Esther Polak and Ivar van Bekkum work together under the name PolakVanBekkum. They collaborate as an artist duo since 2010, their collaboration goes back as far as almost 25 years.
Esther Polak is educated in fine arts and painting at the Rijksacademie in Amsterdam. Ivar van Bekkum is educated as a journalist.
Since 2002, their work has focused on landscape and mobility.
Routed in the history of Dutch realistic landscape depiction, they engage with new technologies such as GPS and data collection to express individual experiences of spaces, including the contemporary city and countryside. They explore a multitude of ways to be in landscapes and how this influences human understanding and perception of space, as well as the stories we tell to explain our lives. Besides the digital and technological innovations, they use very concrete means of visualisation, such as drawings in sand, with light, or en plein air with pencil on paper, which makes their work very tangible and direct. Their projects are often informed by collaborations with participants, whether human, object, or even the rays of the sun.
They have worked and exhibited internationally, at Transmediale Berlin, Ars Electronica Linz, ZKM Karlsruhe, London, IMAL Brussels, dudokdegroot gallery Amsterdam, Museo for Image and Sound Sao Paolo.
Their films have been shown at IDFA, IFFR, NFF, and Visions Du Reel
In 2005, Esther Polak received a Golden Nica for interactive Art at Ars Electronica together with Ieva Auzina, for their MILKproject.
Projects and works: Amsterdam Realtime, MilkProject, NomadicMILK, Souvenir Zeeland, Spiral Drawing Sunrise, Sand Tags, AbstractView, 250 miles Crossing Philadelphia, Grazing Choreographies