Dance

Queer East Festival is bringing Robin Nimanong’s latest contemporary dance production to London. Cyborg DNA will be staged in The Place on 19 April. This performance imagines humanity’s evolution into transhumanism, enhanced by sophisticated technologies, and how today’s focus on race, gender and ethnicity may shift towards different and new parameters.

That same night – 19 April – is the first of four shows by Nederlands Dans Theater at Sadler’s Wells. NDT is absolutely world-class, so it comes as no surprise that all shows are already sold out.

If you want to see legendary Dutch roller skate dancers bust some moves, and if you want to learn mad skills from these pros, you should make your way to Northern Roll in Leeds on 19, 20 and 21 May. Stefan "DJ StayFun" Seedorf will be on the wheels of steel, while Bryan Druiventak and Chris Frank are giving masterclasses on how to steal the show on wheels.

Live music

The Dutch Ragazze Quartet will perform ‘The World’s Wife’ in The Barbican Centre on 2 May, together with transgender opera singer Lucia Lucas. On the 17, 18 and 19 June this string quartet will be back in the UK for three concerts at St Magnus International Festival on the Orkey Islands; the first concert is a collaboration with Dutch Baritone Maarten Koningsberger, the second concert is just the Ragazze Quartet, and the third concert is a collaboration with Dutch pianist Nikola Meeuwsen. Meeuwsen also has a solo concert on Orkney on 17 June, part of the same festival.

Dutch pop, rock and jazz bands are also finding their way to the UK. Altin Gün perform at Electric Brixton on 13 April, rock band Focus play at Sage Gateshead on 14 April as part of their 50th anniversary celebration and Pip Blom toured the UK in January and February. Jazz ensemble the Sam Newbould Quintet are planning a UK tour in the second half of 2023, as are pop formation Someone.

Visual arts exhibitions

When an environmentally conscious art gallery puts together a group exhibition called ‘The Art of Waste’ it would be shameful not to have works included by Jan Eric Visser, the godfather of “waste”-based art. GroundWork Gallery in King’s Lynn, Norfolk, understands that. The gallery, which worked with Jan Eric Visser before, is exhibiting works by the Dutch artist until 15 July 2023.

The Hundred Years Gallery in London shows ‘Visceral’ by Richard Bolhuis from 11 to 14 May. The artist will be in London throughout the four days, so there’s a good chance you’ll spot him when you visit the exhibition.

The Ruskin Museum in Coniston, Cumbria, exhibits ‘Earthly Windows’ by Dutch photographer Loek van Vliet until 11 June.

Tate Modern has an exhibition on the famous Dutch painter Piet Mondriaan and a Swedish painter who is less of a household name, but worked in much the same way as Mondriaan, at around the same time. This exhibition of works by Hilma af Klint and Piet Mondriaan runs from 20 April until 3 September.

The National Gallery in London just opened ‘After Impressionism’, including works by Vincent van Gogh.

Design

Traditionally, a design biennale consists of ‘country pavilions’. National governments or cultural institutes hire square metres at a fair and showcase “world-class design” from their country. London Design Biennale normally works in much the same way, but this year designers from different countries are also encouraged to work with each other. That’s instigated by the Artistic Director of the 2023 edition of the London Design Biennale, which is the Nieuwe Instituut from Rotterdam. "Global challenges require global collaboration", explains the Director of Nieuwe Instituut, Aric Chan. That's why this year's theme of the biennale is 'The Global Game, remapping collaborations'. Via an online game, all designers showcasing work at the biennale can now already put their brainpower together to work on some of the world’s most pressing issues – together.

The Netherlands is also hiring a pavilion at London Design Biennale at Somerset House in June 2023. The curator of that Dutch pavilion, Colin Keays, has come up with a wonderful plan to interact with any other country pavilion that is up for it. The idea is that elements of the (still to be created) Dutch design piece can be borrowed by other pavilions and used as seats, or tables, or lecterns when they host an event in their space.

That design can help to put societal problems on the political agenda is proven by Smogware. This Dutch initiative, which involves making tableware glazed with locally collected air pollution, is coming to Glasgow. On 15 June, National Clean Air Day, there will be an afternoon tea at Glasgow's City Hall to discuss the problem of the city's polluted air with local politicians. All participants will drink tea from cups glazed with dust collected in the streets of Glasgow. Smogware collaborates with Make It Glasgow, Asthma & Lung UK and City of Glasgow College in this project.

Theatre

From 26 May to 4 June, it’s Dutch Season at Brighton Fringe. The director of the festival has selected four shows that he found at Amsterdam Fringe and he is bringing these exciting new works to audiences in Brighton. The artists that are coming over from the Netherlands are also giving theatre workshops during their time in Brighton.

From 28 May to 18 June, Theater Artemis performs ‘The Invisible Man’ at Unicorn Theatre in London, a fun play geared towards younger audiences (5 to 11-year-olds).

‘A Little Life’ in the Harold Pinter Theatre, directed by Ivo van Hove of International Theatre Amsterdam, is completely sold out. But the good news is: the run will be extended by five weeks at the Savoy Theatre, also in London.

Residencies

Many of the cultural activities mentioned in this article are financially supported by the Embassy of the Netherlands in the UK. The embassy supports UK-based arts institutions that bring Dutch culture to their UK-based audiences. But we do more. We also support residencies that give Netherlands-based artists an opportunity to further develop artistically with the support of a UK-based arts organisation. An example is the residency of Sachi Miyachi and Nina Glockner at Van Gogh House London throughout May 2023.

Collaborations with other embassies

The Dutch Embassy refrains from organising its own cultural events; we prefer to leave that to the professionals. But because embassies of many other countries tend to get actively involved in bringing artists from their home countries over to the UK, and because we are part of the EUNIC network that promotes culture from across the EU in the UK, we have agreed to take part in a film festival and a literature festival in which one filmmaker or one author from each EU country gets a platform. On 21 and 22 April there is a festival with short films in the Everyman Cinema in Leeds and on 20 and 21 May there is a literature festival at the British Library in London.

The Dutch film is Hannah's Dream by film directors Emily Reekers and Eugene Arts. It screens on Saturday afternoon 22 April at Everyman Leeds. The Dutch participant in the literature festival is poet Nachoem Wijnberg. He takes the stage at the British Library on Saturday 20 May at 4pm.

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Want to know more about the work of the Culture Team at the Dutch Embassy in London? Go to www.netherlandsandyou.nl/uk/culture.