Dadara

“I began my artistic career in the early nineties designing flyers and record covers, and doing live-paintings for the then burgeoning electronic dance scene. This early work, as well as projects such as the Dadababy speakers and the Greyman Statue of No Liberty, marked the start of my career as a painter, installation and performance artist, designer, and cartoonist.

Since the turn of the century, my focus has shifted towards extravagant interactive performance-installations in public spaces. Many of these creations were built at the Burning Man event in the Nevada desert: Some of these include the Fools Ark (here to 'save the last few Fools on Earth from Corporate Evil'), a wooden threemaster shipped from the Netherlands across the ocean to be burned in the desert, Like4Real, a religion worshipping a big Golden Like in the desert, and Checkpoint Dreamyourtopia, a border control checkpoint to enter your own Dreams.

But I have also turned the city into my canvas, building for instance a big pink 'Love, Peace, and Terror' tank with four barrels on a rooftop and organizing a Funeral for the Like with a big funeral procession in Amsterdam.

I also started my own bank, the Exchanghibition Bank, in times when governments had lots of money to bail out banks, but no money for the Arts, where people could exchange their money for Million, Zero, Infinite, or Love.

The last couple of years I have again concentrated more on my drawing and painting work, in addition to various guerrilla art actions around the world, such as covering the iconic 'I Amsterdam' sign last year with huge banners and fences as a comment on gentrification.” (Dadara)