdam. (Image still from the trailer ‘This Teeming World’ with street dancer and movement practitioner Scott Everduim, Yeb Wiersma)

Taking the natural history collection of the Artis Library as point of departure, together with artists, scientists, shamans, amateurs and the public, we look at how knowledge on nature is being produced while simultaneously explore critical and active ways to de-colonize and re-contextualize the nature of these natural history collections founded on Eurocentric systems of knowledge making.