Margot Berkman | Portfolio Categories Exhibitions
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Koraaldrift Heliomare 2023

Koraaldrift (2022) – Margot Berkman

Coral  2022 -Margot Berkman

Location: Heliomare Rehabilitation Centre , Wijk aan Zee, the Netherlands

Measurements:  9 x 7  x 3,5 meter

Material:  Quartzsand, plasterdispersion , LED lights

 

 

 Press release HELIOMARE

Wijk aan Zee, October 24, 2023

 

Unveiling of the artwork ‘Koraaldrift’ by Margot Berkman at Heliomare

An image of hope

 

Margot Berkman, wellknown for creating many art commissions in public spaces, including the monument for King Willem Alexander, will donate her work of art ‘Coralpassion’ (‘Koraaldrift’) to Heliomare on Thursday afternoon, November 2 at 5 p.m. as a thank you for all the help she has received in her rehabilitation.Together with Jan Welmers, director of Heliomare, she unveils the group of sculptures.

Berkman is inspired by nature and in particular seaweeds. Seaweed provides more than 54% of the world’s oxygen. Corals live in symbiosis with seaweed. When seaweed dies, the coral also dies from lack of oxygen.

Berkman was on Bonaire in December 2021 and conducted filming and painting research into braincoral. She had discovered that large formations of braincorals came back to life in full splendor after being white and bleached for a year. Recovery appears possible. That sentence later became her motto.

Ironically, two weeks later she was hit from behind by a car while running on Bonaire and her head hit a tree.

In a coma, Berkman was hospitalized and diagnosed with brain damage; she could no longer do anything and was in a wheelchair.

Ultimately, she was allowed to start rehabilitation at Heliomare in May 2022. Berkman created the scu lpture group ‘Koraaldrift’ during her rehabilitation period in her own studio in Zandvoort aan Zee. She has come a long way but is still recovering. Living proof of her motto: Recovery appears possible.

 

The sculpture group ‘Koraaldrift’

Five coral-like structures surround a nearly four-meter-high, sky-reaching seaweed-like shape that stands at the top of a dune.

These six sculptures together form the artwork ‘Coralpassion (‘Koraaldrift’) and are placed on the experience path at the main entrance of the center for specialist rehabilitation of Heliomare.

With its dimensions of 9 x 7 meters and 3.8 m high, the artwork is a real eye-catcher for patients, employees and visitors. During the day the sculptures are radiantly white, but as soon as dusk sets in, the artwork is magically illuminated, like living coral in the underwater world.

The artwork tells the story about the resilience of nature, the body and the mind. It points you to another, slower world. The special shapes emerge from her research into the many types of brain coral. The corals fight for their existence underwater. They show, colored and less colored, whether their life force is decreasing or increasing. Above water they have settled in the rolling dune. Together the stone-like elements form a special intermediate landscape. They invite you to pause for a moment and think: Are we above or below water?

 

Brain injury and braincoral

For someone with a brain injury, a different reality, a different world, arises. Just like the underwater world, your world becomes ‘slower’. You slow down due to sensitivity to light and sound, fatigue, reduced concentration and physical complaints.

Margot Berkman believes that with good guidance and strong willpower you can achieve your dreams and hopes that this image group is a source of inspiration for everyone who wants to achieve more in their lives. As a thank you to Heliomare and all the passionate therapists and employees, she donates her brain coral-inspired sculpture group Koraaldrift.

 

Koraaldrift Haarlemse Hout Beeldengalerij 2022

Koraaldrift (2022) – Margot Berkman

Coral Fury 2022 -Margot Berkman

Koraaldrift is an artcommission from Beeldengalerij Foundation for public area of Haarlem.

Location: Dreef/ Haarlemse Hout, Haarlem Nederland

Measurements:  6 x 6 x 3,5 meter

 

Material:  Quartzsand, plasterdispersion , LED lights

Cobra Museum Wave of Breath 2020

In the beginning there is the sea.
One day there is a first wave that sets everything in motion.
The algae take shape and wave with the water.
At times they oppose the waves.

From one form comes a new form, and another.
A diversity of forms emerges.
The sea begins to breathe for us and we breathe with the sea.

This is the world that inspires and nurtures Margot Berkman.
In Wave she takes us underwater, to a world both familiar and strange.
Like the sea her work displays reflection upon reflection: in sculptures, in drawings, in ink, paint, bronze and fabric.
For the wave brings deeper layers to the surface. Layers that can be only briefly exposed to sunlight and can only be held fast in another form.
And then the wave plunges down, and the making begins again.

