Introduction

The jury of the Steenbergen Stipendium visited the final graduation exhibitions of various art academies in the Netherlands last summer to select five (photo) projects.

On October 15, 2014, the Steenbergen Stipendium 2014 was awarded to Olya Oleinic (1991) from the Royal Academy of Art in The Hague. With the project 'Universal guide to everything,' Oleinic portrays how knowledge on the internet grows and distorts into a new reality through accidental accumulations and cross-references. She mimics this process with a wall covered in postcards featuring strange, partially recognizable objects.

JANNEMAREIN RENOUT (Rietveld)

Scan2400
First in the exhibition of the five nominees, the project "Scan2400" by Jannemarein Renout is on display. She was driven by the desire to create an image that didn't exist yet. In her pursuit, she dissected photography into its elemental components: light, a lens, and a carrier of information. Using a scanner, she reassembled these elements in a different way. The result is images that don't resemble photographs but are simultaneously primal photographs. These images have emerged through the tools of the medium, yet they are a reinterpretation based on how they capture the environment.

AD VAN DER KOOG (St. Joost)

Winterreise
Just around the corner, the project "Winterreise" by Ad van der Koog is on display. His approach to the medium is more classical, functioning as an instrument to capture a physical and philosophical journey. It acts as a tool to visually translate the sound of the song cycle "Winterreise" by the Austrian composer Franz Schubert. His quest becomes the viewer's journey. Fragments of text on separate sheets in a card catalog and collages of photos on folded pages sometimes establish a connection with each other, and sometimes not at all. It's the very last sentence on the very last page that turns everything you've seen and read before upside down.

OLYA OLEINIC (KABK)

Universal guide to everything
Opposite to this is the project "Universal guide to everything" by Olya Oleinic. A wall filled with postcards featuring strange, morphed, and semi-recognizable objects. Her images are simultaneously unappealing and intriguing. It's an image-language that you immediately associate with computers, software, and rendered images. And that's the intelligence behind her project. Her fascination with the way knowledge grows on the internet, through peculiar accumulations and cross-references, she has translated into images where the same phenomenon occurs. The internet and software form a realm nourished by the tangible world we inhabit, but it distorts knowledge and image in ways that no longer resemble reality.

CARILIJNE PIETERS (HKU)

Eerst De liefde is alles, hè
Next, the two nominated films. First, "De liefde is alles, hè" by Caroline Pieters. A film about the love between an elderly couple. A film that is simply beautiful and touching. With visible dedication and time, she filmed her grandparents, who lead a life like many grandparents in the Netherlands. Couples who spend their old age at a slow pace in a nursing home, both with declining health, and with each other as the sole and final anchor in life. A very intimate project, presented in a well-executed documentary form. During the judging, others in the audience were seen shedding tears. Could there be a greater compliment?

LISA-MARIE VLIETSTRA (Rietveld)

Kijk eens naar mij / Look at me
The other film – or rather a triptych of films – is "Kijk eens naar mij / Look at me" by Lisa-Maria Vlietstra, which is intriguing because elements like discomfort and tension are difficult to photograph, yet are even more evident in her film. Furthermore, she explores and utilizes the possibilities of film to create and direct intense and personal situations. Her films are potent due to the minimal use of movement and sound. She created these three films during three years of her education, and each film is better than the previous one.