Home of Art will regularly interview artists that have a connection with Home of Art about what drives them, what motivates them to do what they do. Welcome to our 1st edition; Home of Art asks: Lies Beijerinck .
"They call her the Didge Mother of Holland.
Professional didgeridoo artist and teacher, Lies Beijerinck, transforms any ordinary music session into a theatrical show filled with a fusion of unbelievable wobbling-, tongue-, tooting-, voice- and breathing sounds. Mix some melodies in the recipe and you get a complete and fascinating sound experience.”
Home of Art is happy to have been able to host Lies Beijerinck and her fundraising events for Stichting Klawer a few times. Lies is one of these people that seems to have limitless positive energy and gets even more enthusiastic when she speaks about her passions and she can make you feel her music. Oh, and fun fact: During Eiko Maruyama’s DJ Animal exhibition opening party with trance dj’s and laser lights (yes, at our gallery Home of Art), Lies was dancing and having fun, this time in her role as visitor, not as musician, when she asked for our vacuum cleaner. The Dyson was quickly cleaned and we were all amazed that she gave a mini didgeridoo concert on our vacuum cleaner! Enough reasons for Home of Art to ask Lies some questions to introduce her to you.
What Home of Art would like to know about all artists, is “What is your drive? Why do you do what you do? Why do you make what you make?” And we would like to ask you the same, because you have travelled the world, you have played with everybody, everywhere, very big sold out stages (for example for 25.000 people on the stage of Gelredome with DJ Tiësto ) and very intimate concerts here at Home of Art, but what do you prefer?
It started with something I discovered when I was in my early 20’s. That was the didgeridoo. There always had been a lot of music in my life, but I’ve always been a bit of a rebel, so if someone told me “You have to play like this”, I really felt like: “I really don’t like this..” and with the didgeridoo there was no one that was going to tell me how to play. So, I liked that. I got to explore myself and the didgeridoo. And when you blow a tone, those vibrations, something happens. Most people react like: “Wow, awesome!”, you know, the sound, it catches them. Or they’re like: “Hm… what a crazy thing”.
Really?
Yes. So, there’s always a kind of reaction. It’s pretty much always like that with music, but I have got the idea that it’s stronger with the didgeridoo. Also because for many people it’s a sound they have not often heard. As I said, for me it was so much fun to discover music. It was just something that really vibrated with me. That was my first drive. Playing the instrument gave me a bit of “WOW!”. A Wow- effect. It had to be that way. That moment you create with a music instrument. That was my first drive.
Creating together
And after a while people hear you and tell you “I find it awesome what you do” and then you get these possibilities to play everywhere and all over the place. That’s when I discovered that I liked it a lot to play with nice musicians. To create together. And this creating together... I found that it gave me such a beautiful energy and at that moment I was like: “Yes. This is what I want.”.
South Africa
In your life you always come across things and some things just resonate good with you. I also had that when I was asked to join a trip to South Africa to participate in a children’s project for Stichting Klawer. I already thought that children are the future and children are often much more pure than adults. I’m also a bit of a big kid, I like playing. Playing music. To play whatever! So, when I got the opportunity to go to South Africa for that project with underprivileged children, I was like, "Yes! Sure I'll do that!".
Stichting Klawer (Klawer Foundation)
This gave me so much joy. Those kids, the fact that you can touch them with something they find amazing.. Look, they often cannot often keep up in school. Many have fetal alcohol syndrome, no positive attention, but they are often musical. And if you offer them something, let them create, which can sometimes be visual arts, we also often encourage them to draw, so we have also discovered some drawing talents, super nice! But music .... Creating music together, that's where I felt that this works extremely positive. So, I've always done this in recent years with these kids. I think it's so beautiful to see, even though I'm only a few weeks or a month per year there, that there is more and more a kind of positivity visible in the community. Purely because self-esteem is created. Like, "Hey, I CAN do something good." Because I think these kids really don’t hear that enough.
For how many years have you been going there? Have you seen some of these children growing up?
Yes, since 2006. I haven’t been going every year, there were 2 years that I couldn’t, for financial reasons unfortunately. That’s why I find it awesome that Home of Art offers its space, gives a stage for Stichting Klawer’s benefit concerts.
Indeed. Children you’ve seen back then when they were around 11, are grown-ups nowadays. That’s incredible! This year there was a child of a girl we have worked with and the child is now 4 years old and it was such a cute, talented kid. The mother is also such a sweetheart and she’s got a job, but after work she would pass by to watch and that’s amazing to see. What I’ve noticed, the kids that I’ve given a lot of positive attention to, they all have a job nowadays, they’re doing really well and that’s very special in such a community. Usually many of them still fall by the wayside. Some kids choose not to join us, but the kids that have received our hugs and positive energy, they have a feeling that there are possibilities and maybe this would not have been there without us. This makes me very very happy.
About Klawer and Stichting Klawer / Klawer Foundation
“Klawer is a small town in Namaqualand, South-Africa. A forgotten place with a lot of wonderful (& underprivileged) children. Almost every year a team of experts (in the field of education, communication, art & culture) was send to Klawer since 2006, to work with these children. “
More about Stichting Klawer: https://www.facebook.com/pg/StichtingKlawer
More about Lies Beijerinck: http://www.liesundertrees.com
P.S.: On March 24 you'll be able to listen to Lies Beijerinck live at Home of Art again. More info HERE.
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