Esther van der Heijden
Esther van der Heijden is a multi-media artist, visual researcher, and educator. Her practice entails artistic research, costume design, ceramic experimentation, and writing. These expressions often merge within layered video worlds that are investigative, critical, and playful. Much of Esther’s work revolves around water, oceanic ecosystems and evolution, and storytelling that is related to the aquatic. She reads oceanic fiction and folktales as tools that unpack current climate and political crises at sea.
During the residency, Esther will create a series of textile works (costumes and/or patchworks), inspired by the site-specificity of Bileća lake’s ecosystem. Hereby Esther questions how costuming both influences our understanding of our surrounding and interacts with the surrounding itself.