The importance of art does not need to be evident here. But what about the importance of the workplace for the artist? In a series of interviews with artists who rent their studios from SKAR, the personal significance of the studio for the artist is central. Below is the story of Jolanda Linssen in her studio in the Ackerdijkstraat: "You have to be here, in between your work, no matter what".
It's the dark days before Christmas and inside the studio the fluorescent tubes on the suspended ceiling are on, Jolanda Linssen looks up: "Actually I want different light, this is so yellow! And I would actually like to have that ceiling out as well. But not right now, I don't know what will appear behind those plates. I don't have to think about that right now."
Through a fence in the street we entered this large old school building with its high spacious corridors and stairs.
But first we made a tour around the former schoolyard. I see remnants of vegetable gardens between the stones, a few trees blown empty between the surrounding houses. "A number of artists keep track of those vegetable gardens and the garden. SKAR took care of the garden soil". She points to the deserted table with chairs that are wet and dirty in a corner of the square: "In the summer we have lunch together here. I seldom do that, I am happy when I can be here in my studio. So no, I don't often take part in lunches in the garden, nor in gardening. But the mutual atmosphere is very good. Visitors to our open days often say that you feel that the artists here are interconnected".
Later in the studio she says: "That mutual atmosphere is so nice of this studio building; it is important that you can spar with each other, that there are conversations. Not always and not with everyone, but that's not necessary either. That it is possible, that it is good, good for the process of making art. I've had this studio since 2004, before that I hoped for four years, from anti-squatting to anti-squatting. To be able to work well, I need my own atmosphere. But it's not there in such an empty space. Then I was busy creating my own atmosphere... but that was often a struggle! Such a quest... and it was so restless! Then I would sit there in that empty building, completely deserted, then I was shocked by my own voice when I answered the phone. The murmur of the others in this building does me good. SKAR once gave us the possibility of a communal space, where we could meet, maybe teach. I'd like that. Actually, I don't know about that. By the way, there's no studio available at the moment, but it's not such a crazy idea." Yet again she doubts: "I don't know if I can make time for that. My own work takes precedence."
The studio has three high windows through which we can see the grey sky and also the houses across the street. On either side of each window hang long white curtains. "I can really be happy every day I'm here. It almost feels more at home than at home. Here inside I sit in my own cocoon and am usually unaware of the world outside. But sometimes I notice that I'm looking in. That the people who live across the street look inside. Then I immediately lose that safe feeling, away cocoon. I immediately close the curtains". She laughs. "But it's such a luxury that I have this here. I just have it, you know, a place like this. I had a studio at home, too. But that's not like me. Way too restless. Making art isn't just painting and drawing. Often you fall silent, you don't remember. That space to do nothing is also necessary. Then that's the art of doing nothing. To think, to look, to write. At home I would fill those moments, do the laundry, cook, then I would soon lose the art.
And here I'm also going to mop the floor, just, if it doesn't work out with my work, but then I'm busy and then it starts flowing again. I mop, in the middle of my work. I get impatient, away with that mop, I want to get back to art."
"I want to be here three days a week. That doesn't always work out. I have a family, I teach a few days. My children already know that when I'm late, I can't get away from my studio. But they have a key and can go home by themselves. That teaching is my basic income. I sell, but not enough. From the moment the SKVR indicated that it wanted to stop teaching adults, I started looking for other places to teach. I succeeded, but I have to keep teaching in order to be able to pay for the studio. That way I remain independent. I also teach here in my studio, but that's a violation of my own atmosphere. Then I put my things aside and offer more space to the students. For students it's nice to be in an artist's studio, for them there's a lot to see. But for me it is more difficult. Not everything here is meant for the outside world, the things you're doing are vulnerable, because they're not finished yet. That's why I'm putting them away. It always takes a while before the studio is all mine again after a period of teaching".
We'll look around. A desk and a drawing board stand haphazardly in the middle of the room. "I just got a new paper cupboard, so everything had to be moved again. It's still a bit of a mess. I always keep moving the stuff around here."
"It's going well, but I've also had a period, here in this studio, that I didn't know how to go on. That was a rotten time, thought I was going to quit. But then a colleague really helped me. I had conversations. Remember, he said, you keep coming. Don't give up. This is where you need to be, between work, anyway. If necessary, go and mop up. Well, then I went to mop up. And the art came back... I was so happy with that support." She's smiling again.
Anna Ramsair, 2018