////////////////////// Christiaan Bastiaans ////////////////////
//////////////////////// Brief CV ////////////////////////


Christiaan Bastiaans studied at the Amsterdam Gerrit Rietveld Academy from 1971-1976, the Kyoto University of Art from 1976-1978 and at New York’s Pratt Graphic Centre in 1982.
He began working with video in the mid-seventies, since then creating highly interdisciplinary installations that combine video with sculpture and photography and are influenced by film and literature.
Travel is a major theme in Bastiaans’s life and work, as is a fascination with Asian culture and philosophy, especially the Japanese. In this context, the exploration of his own Indonesian descent plays an important role. Our relation to nature, the role of the artist with regard to the audience and the way in which the concept of ‘elsewhere’ contributes to the definition of mainstream Western identity are recurring themes in his art.
His recent projects employ a documentary approach to examine the experiences of marginalized groups in less developed countries, looking at how personal identity is developed in the context of clashes between traditional cultures and economic and cultural globalisation.



March 2006