Elki Boerdam

Present

about:

Elki Boerdam is a visual artist and writer obsessed with the accumulation, circulation and consumption of digital images. In her practice she uses images as her material, with the aim to empower them again. She actively searches for digital images that are getting lost in the sea of smooth online content. Boerdam looks for the the poor, the ugly, the random, the vague, the non and the incomprehensible image. Saving them and thus lifting them from invisibility by arranging them, materializing them into paper, textile and returning them as digital entities. She also channels their thoughts into speculative stories written from the perspective of the image itself.
In her current work she researches how the random image can serve to fight predictive control and how images play a role in truth production systems of today.

Examples of work are compositions of digital photographic images harvested from the internet, a 3d rendered echo chamber, speculative science fiction writings, collaborations with archival institutions and various image collections and publications.

The Input Party:

Elki Boerdam is also co-initiator of The Input Party, a project to explore referential image archives collected by individual artists. The Input Party organizes meet-ups between artists as well as workshops and exhibitions. They are also working with archival institutions to collaboratively investigate the role of images in artistic research.

The Input Party consists out of Elki Boerdam and Rachel Sellem

current activities:

… autonomous image researcher
… co-founder of The Input Party
… picture editor for De Volkskrant
… editorial collage illustrations: portfolio

… Instagram: @elkioko
… www.inputparty.nl
… www.ansichtenclub.nl

Past

2023:

… Exhibition: Spillway publications at Bring Your Own Book Art Fair, ENTER ENTER Amsterdam.
… Published in Issue#3 by the Faculty of In-humanities, text and image research Günter Förg’s Windows to Bauhaus.
… Exhibition: publications at Ei-nd, Komok Amsterdam.

2022:

… Otto is born! ☺
… Talk + panel interview Re:Use Clinic, Open Archief, IISG, Amsterdam.
… Screening When an image finds herself in an echo chamber, Rialto VU, Amsterdam
… Screening When an image finds herself in an echo chamber, Homecinema, online
… Exhibition: Graduation Show Sandberg Institute, F for Fact, Former Courthouse, Amsterdam
… Published in PrtScn: The Lazy Art of Screenshot, Institute of Network Cultures.
… Published in the journal Floating in the Abyss, with the short story Amidst the Mirrors.
… Talk: Images in journalism, and the dangers of the algorithm taking over the job of the photo editor. In Search Of symposium, Sandberg Institute, Amsterdam.
… Input Party x Open Archief, IISG
… Exhibition: Open Day presentation F for Fact, Sandberg Institute, Amsterdam

2021:

… Exhibition: Group show Departures, MAMA Rotterdam, as collective De Ansichten Club
… Published in de Volkskrant: Image collection Teken aan de wand, in collaboration with Mark Moorman
… Exhibition: End of the Year Presentations MA F for Fact, Sandberg Instituut, Slotervaart Hospital, Amsterdam
… Published in The Archive Hotel, print and online.
… Input Party x Open Archief, online

2020:

… Input Party at the copyshop, Lowie Kopie, Amsterdam
… PUB Summercamp Input Party workshop, Sandberg Instituut, Amsterdam
… Sad Man MAG #1, zine publication in collaboration with Io Cooman
… Input Party x Institute of Social History, IISG, Amsterdam
… Input Party XL, Posthoornkerk, Amsterdam

2019:

… Conversation host at How Do You Do, Nieuwe Instituut, Rotterdam
… Talk: project Input Party, the Hmm, Nederlands Instituut voor Beeld en Geluid, Hilversum
… Expert coach for the project Open Archief, Nederlands Instituut voor Beeld en Geluid / Nieuwe Instituut
… Development of the new Input Party program
… Text: I was there, on touristic photography (link)

2018:

… October image curator, The Hmm (link)
… Talk: Filosoferen over toerisme, about photography and tourism, Tugela85, Amsterdam

2017:

… Talk: Extraterrestrial: the picture as evidence of the unseen, The Hmm, De Ruimte, Amsterdam
… Exhibition: What Images Have You Seen So Far?, Storyspace, Nederlands Film Festival, Utrecht
… Exhibition: A Visual Conversation, NEVERNEVERLAND at the Punt, Amsterdam
… Exhibition: Open Media Art, Institute for Sound and Vision, Hilversum
… Initiator: Research Project Input Party, with Rachel Sellem

2016:

… Talk: The Photographic Image as an Archive, Fanfare, Amsterdam
… Talk: What Images Have You Seen So Far?, Dutch Design Week, Eindhoven
… Talk: As, Beeldjagers: Tweede dag van de beeldverzamelaar, Chassé Theater, Breda
… Text: writings on my finds in the archive of the Institute of Sound and Vision (link)
… Residency: Institute for Sound and Vision, Open Media Art
… Published: As image collection published in the Volkskrant

2015:

… Residency: Workcentre 232, with Byrthe Lemmens
… Initiator: Input Party archive sharing gatherings, with Rachel Sellem
… Initiator: Ansichten Club, with Byrthe Lemmens & Jip van Steenis
… Exhibition: Wishlist Ultrakey, Kapitaal, Utrecht

2013:

…Exhibition: Calendar 2013, Looiersgracht 90, Amsterdam

2011:

…Text: Stills, het vastgevroren beeld, thesis, (link)

past education:

… MA Sandberg Instituut: F for Fact
… Gerrit Rietveld Academie Amsterdam
BA Graphic Design (2007 - 2011)
… Sint-Lucas Beeldende Kunst Gent
Graphic Design (2006 - 2007)

past activities:

… picture editor Sir Edmund, de Volkskrant
… picture editor de Correspondent
… collection editor Beeldjagers (MOTI)
… head of research Share This. Art on social networks.
… picture editor VPRO Upload TV
… creative assistant Upload Cinema