Bianca
de Gier

I was educated at the Academy of Royal Arts The Hague (1985-1990) (monumental design). Before that I studied at the Free Academy Rotterda (1984-1985) (photography,design,printing,painting).

After graduating I moved the accent in my work from monumental/3-dimensional to 2 dimensional; drawing& painting. After research of all the aspects of the line, in all its forms, in figurative work. I now work in mixed media techniques (photoprint,viltpen,acrylic,ink,japanese paper).

I'm inspired by images and texts from newspapers, the internet & photography, having to do with the world we live in. Cynisism & absurdism are in my work. I investigate, tell stories, ask questions, combine & associate.

The work I'm applying with for the Arte Laguna Prize is part of the project "Once Upon A Time". It's about the disappearing tradition of the storytellers of the Jemaa El Fna (famous square in Marrakech/Morocco), who used to travel, storytelling, from town to town. Later on they also enriched us telling the stories of 1001 nights.

Storytellers grow old and die and not many young people are interested in taking over the tradition. Besides that, nowadays there are other forms of newsgathering like tv, internet,facebook etc.

In the project I combine this old disappearing tradition with the world of today.

A rich source for inspiration for the project was the book 'The last storytellers' by David Hamilton. In this book Hamilton has conversations with the few storytellers that were still alive and who's stories are represented in the book. (Quote from the book:'storytellers providing a window on the world, like an early form of newsmedia').  

The project consists of big-size prints. Each print has its origine in a small mixed-media work on canvas (24x30 cm).  Prints are not there to stay forever, just like the stories of the storytellers: fading in time......