Brackish is an ongoing artistic research that explores hosting as a form of art. It researches the history and experience of the Dutch land reclamation project through narrative dinners and food tastings. With Brackish we create a multisensory frame that brings this research to life. Through taste, smell, sound, text and props, the audience is invited to immerse themselves in the unfolding narratives which surround a natural and cultural phenomenon such as the Dutch waterscapes.
Brackish is a collaborative and interdisciplinary project formed by the artists and writers Lila Bullen-Smith (ZA), Megan Hadfield (UK), and Toni Brell (DE).
In the past year we have hosted performances and events amongst others at Treehouse NDSM, at Zone2Source, at Into The Great Wide Open and for Sandberg Research.
Toni Brell creates intimate performances and installations using sound, text and objects. They are interested in the radical potential of sensory experiences while creating situations in which an audience can react and relate to what they see.
2021 |
MFA, Sandberg Instituut, Gerrit Rietveld Academie, Amsterdam, NL |
2018 |
BA, Visual Communication, Weissensee Academy of Art, Berlin, DE |
2009 |
BA, Theatre and Media Studies, University of Bayreuth, Bayreuth, DE |
2024 |
Stichting Stokroos, project Grant, NL |
2024 |
Amsterdam Fonds voor de Kunst, project Grant, NL |
2023 |
Mondriaan Fonds, Artist Start Grant, NL |
2022 |
TakeHeart research grant, funding for performance research, with Kati Masami Menze and Daria Nazarenko, DE |
2021 |
Project grant, Student Council, Gerrit Rietveld Academie and Sandberg Instituut, Amsterdam, NL |
2017 |
Project grant, Mart Stam Stipend, Berlin, DE |
2025 |
Forthcoming: Saari Residency, artist in residence, Mynämäki, FI |
2025 |
Forthcoming: Est-Nord-Est, artist in residence, St-Jean-Port-Joli, CA |
2025 |
Forthcoming: Kunstcentrum De Ploeg artist in residence, Groningen, NL |
2024 |
Platform, artist in residence, Vaasa, FI |
2024 |
BEK Bergen Centre for Electronic Arts, studio residency, Bergen, NO |
2024 |
Maschinenhaus Essen, Tiny Tiny Residency, studio residency, somebody@maschinenhaus, with Kati Masami Menze, Essen, DE |
2023 |
Saari Residency, Research Pavilion #5, research residency, with Angeliki Tzortzakaki, Mynämäki, FI |
2023 |
IPOP’s Queer Feedback Sessions at DAS graduate school, Amsterdam, NL |
2022 |
Ando Future Studios, research residency, with Kati Masami Menze and Daria Nazarenko, TAKEHEART Residency hosted by PACT Zollverein, DE |
2022 |
Østfold International Theatre, Norway, studio residency, with Scores for Gardens, NO |
2022 |
Worlds that World, Kunstfort bij Vijfhuizen, mentorship programme, with Scores for Gardens, Vijfhuizen, NL |
2025 |
Forthcoming: Kunstcentrum De Ploeg, That one time the landscape changed, group exhibition, Groningen, NL |
2025 |
Forthcoming: Prospects, Art Rotterdam, group exhibition, NL |
2024 |
Forthcoming: NEVERNEVERLAND, duo exhibition, Amsterdam, NL |
2024 |
Forthcoming: Treehouse NDSM, “Rocks, roughly the color of my eyes”, performance, Amsterdam, NL |
2024 |
Kunstcentrum De Ploeg, “Soundwalk for ten flutes”, performance, Groningen, NL |
2024 |
Amsterdam BANGS Festival, “Etude for Ears and Hands”, performance, Amsterdam, NL |
2024 |
Platform, “Rocks, roughly the color of my eyes”, performance, Vasa, FI |
2024 |
Onomatopee, “Dredged up / in the meantime”, performance, as part of Dreams of Dreams of Dreams finnissage and |
2024 |
