Esther Polak and Ivar van Bekkum work together as artist-couple under the name PolakVanBekkum. Their work focusses on landscape and mobility.
Rooted in the history of Dutch realistic landscape depiction, they embrace new technologies to express personal experiences of spaces of the contemporary city and countryside. Their projects are often informed by collaborations with participants, be it humans, objects, or even the rays of the sun.
They have worked and exhibited internationally, at IDFA Amsterdam, Visions du Reél Nyon, OUde Kerk Amsterdam, HeK Basel, Transmediale Berlin, Ars Electronica Linz, ISEA Istanbul, ZKM Karlsruhe, London, IMAL Brussels, galerie dudokdegroot, Museo for Image and Sound Sao Paolo, Philadelphia Percent for Art program
In 2015 They received The Expanded Media Preis For Network Culture at Stuttgarter Filmwinters – Festival for Expanded Media with “The Mailman’s Bag.”
In 2005 Esther Polak received a Golden Nica for Interactive Art at Ars Electronica together with Ieva Auzina, for their MILKproject.
Projects and works: The Ride, Amsterdam Realtime, MilkProject, NomadicMILK, Souvenir Zeeland, Spiral Drawing Sunrise, Fronting Motion, AbstractView, 250 Miles Crossing Philadelphia.
Esther Polak studied at the RijksAkademie for Visual Arts in Amsterdam and the KABK in Den Haag; NL
Ivar van Bekkum studied journalism at the Academie voor de Journalistiek Kampen; NL