‘Mimesis’, a feature by Onno Maat on Double Dutch magazine

Jul 19

Written By Benne van der Velde

Text and photos by Onno Maat

The ancient Greeks considered the physical world as a model for beauty, truth and the good. Their cultural life in general, and the arts in particular, were based on this principle, which they called “mimesis”. Plato and Aristotle defined mimesis as the perfection and imitation of nature, including human nature.

Imitation

Here we see ‘Bust of a man’, 1911, by Belgian sculptor George Minne. While he is mostly known for his symbolic work, it is clear that he has also mastered the art of mimesis; the lines on the face, the wrinkles in the neck, the lightly accentuate muscle tone, all in a pose of someone looking away as if something caught their attention, to create a bust that is both lifelike and vivid.

It is what most people think of what art should be like; a beautiful and lifelike interpretation of reality.

Duplication

Consider then Giuseppe Penone’s ‘Faggio di Otterlo’ 1987-1988. Not an artist’s rendition of reality, but an actual copy; a bronze casting of a beech tree, standing in a lane amongst real beech trees. Or is there more?

The air, wind, rain, and sun, all have affected the bronze surface that has taken on the colour of the surroundings, so that the Beech is barely distinguishable from the other trees in the row. Nature has played a part in shaping the sculpture in its own image, making it appear so real that many pass it without noticing.

Interpretation

In contrast, you cannot help but notice Jean Dubuffet’s sculpture ‘Jardin d’émail’, completed between 1968 and 1974. In the forest sits an impressive garden made from concrete, glass-fibre reinforced epoxy resin, polyurethane, and paint, its entrance cleverly disguised as a tree in the garden.

While it may not look like a real garden, it certainly functions like one. People enter it to just sit and relax, to enjoy the view, while children inevitably experience it as one big playground to run and play in. It does everything a garden should do and captures the essence of a garden.

Representation

Similarly, George Rickey’s “Two Vertical, Three Horizontal Lines”, 18965-1966, perfectly represents a tree, without actually looking like a tree. Five needle-shaped lines gently move by the wind, silently swaying independently of each other in horizontal and vertical directions and rotating around a vertical axis. It perfectly captures the movements of the trees around it, and makes for a mesmerizing, almost zen-like experience to watch.

The Mirror

Ron Mueck is known for his hyper realistic sculptures that are almost undistinguishable from reality, were it not for their seize.

‘Woman with shopping’, 2014, is no exception; a hyper realistic sculpture of a woman and her baby, carrying shopping bags, the image is more real than real and at the same time alienating. The smallness ads to the sense of fragility of life and conveys an image of a mother that is maybe struggling to get by. As such it becomes a mirror to confront us with our reality.

If that is not mimesis, I don’t know what is.

Back

Benne van der Velde

After thoroughly enjoying the Dutch slam poetry scene in the early and mid 2000s (with wins in 7 cities and eventually a place in the Nationals of 2012) and performances at the Lowlands-, Uitmarkt- and Parade festivals a/o, Benne successfully made the transition from the stage to paper by signing his first publishing deal in 2005. Since then 4 publishing houses (kleine Uil, Douane, Nadorst and Stanza) released volumes of his poetry. For a 5th (Passage) he co-edited an anthology of satirical/pamphlet poetry with fellow poets Daniel Dee and Alexis de Roode.

As a member of the artist movement ‘Het Ongeboren Idee’ he helped to organize (and was part of/presented) cultural lo-fi festivals, exhibitions, making a movie, monthly poetry stages in his hometown of Vlaardingen (Poezie in De Steeg), Rotterdam (De Poetsclub) and Nijmegen (Late Letteren Live) + a talent show for bands.

In 2002 and 2003 he studied ‘writing for performance’ at the vocational university of the Arts in the city of Utrecht (HKU) and as a result saw 3 of his theater plays make it to a stage. Writer Hiekelien van den Herik and he co-wrote a knight spectacle play complete with real choreographed sword fights, men in heavy plate armor and more great stuff like that. Theater-/enactment group Ridderspoor performed said play in 2004 and 2005 at Het Archeon, during De Kasteeldagen and at an Elfia-fantasy fair. He also gave numerous poetry and rap workshops at schools and other institutions. There were a lot of collabs too, for example voice-over work for a Rock Opera, a monumental art project for which he partnered up with the artist Erwin Adema and thrice alongside the R.J.S.O (The Rotterdam Youth Symphony Orchestra).

Benne has been an editor for several literary magazines (Krakatau, Renaissance and Op Ruwe Planken), at one time he and his wife owned a secondhand bookstore, he’s been the official poet laureate for his hometown of Vlaardingen and released his first and only Dutch rap-EP in 2011. In 2012 he rapped his way into the finals of Art Rocks. An EP with songs in English followed in 2021. A year later he started translating Dutch musical and lyrical classics from Dutch into English, and vice versa. Some of his short sci-fi and fantasy stories have found their way to medium related websites, magazines and anthology’s.

According to the poet himself rewriting his own poetry, lyrics and prose in English somehow feels like the next logical step in his career, a way to open up to the world at large. Which is both exhilarating and terrifying. So far several of these translations have been published in Bebarbar, Hare’s paw, Festivalforpoetry, Punt Volat, The Dewdrop, The Dillydoun Review and Months to Years a/o.

In everyday (some claim real) life he worked as an industrial tank cleaner, in pest control, on a garbage truck, driving a forklift, in a chemical waste facility, on a Ferry and 10 years as a bartender in a cannabis bar. At the time of writing this resume he can be found at home or in the hospital battling throat cancer. He’s been off the Herb since 2008, has a wife, 2 dogs, mild anxiety issues and likes to read every sci-fi and fantasy classic he can find.

www.linkedin.com/in/benne-van-der-velde-8b17a7296

The poet/lyricist and author Rob Chrispijn: ‘Benne writes sentences that stick; clean, dark and intense. This way a poem lasts!’

The poet Philip Hoorne on the website Poetry rapport: ‘There’s a genius hiding in Benne van der Velde, those are the Good Tidings of today. Amen.’

https://www.doubledutchmagazine.com