Venuri Perera and Eisa Jocson will perform Magic Maids at Transform Festival in Leeds. Photo: Bernie Ng

Transform Festival, Leeds
Transform Festival in Leeds has, as usual, a very exciting programme this October. As is often the case, Dutch productions are included in the festival. This year, the festival line-up even includes three productions from the Netherlands. All very different.

In the dance performance Magic Maids by Eisa Jocson and Venuri Perera, who were born in the Philippines and Sri Lanka respectively, brooms play a key role. Perera and Jocson point out that their countries of birth have a reputation for the export of female domestic workers, whom often face contempt, and even abuse. The brooms in this choreography are also a reference to how women believed to be witches were treated throughout history, around the world. The story is good, the dance is excellent, the choice of music is original and unexpected (Britney Spears, anyone?), and the set design is magical.
Eisa Jocson and Venuri Perera perform Magic Maids at Leeds Beckett University on Saturday 25 October. The two artists also give a three-hour long workshop on 23 October (bring your own broom!) and they participate in an afternoon full of sneak preview performances on 22 October.

Other Dutch productions that are part of Transform Festival are RUNNER by Ira Brand and PERPETUUM by Katja Heitmann. Ira Brand’s show is all about pushing herself to the limits, until exhaustion. This performance is on Saturday afternoon 25 October at Carriageworks Theatre, so it’s possible to see RUNNER and Magic Maids on the same day. Katja Heitmann’s production is a light installation featuring people from Leeds that are restricted in their movements, due to health issues or disabilities. In collaboration with Yorkshire Dance, Heitmann has been “archiving” the movements and the stories of people in Leeds, and in collaboration with Light Night Leeds and Transform Festival the videos made will feature in a light art projection in Leeds’ city centre (exact location still to be determined) on 22 and 23 October.

Take Me Somewhere Festival, Glasgow
Dutch artist Cherish Menzo will be back in the UK. After very successful stints at festivals and theatres in the UK a few years ago with her shows JEZEBEL and DARKMATTER, Menzo now has her UK premiere of the third production in this trilogy, FRANK , at Take Me Somewhere Festival in Glasgow. FRANK – short for Frankenstein – takes a long, hard look at the monstrosities created by, and embodied by, humankind. In Menzo's own words, she explores the uncanny, the enigmatic, and the monstrous. Plenty of dark turns are taken in FRANK, with many references to colonial-era slavery. FRANK shows at Tramway in Glasgow on Wednesday 22 October. Audiences interested in learning more about Cherish Menzo’s practice and work processes are invited to join her for a workshop two days prior to the show.

More dance
Other exciting dance performances to mention here are, Gallery of Consequences at Theatre Royal in Bath, danced by Rambert dancers and choreographed by Emma Evelein from the Netherlands, as well as Caught in the Net of Rebirth by Dutch choreographer Chandenie Gobardhan, at Brixton House, as part of Dance Umbrella. Gobardhan’s piece – which was performed in Ipswich last weekend – is performed in Brixton on 4 October. Evelein’s piece is performed in Bath on 6, 7 and 8 November.

Story of Water by Nicole Mollett and José den Hartog unveiled in Chatham. Photo: Rikard Österlund

Beautiful mural unveiled in Chatham
A striking new public artwork was unveiled at the Chatham Pumping Station last weekend. This beautiful ceramic mural was created by collaborating artist duo Nicole Mollett (UK) and José den Hartog (Netherlands), and draws on the rich maritime and industrial history, and the ecology of the Medway River. The mural has truly transformed a rather dull looking historic infrastructure site into a vibrant visual landmark.

Zutphen represented at Artes Mundi, again
For the second consecutive iteration of Artes Mundi an artist from the city of Zutphen has been selected to participate in this arts biennial in Wales. Sawangwongse Yawnghwe has a solo exhibition at Aberystwyth Arts Centre, as part of AM11. He follows in the footsteps of Mounira Al Solh, who exhibited at AM10, two years ago, and who also lives and works in Zutphen. Read more about Yawnghwe's fascinating life and work on the Artes Mundi website. (We will be sure to go to Wales for Artes Mundi. Furthermore, we will make a point of visiting Zutphen, in the Netherlands, when we get the chance. We didn’t know it was a hub for internationally renowned artists.)

