location: resort HQ – Nieuwe Sint Jansstraat 35, Groningen
entry: €3,– (free for students)
language: English
accessibility: wheelchair friendly

monday 19 october
artist talk + workshop: hand to land
w/ inge meijer

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18:45 doors open
19:00 start
21:00 end

On Monday, October 19, studium resort continues its series on artists and how their practice relates to their hobbies. This time, we turn to gardening, with artist Inge Meijer as our guest.

During 𝘏𝘢𝘯𝘥 𝘵𝘰 𝘓𝘢𝘯𝘥, host Ellis Kat talks with Inge about her work and her relationship to gardening. Together, they explore the role of plants, landscapes and cultivation in her practice, and how gardening can shape the way we see and relate to the world around us. After the interview, Inge Meijer leads a workshop where participants create their own sculptures by experimenting with organic materials.

about
Inge Meijer finished a two-year residency at the Rijksakademie van Beeldende Kunsten in Amsterdam in 2017 and participated in the Asia Culture Center – Rijksakademie Dialogue and Exchange program in Gwangju, South Korea in 2019. She was a fellow at The Netherlands Institute for Advanced Study (NIAS) and recently part of the International Studio & Curatorial Program (ISCP) in New York.

Her book The Plant Collection was selected as The Best Dutch Book Designs in 2020. In collaboration with designer Roger Willems, they published a new book, The MoMA Plant Collection on the forgotten plant life in the Museum of Modern Art in New York.

past

september 21 – tender violence w/ merel severs

During studium resort on 21 September, performer, theatre maker and martial artist Merel Severs took centre stage with Tender Violence.

Host Ellis Kat spoke with her about kickboxing and the shift from fighting against something to fighting for something she wants to build: something softer beneath the hard. This shift is also reflected in her work, where attack and defence, vulnerability and strength come together.

Afterwards, the audience put on the gloves themselves and experienced how a punch, a defensive move or a dance movement can also become a form of artistic language.

june 22 – voices kept warm w/ natalia papaeva

Studium resort on 22 June was dedicated to the hobby of singing. This edition welcomed artist Natalia Papaeva with a programme exploring the voice as a carrier of memory, language and personal history.

During an artist talk, Papaeva spoke about her childhood in Buryatia, a republic in Russia and about her Buryat mother tongue – a language under pressure and at risk of disappearing. Drawing on her work, she discussed how song and voice can serve as means of keeping memories alive.

In the second half of the programme, participants took part in a vocal workshop. The evening began with exercises to loosen the body and voice, including distorting poetry by Maria Barnas and telling stories non-verbally. Eventually, all participants together formed a choir from the perspective of nature, accompanied by pots and pans as instruments.

may 18 – rules we invent w/ maze de boer

Studium resort on May 18 was dedicated to the hobby of playing board games. During this edition, artist Maze de Boer was a guest, presenting a program in which play was explored not only as a subject, but also as a way of thinking and working.

In conversation with host Ellis Kat, De Boer spoke about his multidisciplinary practice and the role that play has within it. Through discussing his work, the conversation touched on the tension between rules and freedom and on how game structures can create space for imagination and interaction.

In the second half of the program, participants took part in a collective board game session. Using different game boards from De Boer’s ‘Play’ series, new forms of play were invented and unexpected scenarios were tested. In this way, the board game shifted from a fixed system into a collective experiment centered around collaboration and improvisation.

april 20 – birding w/ annelein pompe

On April 20, studium resort took a hobby as its point of departure. The evening focused on the hobby of birdwatching together with artist Annelein Pompe.

The evening opened with a screening of her film The Shadow Workers, in which a pigeon, acting as narrator, guides the viewer through a dreamlike world that moves between fiction and documentary. In conversation with host Ellis Kat, Pompe spoke about her fascination with birds as a mirror of human behavior, and about how a hobby that develops into work does not always stem from a clear passion, but can also emerge simply out of circumstance.

The evening concluded with a workshop in which participants drew a taxidermied bird using charcoal. By drawing a bird, a portrait of a person emerged, as if they were transformed into a duck, pheasant, or another bird-like alter ego.

march 23 – this is not about football w/ maurice van es

Studium resort explores, through the theme I<3HOBBIES, how hobbies can shift from casual pastimes into artistic practices. The latest edition focused on collecting 1990s football images with artist Maurice van Es.

In conversation with host Ellis Kat, Van Es shared how his fascination grew into a professional practice while retaining its playful nature. Through his publications – featuring themes like footballers as fathers, intimacy in football and Maradona – he showed how collections can connect sports history, visual culture, and emotion.

After the talk, participants created their own collections in a hands-on workshop, ranging from players with receding hairlines, singing crowds and teamphotos.

februari 23 – accidental florist w/ bart eysink smeets

During the first edition, flower arranging took center stage, featuring artist Bart Eysink Smeets in conversation with host Ellis Kat.

Eysink Smeets showed how hobbies – from birdwatching to flower arranging – appear as a recurring thread throughout his practice, while his working method itself is strikingly obsessive. His advice: if you want to keep the joy, don’t turn your hobby into an artistic practice. Once it becomes an obligation, its freedom disappears.

After the talk, flower arranging transformed into flower arranging Xtreme: with glue guns, pinking shears, and stickers, bouquets grew into almost sculptural artworks.

about studium 2026
In 2026, the program of studium resort revolves around the year theme of het resort: I <3 HOBBIES. Almost every month, we invite an artist for an evening where conversations, lectures, workshops and performances flow into one another. Together with the audience, we assemble a new tasting of hobbies each time.

From flower arranging to birdwatching, from football to dungeons & dragons: studium resort explores how personal passions shape artistic practices. When does something stop being a hobby and become work? And what happens when relaxation, play and dedication begin to edge closer to professionalism?

Each evening offers a low-threshold opportunity to try something new and perhaps discover an unexpected fascination.

about the programmer: Ellis Kat
A new year also brings a new program maker. In 2026, Ellis Kat will curate studium resort. Ellis is a curator, writer and moderator. Until 2025, she was director of the art space Nieuw Dakota in Amsterdam. As a freelance curator, she has worked with institutions including the Cobra Museum, Stedelijk Museum Schiedam and Kunstinstituut Melly.

In her exhibitions and programs, Ellis Kat explores the boundaries of what art can be and who it is for. As program maker and moderator of studium resort, she continues this approach by challenging both artists and audiences to look differently – at art, at each other and at the world around us.

Het resort is a site-specific art space in Groningen that organises residencies and other programs for contemporary artists at uncanny locations. It offers artists a retreat for their daily art practice, providing the time and space to collaborate on challenging projects.

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