Valentina Curandi

Valentina’s practice-based Ph.D. trajectory will look into the capability of art practitioners to leave dispositions upon the eventuality of death. Care for the afterlife. Handling dying processes and posthumous wishes in the arts (working title) will explore the demands of art practitioners towards death and for the afterlife of their artistic practice. The research will inquire how the artistic infrastructures (especially art and talent development programs in the Netherlands), the dominant legal and financial frames (of inheritance law and estate planning), and the technologies of death management (such as last wills and testaments) support practitioners in affirming personal wishes and defining the afterlife of their artistic works.

Performative strategies will be used to explore forms of attunement and care in research making, in both setting up and facilitating participatory fieldwork. The Ph.D. is supervised by Christoph Rausch (UCM), Eliza Steinbock (FASoS), and Ulrike Scholtes (ZUYD University).

Valentina is an art practitioner working in performance, writing, scripting, and tracking the activation of performative movements. She is interested in queerfeminist approaches to death management in the arts, and in observing how some languages prescribe/rationalise and standardise actions (like in contracts) while others keep track of bodily movements (like in notations used to score immaterial research and work).

She created solo and collaborative projects for, among others, Kunstlicht (NL), Marwan (NL), The Physics Room (NZ), the 16.ma Quadriennale di Roma (I), Konstfak (SWE), Centrale Fies (IT), Kunstraum Munich (D), ar/ge kunst (IT), New York Art Book Fair, Flux Factory and Center for Book Arts (U.S.A.). See her work at felicitybequeathment.com and curandikatz.net.

  • Last Will and Testament (2016 - ongoing).Still from video documentation of the performative act. With Gabriëlle Schleijpen. Courtesy Dutch Art Institute (DAI).
  • Still from Measures for Marwan (2019). In collaboration with Isabelle Sully for ‘Two in A Coffin’, curated by Tirza Kater and Tim Mathijsen, Marwan Amsterdam.

Antye Guenther

Since mid 2021 Antye Guenther investigates biometrical data visualisations, specifically looking at what kind of hierarchies, norms and ideologies are installed in the underlying 3D imaging software practises. As the ways of engaging with digital software are highly naturalised and explicitly fabricated to be effortlessly intuitive, Guenther started to explore counter-intuitive material research tools such as ceramics, script writing and performance to tackle the suspicions she feels towards biometrical data processing and visualising, investigating digital practices using non-digital tools. And as she is highly interested in collective learning and teaching as well, she started to develop hybrid performance workshop formats to explore different kinds of engagement with broader audiences, were Guenther as a Data Diva, for example, invites people onto a fabulous journey into a (scientific) software called brain voyager.

Guenther is a visual artist whose projects orbit around themes such as (non)biological intelligence and supercomputing, computer-brain-analogies and mind control, think tank ideologies and self-optimisation, neuroimagery and fictionality of science, among others.

She has been an associate researcher at the Research Centre of a.pass, Posthogeschool voor Podiumkunsten in Brussels as well as a participant at the Jan van Eyck Academy in Maastricht.Please visit https://www.aguenth.de/ for more information about Guenter’s practice.

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Marlies Vermeulen

Marlies Vermeulen has a background in architecture, is co-founder of the artistic spatial research practice Dear Hunter (www.dearhunter.eu) and started the institute of Cartopology (www.cartopology.institute) as part of her artistic PhD project. The Institute of Cartopology addresses two main concerns of cartopologists. Firstly, the place of place in daily life and on maps and secondly the consequences of using maps as research instruments. The interplay between both concerns and the tension field that each entails draws the field of cartopology. It is a search for knowledge that is not immediately written down or told, but is rather hidden in obviousness, in habits and embodied in actions that define places. Cartopological maps challenge existing spatial notation systems (such as the architectural plan) and develops them into research instruments to search for daily life experiences of places.

Cartopology joins the lived reality with the physical place and is at the crossroad between disciplines born from a spatial perspective and those born from a fascination with human behavior and interaction.

Building the institute is a process whereby certain forms of the cartopological map and behavior of the cartopologist are identifies and recognised as valuable artistic research. Cartopology as a field as well as the development of the Institute are are part of her PhD research supervised by Ruth Benschop (Zuyd University), Carolin Stapenhorst (RWTH Aachen) and Peter Peters (Maastricht University). She is also teaching Cartopology at several universities and institutes in Europe.

  • Vermeulen Hills with History
  • Vermeulen Dear Hunter Living on site

Research Communities

The Jan van Eyck Academie offers residencies to artists, designers—ranging from graphic, fashion, to food and social design—, writers, curators and architects from all over the world. Every participant is provided with the time, space and expertise needed to develop their artistic practice in depth. The academy is a place for research and experimentation, as well as a place for (public) debate and cross fertilization. Self-development is tied in with collaboration and exchange.