Exciting solo exhibitions in Manchester, Liverpool and London
After a month-long residency in Manchester at esea contemporary and The Whitworth earlier this year, supported by the Mondriaan Fund for Visual Arts, Marcos Kueh now gets his first UK solo exhibition. Kueh’s beautiful textile works are an exploration of cross-cultural histories, diasporic identity, and collective memory. Kueh’s exhibition Smooth Sailing can be visited free of charge at esea contemporary in Manchester from 11 October to 11 January.

A totally different style of work, but also textile-based and also inspired by diasporic journeys, is Dub Encyclopaedia by Antonio Guzman and Iva Jankovic (aka Messengers of the Sun) at iniva in London. On 16 October, the second last day of the exhibition, Guzman and Jankovic will perform live at iniva (at breakfast time). An excellent opportunity for visitors of Frieze London to explore what else is on in the city.

Another exhibition that is the result of a residency that was supported by the Mondriaan Fund, is Burnt Toast by video artist Helen Anna Flanagan at FACT Liverpool. Burnt Toast is a contemporary ghost story that resurrects comedian and magician Tommy Cooper, who famously died on stage during a live performance in 1984. It’s on at FACT Liverpool until 23 November.

Celebrating women in the arts
Nowadays, there are probably more women working in the cultural sector than men, but that hasn’t always been the case. As a result, there are a lot of initiatives these days to celebrate the female arts professionals of the past and present. The Dutch Embassy supports various of such initiatives. One of those is a collaboration between ten contemporary Dutch female artists with the V&A and Saatchi Gallery. The ten artists visited the V&A earlier this year, and they have all chosen a work by female artist in the V&A collection from which they will take inspiration to create something new. The works they make will be exhibited in a group exhibition at Saatchi Gallery later this year. It’s the second iteration of the Standing On the Shoulders Of Giants initiative.

Another celebration of a woman who made a huge impact on the art world, in a time that this wasn’t common, is the National Gallery exhibition Radical Harmony, Helene Kröller-Müller's Neo-Impressionists . Helene Kröller-Müller was an avid art collector. She was one of the first great women art patrons of the 20th century. Kröller-Müller assembled the most comprehensive ensemble of Neo-Impressionist paintings in the world and she made these publicly accessible through the Kröller-Müller Museum in the Netherlands. Many of those paintings are now on loan to the National Gallery. The exhibition runs until 8 February.

Festival of Encounters in Brixton, London
The people of van Gogh House London have put together an amazing cultural programme spanning several weeks and more than forty activities. They have dubbed it the Festival of Encounters. An artist duo from the Netherlands, who recently did an arts residency at Van Gogh House, is included in this eclectic festival. Artists Hildur Elísa Jónsdóttir and Caz Egelie give a performance inside the house where Vincent van Gogh rented a room for a year, in 1873. Through playful gestures and transient tales, Seven for a Secret invites audience members to stitch together timelines, textures, and truths, eventually becoming part of the play.

Black History Month
The Dutch Centre in London organises several events in October to celebrate Black History Month. On 30 September, an exhibition about the history of slavery in former Dutch colonies opens. This history is told through ten personal stories of people who were involved in slavery, in one way or another. Eveline Sint Nicolaas, a senior curator at Rijksmuseum Amsterdam who was involved in creating this international travelling exhibition, will share how the exhibition came about, and what impact it has had on the museum and on society at large.

The Dutch Centre also hosts an evening with Orville Breeveld and Rebeca Omordia to celebrate the work and lives of black composers of classical music. This event, on 9 October, will be moderated by Kim Wassens. Breeveld is a prominent voice in the Netherlands for diversifying classical music. Pianist Omordia is hailed as an “African classical music pioneer” (BBC World Service) and a “classical music game changer” (Classical Music). She will be playing music by a variety of black composers.

Sam Newbould will perform at Vortex Jazz Club during EFG London Jazz Festival. Photo: Eric van Nieuwland

Various styles of music
Dutch singers and pianists are taking the stage at the Schubert Weekend of the Oxford International Song Festival. On Friday 17 October, baritone Henk Neven and pianist Hans Eijsackers open the Schubert Weekend with Tales of the Unexpected . That evening, mezzo-soprano Olivia Vermeulen transports audiences to the celestial realm with music from Schubert to Bowie in In Heaven . The final performance of the Schubert Weekend, on Sunday 19 October, is also by musicians from the Netherlands. Baritone Thomas Oliemans and pianist Paolo Giacometti perform Schubert’s final songs, known as Schwanengesang (swan songs).