Radion, “Dredged up / in the meantime”, performance, as part of SURGES, Amsterdam, NL |
2024 |
Bar Theo, “ASMRcore”, performance and listening session, as part of Weather Report, Amsterdam, NL |
2024 |
Mime Fabriek, “Etude for Pipes, Pumps, and Resistance Bands”, performance, Amsterdam, NL |
2024 |
Fries Museum, performance during finissage “Seeds of Memory”, with Toni Steffens and Antonella Fittipaldi commissioned by Mercedes Azpilicueta, Leeuwarden NL |
2024 |
4bid Gallery, “A gun, a French horn and a Chupa Chups lollipop from 1996”, performance, as part of “B.Base. A body based space”, Amsterdam, NL |
2024 |
Maschinenhaus Essen, “A chronology of fiction”, performance, with Kati Masami Menze, Essen, DE |
2024 |
Sonic Acts Biennial, W139, “Still Life of a Laid Table with Lecithin and Voice”, installation and performance, with ghenwa noiré and Brackish, Amsterdam, NL |
2023 |
Personeelskamer, “Lore or: To also cradle a cow”, as part of “Written in a kind of slang”, group-exhibition and solo-performance, work in progress, Amsterdam, NL |
2023 |
Garage Rotterdam, “Lore or: The Flower Feeder”, solo-performance, work in progress, Rotterdam, NL |
2023 |
Sipping Dunes, performance and Installation with Brackish, commissioned by Into The Great Wide Open, Vlieland, NL |
2023 |
A Mouthful of Whispers – installation and performance at Treehouse NDSM, with Brackish, Amsterdam, NL |
2023 |
Drifting Nocturnes, performance with Angeliki Tzortzakaki, at Augusta Gallery, HIAP, Helsinki, FI |
2023 |
Augusta Gallery, HIAP, Research Pavilion #5, group exhibition, commissioned by Uniarts Helsinki, Helsinki, FI |
2023 |
Zone2Source, A liquid performance tasting, curated by Simulacrum Magazine, with Brackish, Amsterdam, NL |
2022 |
Zine Fest Rotterdam, performance, with Brackish, NL |
2022 |
Motto Berlin, “Affect Aliens & Revolutionary Despair”, reading, DE |
2022 |
KunstHub Bink, “Brackish”, group exhibition and performance, Elburg, NL |
2022 |
Kunstfort bij Vijfhuizen, “Worlds that World”, performance with Scores for Gardens, Vijfhuizen, NL |
2021 |
Het Hem, “Roots and Wings”, group exhibition, Zaandam, NL |
2020 |
The Grey Space in the Middle, “It’s dark, I lie awake again”, performance, Den Haag, NL |
2024 |
Het Verbond / Frascati, Touch as a Kind of Listening, sound and performance workshop, Amsterdam, NL, |
since 2023 |
Design Academy Eindhoven, tutor for narrative and time-based media, Eindhoven, NL |
2023 |
Maschinenhaus Essen, Exercises for Ungrounding as part of “Showcase 2023”, workshop with Kati Masami Menze and Daria Nazarenko, Essen, DE |
2022 |
KABK, Fictions and Forecasts: Orbiting a collective body, workshop with Scores for Gardens, as part of movement Lab, Den Haag, NL |
2022 |
Sandberg Instituut, Materialising Materials, storytelling and writing workshop, with Naomi Credé, NL |
2022 |
Weissensee Academy of Art, tutor for digital design, Visual Communication, Berlin, DE |
2021/2022 |
Academy of Art Leipzig, tutor for experimental zine-making as part of Undisciplinary Learning, together with District Berlin, Leipzig, DE |
2021 |
Sandberg Instituut, Ghosts in the family, storytelling workshop, with Amy Suo Wu, Amsterdam, NL |
2015 |
Think Twice Before You Think, Co-organiser of the discussion and prototyping workshop on the proposition of setting up a new design school. At Antiuniversity Now, with Sophie Dyer, London, UK |
2015 |
Glasgow School of Art, Inside Out School, workshop on critical education, with Sophie Dyer, Thom Swann and Rosen Eveleigh, Glasgow, UK |