About

Eva van der Zand (1989, Nijmegen), was born in the landscape of the border between the Netherlands and Germany. She sees fragility everywhere around her, this made her attracted to glass as a material. Her eyes behold a fragile perspective. Just as many other eyes in this world. She is intrigued by working with glass since it is a material that supports our human eyes to zoom in (photography/microscope lenses) and zoom out (telescopes). Although, a lens is also quickly scratched, damaged, or broken. This fragility she wants to use as a focus to tell stories. With her work she wants to have an impact on rethinking how materials/objects are used, how we relate to our surroundings and how our perspective on identities are shaped by (fragile) stories. Therefore, she started a tiny border gallery on the border. Her installations are always an invitation for a conversation. In her practice she works a lot with embodied knowledge and linguistics, with the confronting and comforting aspects of it, Co(n)mf(r)orting. This comes together in her Botanical Milk bar. Next to that she started an artistic research hub on the border named "The Moraine". She offers place for artists and designers to come for an artist in residency to have a space to reflect and get new inspiration. There she started various maker's collectives. She is fascinated by group processes and relating in an aesthetic way.

September 2019, Photo taken while making the film "Fishtank".

She has a background in social sciences. The border she grew up on made her question, how do stories shape our identity? Therefore she started to study International Relations at the Rijks University of Groningen and TUKS university in South Africa. After working as a journalist, guide, media specialist and teacher for various organizations, she wanted to research the relation between language and the material world. She wondered: How does our voice and breath shape our bodies and the (material) world around us? She continued studying art and design at the Gerrit Rietveld Academie, focussing on glass blowing. She combines her glass works with food, art and science. She went for an exchange to the School for visual theater in Jerusalem. For her graduation work she got selected by the external committee and won the Overduin art prize. She develops workshops, educational programs and exhibitions.

Her work includes 4D works. In the form of audio, performance, short films, spoken word poetry and sculptures. She works with edible and drinkable materials, metal, wood, glass. She expresses herself with open, communicative, poetic illustrations and she writes. In that she like to analyse phenomena. Next to mixed media art, she has a main focus on glass art, especially blowing glass. “Breath is so ungraspable, but covers a lot of answers. It gives life to our voice, sound and movements.”