JUSTIN BENNETT

Justin Bennett’s work covers a wide range of genres, from (audio-)visual arts to music. Central to his thinking and work are a process-orientated approach and an interest in the elasticity of the concept of ‘space’. Bennett produces (reworked) field recordings, drawings, performances, installations, photographs, videos and essays. What counts in the production of a new work is the potential of each respective medium – regardless of classical divisions between media. Bennett lectures on his work; he hosts workshops, produces soundtracks, and is a curator; he is a member of performance group BMB con., and of electronic improvisation trio Grand Mal.

The widely ranging work of Justin Bennett is as rooted in the audiovisual and visual arts as it is in music. Central to his thinking and his work is a process-orientated approach and an interest in the elasticity of the concept of ’space’. Bennett produces (reworked) field recordings, drawings, performances, installations, photographs, videos and essays. He brings the characteristic potentials and capacities of each medium into every new work, paying no heed to the divisions between these media. He gives lectures on his work throughout all of Europe, hosts workshops, produces soundtracks for experimental filmmakers, is an active curator for video presentations and a member of the performance group, BMB con., and the electronic improvisation trio, Grand Mal.

At the end of the 1980s, Justin Bennett moved from Nuneaton, in Warwickshire, England, to the Netherlands. Bennett studied art at the Cumbria College of Art and Design, video, sculpture, performance and sound at the Sheffield City Polytechnic, followed courses in sonology at the Royal Conservatory in the Hague and did graduate research and production at the Jan Van Eyck Academy in Maastricht.

He has recently participated in the 10th Istanbul Biennial (2007)with "The Well" (CD and installation), in the exhibition "Drawing Typologies" at Stedelijk Museum in Amsterdam. Also, he has realised performances and projects in public space for "Trans(ient) City", Luxembourg (2007) and shown work at Secondroom in Brussels (2008). From mai to september 2008, he is in residency at the Vrije Ruimten Zuidas of the Virtual Museum Zuidas, Amsterdam.