Its labs,—Food, Material Matters, Photography & Audiovisual, Printing & Publishing, Future Materials—, and library, support the participants in the conceptualisation and realisation of their projects. The Nature Research, Art & Society and Research & Education departments further artistic and academic research, and initiates projects in collaboration with external parties.

Its public programme addresses the topics that feature on the academy’s agenda. Placing the climate urgency central, the Jan van Eyck Academy aims to offer new perspectives and to encourage a conversation about the arts in a world of environmental breakdown.

The Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences (FASoS) is one of the six faculties at Maastricht University. It was founded in 1994. The faculty offers a place where scholars with different disciplinary backgrounds – historians, political scientists, literary and arts scholars, sociologists, anthropologists, philosophers and others – are brought together in joint research. This interdisciplinary approach is predominant in our teaching as well; all of our programmes acquaint students with different disciplines and perspectives.

The Maastricht Centre for Arts and Culture, Conservation and Heritage (MACCH) is an interdisciplinary research centre that brings together economic, legal, (art) historical, philosophical, sociological and practical expertise to the context of arts and heritage. In response to the demands of the increasingly complex challenges facing the fields of arts and heritage today, MACCH initiates collaborative research projects with researchers, professionals, and students from diverse backgrounds. MACCH is a joint effort of the Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences, the Faculty of Law, the School of Business and Economics, the Faculty of Science and Engineering (formerly Faculty of Humanities and Sciences), and the Sociaal Historisch Centrum voor Limburg (SHCL) and the Stichting Restauratie Atelier Limburg (SRAL).

Classical music institutions are faced with challenges. The quality of the performed repertoire tends to be high, but concert attendance is stagnating, audiences are aging, the musical landscape is increasingly hybrid and government subsidies are decreasing. Because of this, the need for innovating the practices of classical music culture has been generally acknowledged. Maastricht University (UM), philzuid (South Netherlands Philharmonic) and Zuyd University for Applied Sciences (Zuyd) aspire to support this innovation through the establishment of the Maastricht Centre for the Innovation of Classical Music (MCICM). The centre aims to study the dynamics behind changing classical music practices and their societal contexts and to actively shape classical music futures. To do so, the MCICM combines academic research on innovation of performance practices with artistic research to renew classical music practices and music education in artistically relevant ways.

University College Maastricht is an honours liberal arts College of Maastricht University. Whereas in a traditional programme all the courses are laid out and predetermined for the students, at UCM the concept of choice is central. UCM offers students a broad range of courses to choose from, covering all scientific disciplines. As a college student you have the opportunity to develop your own academic preferences and talents and acquire all the expertise and skills to enter a high-quality Master programme. The College provides intensive guidance to help you make the right choices.

Art and creative technology belong in all societies. There is no society without creative talent. The Maastricht Institute of Arts is an open community and an energizing environment in one. A place that encourages you to explore. A place that encourages you to develop and reflect. A place that encourages creativity. The Maastricht Institute of Arts is an intercultural and international workshop. A workshop where you develop your professional skills. Where talent blossoms. A hub in the city and meeting place for people with a variety of outlooks, both converging and diverging. A living, exciting place. Where you are welcome, where you feel at home. Where you come to be inspired by optimism.

Research by the centre focuses on two current core themes: artistic research and engagement in the arts. How does art become relevant? And what does it mean when we say that artists make knowledge? The Research Centre What Art Knows investigates these questions from an anthropological and practical-philosophical perspective. By looking at concrete art practices, the research centre stimulates work that shows the richness hidden between oppositional clichés about art, society, politics, science and research.

At Conservatorium Maastricht, very international in its composition and mindset, we believe in collectivity, in the will to challenge each other and excel ourselves. To add value, in and with music. With talented students, inspiring teachers, our audience, challenging venues, educational institutions, cultural organisations, businesses and municipal and provincial authorities. We like to take the lead in new developments. We aim to inspire, and are always looking for innovation within creation, transfer and performance to stimulate young talent, students and alumni to become excellent and all-round musicians whose energy and creativity offer a valuable contribution to the international world of music and to society.

As a student of The Toneelacademie Maastricht, you work hard – searching for your own power of expression and inspiration. Studying at the Academy requires dedication and enthusiasm. But at the same time the protected environment provided by the Academy gives you the scope to seek for and work towards that final moment when everything comes together: your production, your performance, your direction, your staging. And all that time you’re being encouraged by your instructors and fellow students. The Toneelacademie Maastricht renowned both in the Netherlands and beyond. Countless well-known stage, TV, and film actors trained with us, as did a large number of theatre directors, artistic directors, dramatists, and scriptwriters.