AMSTERDAM.- The short film The Ride is on view in the St Sebastian Chapel in the Oude Kerk. This latest work by Amsterdam artist duo PolakVanBekkum is being screened between 25 January and 2 March 2019. The screenings will start after sunset on Friday and Saturday evenings. In a personal, 11-minute video, Esther Polak and Ivar van Bekkum take the audience to an island. Together, two people commemorate a life-changing event that once deeply touched them. The backdrop created by the Oude Kerk’s stunning architecture adds an extra dimension to the screenings. Afterwards, visitors get to wander through the dark church for a moment of reflection and a cup of hot tea.

The Ride is a novelty in the oeuvre of artist duo PolakVanBekkum. For the cinematic expression of their personally coloured story, the artists used a sound recording in combination with a recorded route. Visitors see Google Earth satellite images that determine the contours of the space and hear surround sound from four speakers. The effect is a distinctly spatial narrative experience. Space and movement are the parameters of the work in which the artists take the audience back to the past.

Artist Duo
The Amsterdam artist duo Esther Polak and Ivar van Bekkum works under the name PolakVanBekkum. Since 2012, their work focuses on mobility and the landscape. The Ride is the first video in which autobiographical events also play a part. PolakVanBekkum: ‘We are fascinated by movement and are always looking for ways to capture the moment when something happens. Every movement changes the experience of space.’

Oude Kerk
An atypical art museum, the Oude Kerk considers the presentation of both contemporary art and heritage one of its core tasks. Here, personal memories have been added to the collective memory for centuries. The Ride depicts a personal memory that calls forth universal emotions. The film forges a relationship with the church and its meaning as a commemorative place in which loss, recurrence and reconciliation are tangible.

The Ride is screened on Friday and Saturday evenings after sunset, from 25 January to 2 March 2019. For exact start times, please visit the Oude Kerk website.