                                                                                                                Katja Rodenburg – Curator

 

 

Wave of Breath

11 March 2011 – Fukushima Japan

August 2020 – Whispering Seaweed Amstelveen

We owe our existence to the breathing waves; we have to take good care of what gave us life.

With the sculpture group Whispering Seaweed, Margot Berkman takes us below the surface, to a world that is both familiar and unfamiliar. Like the sea, her work shows one reflection after another: in sculptures, in drawings, in ink, paint, bronze and textiles.

This film marks the unveiling of the sculpture group Whispering Seaweed in public space and the opening of the exhibition Wave of Breath in the Cobra Museum, in which curator Katja Rodenburg presents a selection of the artist’s versatile work.

Film – Whispering Seaweed 2020

Wave of Breath

11 March 2011 – Fukushima Japan

August 2020 – Whispering Seaweed Amstelveen

We owe our existence to the breathing waves; we have to take good care of what gave us life.

With the sculpture group Whispering Seaweed, Margot Berkman takes us below the surface, to a world that is both familiar and unfamiliar. Like the sea, her work shows one reflection after another: in sculptures, in drawings, in ink, paint, bronze and textiles.

This film marks the unveiling of the sculpture group Whispering Seaweed in public space and the opening of the exhibition Wave of Breath in the Cobra Museum, in which curator Katja Rodenburg presents a selection of the artist’s versatile work.

A soundscape is specially made by Will Calhoun (grammy award winning drummer Living Color, New York)

Whispering Seaweed Landart Amstelveen 2020

Landart  Whispering Seaweed

With exhibiton ‘Waves of Breath’ by curator Katja Rodenburg in the Cobra museum in Amstelveen and a soundscape specially created by Will Calhoun (grammy award winning drummer Living Color, New York)

 

One Thousand and one Nights ©Berkman en Janssens Amsterdam 2005

Measurements:  the entire interior

 

Scheherezade in the Kring

 

For the Lustrum of the Thousand and One Night, the artists’ society De Kring in Amsterdam was completely transformed by Berkman en Janssens into a magical and exotic environment. All performances and parties took place in the structure of Arabian Nights. The light design was specially manufactured by DreLight (eg from Peter Greenaway)

 

There was an exhibition in the restaurant with collages and mobiles of shoes.

 

 

Exhibition Gravenzaal Haarlem 2017

‘Sealung’ 2017       

Measurements: 10 m x 10 m

Material: algues, led, wool, copper

 

Eurydice 2017

Measurements: 4,5 m x 1,5 m x 1,5 m

Material: Bronze

 

What floats under the surface of the sea, becomes visible. Seaweed and Algues.

The most important element to stay alive comes from the underwater world.

 

 

Elisabeth van Thüringen Fund Exhibition 2018

measurements: 3 m x 3 m x 3 m

 

 

Breathe with the Ocean

 

A nature of form that takes you to different thoughts

I wanted to create a contemplative world in the 20 meter high church.

A world in which your eyes feel the warmth of the wool on your skin.

The lines of the branches play in the church-light.

Your hands can change the color of the light, to reinforce the image you want to see

In your favorite color

Algae and seaweeds give the world oxygen, much more than the rainforests.

Do you know someone to whom I can add oxygen?

 

Exhibition ‘Art from Care’ about healing art in Dutch hospitals

 

 

 

 

The Ocean Breathes The Mermaids Foam 2018

Measurements: 2,5 m x 1,5 m (ensemble of 10 m x 10 m)

 

Feel the foam of the mermaid

 

‘The Mermaids Foam’ consists of a varying number of objects.

 

Foam of floating algue is the source of inspiration. The ocean breathes.

 

 

 

 

Exhibition Hospital Amsterdam Medical Centre 2018

A deep sea experience of algues made out of wool and silver, drawings and bronze objects. 

 

With this exhibition in AMC, Margot shows large and small sculptures. Some of them are made out of more than thousand pieces of wool that are spun with algues. Her inspiration comes from the sea and the oxygen that seaweed and algues provide for the world. They are the lungs of the sea.

 

Margot Berkman creates awareness for a healthy ocean. Since the nuclear disaster in Fukushima on the 11th of March 2011, there are no seaweeds left around this place.