If early music is what makes you happy, then consider visiting the London International Festival of Early Music from 12 to 15 November. Dutch recorder player Erik Bosgraaf is the artistic director of the festival, at which he also performs himself.

Also in November, jazz clubs in London all partake in EFG London Jazz Festival. The famous Vortex Jazz Club offers a stage for the Sam Newbould Quintet from Amsterdam on 20 November.

Psychedelic rock and pop sensation Robin Kester tours the UK from 16 to 24 November. She goes to Bristol, Manchester, London, Leeds, Edinburgh and Glasgow.

Music theatre at the Barbican Centre
British composer Bushra El-Turk created a brand new production for the Opera Forward Festival in the Netherlands earlier this year. For this production she collaborated with the Dutch National Opera, the Amsterdam Andalusian Orchestra and the Amsterdam-based Meervaart Theater. That production, Oum – A Son’s Quest for His Mother , is now also coming to The Barbican Centre, for one night only, on 2 October.

Light Festivals
Light Night Leeds, on 22 and 23 October, includes two artworks by Dutch makers: Connection by Bart Ensing and PERPETUUM by Katja Heitmann.
Lumiere Durham, from 13 to 15 November, also contains two Dutch works: Sign by Vendel & De Wolf and Take Flight! by Ralf Westerhof.

Book promotion tour Sea Now
'The country is flooding. Every day the sea claims another kilometre of land. The prime minister holds a daily press conference. Scientists try to find an explanation, without success.'
Sea Now , by Dutch author Eva Meijer, is quite obviously inspired by both the climate emergency and the way politicians dealt with the coronavirus emergency. Peirene Press has published this book in English, and various UK bookshops and cultural venues have now lined up to promote the book. Clearly, there is appetite for Eva Meijer’s work in the UK. In December, the author and the Dutch-to-English translator, Anne Thompson Melo, will travel the country for talks and book signing sessions. They will make stops at Topping Booksellers in Edinburgh, Leeds Library, Next Chapter Books in Leeds, Exeter Custom House and The Barbican Centre in London.

Amazing works that deserve a mention
There are, of course, many more Anglo-Dutch cultural exchanges this autumn. There are a number of activities that the embassy couldn’t support financially, but that we want to mention nonetheless.
Such as two performances at Voila Theatre Festival in London by London-based Dutch theatre makers: Flitsmeister by Leah Eliaan and Facility 111 by Inge-Vera Lipsius.
The embassy cannot financially support exchanges between amateur artists, even when these people perform at a seriously high level. In that category, there are two wonderful artistic exchanges between high quality amateur music groups from the Netherlands and the UK in the next few weeks that we would like to mention here.
On Saturday 27 September, the Amsterdam Gay Men's Chorus and the London Gay Men's Chorus perform together at the Conway Hall in London, at 4pm and at 7pm.
Another exceptional collaboration is one between the Lewisham Choral Society and Fries Kamer Orkest. On 11 October they perform together in The Great Hall at Goldsmiths University in London. Two weeks later, 25 October, they perform at the Grote of Jacobijnerkerk in Leeuwarden, the Netherlands.

Contact us
Most of the activities featured in this newsletter have been made possible with support from the Embassy of the Kingdom of the Netherlands in the UK. The United Kingdom is one of the focus countries in the Netherlands’ International Cultural Policy. The aim of this policy is to, firstly, strengthen the position of the Dutch cultural sector in the UK, through visibility, exchange and sustainable cooperation. Secondly, Dutch cultural activities in the UK help to support the bilateral relationship between the Netherlands and the UK. And thirdly, the Dutch cultural sector and creative industries can play a role, at home and internationally, to help achieve the UN’s Sustainable Development Goals. That is why the cultural department at the Dutch Embassy in the UK actively supports Anglo-Dutch cultural exchange. If you want to know more, please contact us on lon-ppc@minbuza.nl.

The Culture Team at the Dutch Embassy in London