Report premiere night 6

Report 6th premiere evening Internationals Art Channel Hall 1 Cinecitta October 3, 2024 – presentation artist video portraits: Simon Haen, Helma Melis, Jeroen van Vliet.

Once again, during the sixth premiere evening on October 3rd, of the three new artist video portraits in the oldest monumental cinema hall in the Netherlands, Hall 1 of Filmtheater Cinecitta in Tilburg, was filled to the brim. Unfortunately, dozens of people who had made a reservation had to be disappointed because all available seats were already occupied. It is unbelievable that the interest in the presentation of the series of three artist video portraits of the Internationals Art Channel is growing so quickly! The digital platform www.int-artchannel.nl is now also continuously consulted by many thousands of people worldwide. In short, the permanent insight into the artistic manifestation from Tilburg – region – Hart van Brabant, appeals to the imagination of many, thanks to the initiative
taken in 2022 by artist / designer / publicist Jan Doms (editorial) and filmmaker Tom Pijnenburg (camera and editing).

Portrait 16: Simon Haen (decor – artist).
Simon Haen studied theatre design at the art academy in Tilburg and won the Perspectief-Travel and the Tilburg-Stimulation Award (2nd). After graduating he worked for Theater ‘Theks’ and Theater ‘De Vorst’ and to this day for many theatre and dance companies. He was seen in the
famous television programme ‘Klokhuis’ (‘Clock House’) and made a name for himself with an extensive and lively oeuvre of ‘automata’.

Portrait 17: Helma Melis (dancer / choreographer / ‘total’ artist)
Helma Melis is the driving force behind dance company ‘LaMelis’. She creates the choreographies, designs the decor and costumes, and chooses the music. In her working
method, image, movement and content are created synchronously against the background of social phenomena. Dance and environment are inextricably linked and the content is a sum of all these elements.

Portrait 18: Jeroen van Vliet (pianist / composer)
Jeroen van Vliet ‘s music teacher had Jeroen improvising at the age of ten. At the conservatory he studied classical music as his main subject. That was a tough switch after the freedom he was used to, with ‘intuition’ as his course. He plays in many combinations worldwide and received the
Boy Edgar Prize in 2014: “Van Vliet is one of the few great poets of Dutch improvised music.”

For the second time, thanks to residents of AZC Gilze, there were contributions by way of musical intermezzos from Iranian musicians Berdia Heydari on guitar and vocals and the duo Jalal Hadadi on santúr (percussion zither) and Hamid Alwandi on tár (long-necked lute). Just like the artist video portraits shown, these musicians were greeted with warm applause.

There was also applause for the thousandth visitor of the premiere evenings. She, Maryam Heydari from Iran, had come along with the group of visitors from the AZC with the help of the volunteer organization ‘VIP voor elkaar’.

Then host Peer de Graaf, who introduced the films and musicians to the audience in his well-known inimitable way, concluded the wonderful evening with a hint to those who appreciate the Internationals Art Channel, to make use of the possibility to make a donation of their choice


Who is next ?
Finally, Peer de Graaf tentatively revealed the names of the new series of three artist video portraits:
portrait 19: Inez Wolters (performer / designer)
portrait 20: Guido van Amersfoort (ceramist)
portrait 21: Josephina Louise Hoogstad (opera singer)

All portraits are now online.