Translating the Port of Amsterdam into a resonant body, the performance engages the audience through auditory, olfactory, and gustatory interventions. The piece utilises elements from the artwork installation of the same title – a dinner table that mirrors the ‘banketje’ style, a genre of still life painting once favoured by Dutch middle-class merchants.

Place: W139
Commissioned by: Sonic Acts
Curated by: Margarita Osipian, Angeliki Tzortzakaki
Production: Michela Trovato Giancardillo
Documentation: Pieter Kers

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Toni Brell works at the intersection of installation, performance, and sound. Like a set-builder, they create complex landscapes that are meant to be approached from different angles. Drawing inspiration from ASMR and Foley practices, many of the sculptures they create emit sounds through touch or can be played like instruments. Calling upon activation, the work is both about entering a world, as well as about contributing to it. Recent exhibitions and performances have taken place at Kunstfort bij Vijfhuizen, Kunstcentrum de Ploeg, NEVERNEVERLAND and Fries Museum. Brell lives and works in Amsterdam.

Education

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

Grants

2025

Amarte, Development Grant, NL

Cultuurfonds, Project Grant, NL

2024

Mondriaan Fonds Project Grant, NL

Stichting Stokroos, project Grant, NL

Amsterdam Fonds voor de Kunst, project Grant, NL

2023

Mondriaan Fonds, Artist Start Grant, NL

2022

TakeHeart research grant, with Kati Masami Menze and Daria Nazarenko, DE

Residencies and Research

2025

Forthcoming: Saari Residency, artist in residence, Mynämäki, FI

Forthcoming: ALBE/KAOS, artist in residence, Kapellen, BE

Est-Nord-Est, artist in residence, St-Jean-Port-Joli, CA
2024 Platform, artist in residence, Vaasa, FI
BEK Bergen Centre for Electronic Arts, artist in residence, Bergen, NO
Maschinenhaus Essen, Tiny Tiny Residency, studio residency, with Kati Masami-Menze, Essen, DE
2023 Saari Residency, Research Pavilion, research residency, with Angeliki Tzortzakaki, Mynämäki, FI
Ando Future Studios, TAKEHEART Residency, studio residency, with Kati Masami-Menze and Daria Nazarenko, DE
2022 Østfold International Theatre, studio residency, with Katrine Leth Nielsen, Juan Felipe Amaya Gonzalez and Angeliki Tzortzakaki, NO
Kunstfort bij Vijfhuizen, Worlds that World, mentorship programme, with Katrine Leth Nielsen, Juan Felipe Amaya Gonzalez and Angeliki Tzortzakaki, Vijfhuizen, NL

Selected exhibitions and performances

2025

Forthcoming: NDSM-werf, art walk, with Lila Bullen-Smith, Megan Hadfield, Amsterdam, NL

Forthcoming: Kunstfort bij Vijfhuizen, Toen de dieren nog spraken, group exhibition, Vijfhuizen, NL

Kunstcentrum De Ploeg, Veranderende Vergezichten, group exhibition, Groningen, NL
Prospects, group exhibition, Rotterdam, NL
2024 NEVERNEVERLAND, Toward an undulating present, duo exhibition, Amsterdam, NL
Treehouse NDSM, Rocks, roughly the color of my eyes, performance, Amsterdam, NL
Kunstcentrum De Ploeg, Soundwalk for 10 Flutes, performance, Groningen, NL
Amsterdam BANGS Festival, performance, Amsterdam, NL
Platform, Rocks, roughly the color of my eyes, solo exhibition, FI
Onomatopee, performance, NL
Radion, Dredged up / In the meantime, performance, NL
Bar Theo, ASMRcore, performance, NL
Mime Fabriek, Etude for Pipes, Pumps, and Resistance Bands, performance, NL
Fries Museum, Seeds of Memory, performance, with Toni Steffens & Antonella Fittipaldi, NL
4bid Gallery, A gun, a French horn and a Chupa Chups lollipop from 1996, performance, NL
Maschinenhaus Essen, A chronology of fiction, performance, with Kati Masami Menze, DE
Sonic Acts Biennial, W139, Still Life of a Laid Table with Lecithin and Voice, performance, with ghenwa noiré, Megan Hadfield, Lila Bullen-Smith, Amsterdam, NL
Personeelskamer, To also cradle a cow, performance, Amsterdam, NL
2023 Garage Rotterdam, How close is too close, performance, Rotterdam, NL
Into the Great Wide Open, Sipping Dunes, installation, performance, with Megan Hadfield, Lila Bullen-Smith, Vlieland, NL
Augusta Gallery, HIAP, Research Pavilion, group exhibition, performance, with Angeliki Tzortzakaki, Helsinki, FI
Zone2Source, Sip, Steep, Sample, performance, with Megan Hadfield, Lila Bullen-Smith, Amsterdam, NL
WORM, Zine Fest Rotterdam, performance, with Megan Hadfield, Lila Bullen-Smith, Rotterdam, NL
Treehouse NDSM, A Mouthful of Whispers, performance, installation, with Megan Hadfield, Lila Bullen Smith, Amsterdam, NL
2022 Motto Berlin, Affect Aliens & Revolutionary Despair, performance, Berlin, DE
KunstHub Bink, Brackish, performance, with Megan Hadfield, Lila Bullen-Smith, Catalina Reyes, Elburg, NL
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

Selected teaching and workshops

2024 Het Verbond / Frascati, Touch as a Kind of Listening, workshop, Amsterdam, NL
since 2023 Design Academy Eindhoven, Tutor for Narrative and Time-Based Media, Eindhoven, NL
2023 Maschinenhaus Essen, Exercises for Ungrounding, workshop, with Kati Masami Menze and Daria Nazarenko, Essen, DE
2022 KABK, Movement Lab, Fictions and Forecasts: Orbiting a collective body, workshop, with Scores for Gardens, Den Haag, NL
Sandberg Instituut, Materialising Materials, workshop, with Naomi Credé, Amsterdam, NL
Weissensee Academy of Art, Digital Design, Tutor, Berlin, DE
2021/2022 Academy of Art Leipzig, Undisciplinary Learning, Tutor, with District Berlin, Leipzig, DE
2021 Sandberg Instituut, Ghosts in the family, workshop, with Amy Suo Wu, Amsterdam, NL
2016 Antiuniversity Now, Think Twice Before You Think, workshop, with Soph Dyer, London, UK
2015 Glasgow School of Art, Inside Out School, workshop, with Soph Dyer, Thom Swann and Rosen Eveleigh, Glasgow, UK