The Nieuwstraat Festival: The Works

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The Nieuwstraat is an average street in the center of Dordrecht, the Netherlands.
The Nieuwstraat Festival took place on June 20, 2020, between sunrise and midnight. The performances were performed by volunteers, unannounced and without explanation.
The performances involved took place in everyday environments and hid the unusual within the usual. Passers-by will have observed the actions, but may not have recognized them as performance art.

Works by:
Annie Abrahams
Karina Beumer
Jessica van Deursen
Guillaume Dufour Morin
Ienke Kastelein
Jonathon Keats
Laura Hyunjhee Kim
Stefan Klein
Frans van Lent
Deirdre MacLeod
Javier Mansilla
Maria Martens Serrano
Andrew McNiven
Janet Meaney
Nico Parlevliet
Mikio Saito
Elia Torrecilla
Albert Van Der Weide
Kamila Wolszczak
Iris van Wijk

The Nieuwstraat Festival fits in a series of Unnoticed Art Festivals. It balances on the line between public and private. It shows artworks hiding in normality. The language, used to express the works, fits in the average social behaviour in public space and, because of that, remained unnoticed to bystanders.
Creating the concepts and executing the works are split. Artists send their concepts more or less as manuals. The chosen works  are carried out by a group of (both experienced and unexperienced) volunteers. These volunteers have a double roll. They are participants as well as audience. They are responsible for realising the performances in the best possible way and, doing that, they fully experience the works. In fact they become part of it.
This way the audience is not excluded but it is actually embedded.

The works in the Nieuwstraat Festival were performed by:
Safanja Bendeler, Stefanie van den Bos, Louwrens Botha, Malou van Doormaal, Kirsten Heshusius, Jolanda Jansen, Ienke Kastelein, Frans van Lent, Steef van Lent, Nico Parlevliet, Leonard Passchier, Jello Reumer, ieke Trinks, Emmy Vollaard, Kamila Wolszczak, Iris van Wijk.

Photos © the artists
Text corrections: Maria Martens Serrano