Reinventing Daily Life

On the possibility to merge art and life, fiction and reality, and on the importance of this process for the future of artistic practice.

Does art possess the power to cause structural and meaningful changes in daily life? How can we inject our daily reality with the estranging, binding, and reflective qualities of theater, performance art, and the visual arts? Using the artist’s desire to escape institutional space as a point of departure, the temporary master Reinventing Daily Life investigated the implications, the possibilities, and the limits of daily life as inspiration, as a place for presentation, and as a central material. This publication marks the completion and distillation of this inquiry. By means of a critical essay, correspondence with kindred spirits from the field, and visual impressions of the alumni’s work, this book reflects on the possibility to merge art and life, fiction and reality, and on the importance of this process for the future of artistic practice.

Martijn de Rijk is a writer, director, and teacher at the intersection of theater, philosophy and society.

Thomas Spijkerman is founder and artistic director of Circus Treurdier, a contemporary music theatre company based in Amsterdam.