Publications
Parool, August 19th 2021, Maarten Moll about Fuga: “Breathtaking. And an almost hallucinatory experience that also brings a lot of peace.”
Ever Emerging Mag, Women’s Day edition April 2023, guest curator Judith Hoekstra, page 33-43 read here complete magazine: Ever Emerging Mag
NRC Handelsblad, August 20th 2020, Joyce Roodnat about A Sweet Death in her weekly column: “(…)The rot is in it, including grief and death. But the cherry is beautiful, it shines. That remains.”
Kunstmeisjes, July 14th 2020, Hanna De Vos: review: “you can’t help but get hit by it”
Museum Tijdschrift: August 2020 : “beautiful, poignant art, to really reflect on the life and finiteness of our own existence.”
Mister Motley, June 22th 2020, Alex de Vries “Eat, Love, Die” is therefore an experimental, sensuous counterpart to death.”
Parool, June 4th 2020, Maarten Moll : “Multi-layered, and very recognizable.”
Mister Motley: October 18th 2020 Alex de Vries “Everyone looks at you directly and clearly. It is like with the people themselves, we are part of a community, but each of them is not representative of the collective.
Parool March 28, 2019, Maarten Moll. “it is like looking in the mirror”.
De Volkskrant 8 September 2017, Merel Bem: Fotodok , invite the entire House of Representatives, or better: build the exhibition on it again.
CJP 12 September 2017, Rick van Veluw: www.cjp.nl
Moon Saris : The beautiful work, Five Faces (…) took my breath away and at the same time gave air. Beautiful, but also painful. Fine, but also to. Paradoxically, exactly what I love because nothing is ever really clear. It appealed to my heart, but also to my head. Every day should contain a portion of this, then you never allowed yourself to take things and people for granted and taken for granted, and you daily thought about the miracle that is called man and life, feeling and thinking.
Gooi en Eemlander, Margriet van Seumeren : “In the upper room of Corrosia ! the video installation ‘Five faces ‘ can be seen in which five heads nod yes. On another screen there is laughter and no shaking, while on another screen a woman breathes hard and then stops. You hear nothing, you only see the images. When you take the time, the video installation makes a deep impression. “
De Volkskrant May 22th 2010. Karin Veraart:****The new piece Breath van Roos van Geffen is certainly as penetrating, but much more witty. (…) And all of those faces have become so fascinating and personal and individual and distinctive that you can’t imagine that you ever found them boring and ordinary.
NRC Handelsblad, May 25th 2010: Our non-verbal behavior unites as much as it divides, Van Geffen seems to say. Not a sensational insight, but there is less to do in this physical representation. Experiencing is more important than understanding, and the experience here is intense: how the actors emit sound with the help of their entire body, reaching faster and louder, reaching for the orgasmic rather than ending in a series of animal cries. The neighboring distance from it is great, but at the same time it feels close, recognizable, human.
REVIEWS PERFORMANCES
VANGST
BBC Radio : ‘A fantastic and subtle performance… (…)’
CCQ Magazine: The sensual pouring of salt preserves the picture I’ll take with me as I leave . Desires and fears are preserved in my brain.
NRC Handelsblad Vangst van Roos van Geffen has beautiful silence (…) First tender, then merciless. The very concentrated action is sometimes compelling.
Leeuwarder Courant: One of those little gems is Vangst van Roos van Geffen … fear of death and the desire for love and intimacy come together beautifully
Boulevard Magazine. Geert Overdam, Director Boulevard Festival : Roos van Geffen with Vangst, a small show about fears. Real experience theater, close to your skin. You feel the need to let us experience this deep into your body. And that is exactly what art means to me: breath and blood
WE
De Theatermaker: The performance ‘We’ in top 3 of best mime performances of 2008
Deadline : Ultimate theater (…) This is how theater should be: moving and personal.
8Weekly: You are recognized as a unique individual with a unique face. At those moments, WE van Roos van Geffen suddenly comes very close. The anonymous ‘she’ of passing unknown faces becomes a moving ‘me’.
Parool : “an equally oppressive and intimate one-on-one show”
De Pers : Strong but beautiful
Utrechts Nieuwsblad: **** “ confronting in a simple way”
Moose: “ Very special experience. Perfectly fitting title. Only downside: it ruined me for other shows. Nothing makes it better here ”
Theatertijdschrift Lucifer/ Bas van Peijpe : The series of encounters in We on the one hand encourages all kinds of thoughts about looking, being watched and intimacy. But in addition, the show organizes an experimenting and creating practice in the sense described above. The visitor ‘inhabits’ the constructive and undergoes a step -by- step transformation from a spectator-to-a-distance to a participant in an intimate contact. All this happens so slowly and with concentration, there is room for a degree of input in this experiment, for creating and testing different ‘configurations of yourself-in-this-situation: do I keep looking or do you keep your eyes off? Are you opening up or are you erecting a wall? Are you talking back? And what do you say? And here again the basic reflective at the service of the experiment: what does this do to you, here and now?
IMMENS
De Volkskrant(…) Creating a square where there is no cynicism.
De Standaard(…) Is van Geffen naive? No, only those who see the world in all its ugliness, ask to look for beauty with such insistence. (…)
8Weekly (…) All in all, it is an overwhelming and moving experience.
Simon van den Berg www.simber.nl (…) Immens is a pure and profound experience.
HARTSTOCHT
De Morgen(…) The way in which you get to know the city of Bruges in Hartstocht is as original as it is breathtaking. (….)
De Volkskrant (…) It is great that in a time when everything has already been thought of, someone can offer the audience a completely new experience with such a simple intervention.
www.moose.nl An absolutely sensational, esotheric , visual experience. Everything you say about it sounds exaggerated, but it is true. (…) it shows you the essence of what art is about, the insight that the world can be viewed differently than you have ever decided to do yourself. You must constantly review that decision.
GRÛN
VPRO guide October 2015: “… The decor is the centerpiece of this piece and consists of semicircular, oversized carpet rolls on a rotating platform specially designed for this purpose. The image that the makers want to evoke is crystal clear: a plowed field. That looked like this fifty years ago, looks like this now and looks like this in 20 years. There is no better symbol of transience, and it is a simple and ingenious find for a play about two Frisian farming families for fifty years … “
Friesch Dagblad November 2, 2015: “… A strongly imaginative and ingeniously designed backdrop – the plowed fields and the planets above in atmospheric lighting – give you the feeling that you are both important and void …”
Theaterkrant November 1, 2015: “… The stage image consists of nothing more than a large turntable on which a perspective distorted and therefore immensely looking arable land can be seen. Rugged earth in which deep forwards have been drawn. Symbol for the countless characters who are all drawn from the clay and in whom life has left deep grooves. Above that, the planets make their slow revolutions. It is gigantic colored spheres that, due to their size, reduce the earthly hassle to no more than negligible murmurs … ”
LOOKING FOR
Blue pages – The Society of British Theater Designers June 2011, Michael Spencer “The Dutch exhibit confronted us with a booth , inside How many followers sat a man who presented participants with an iPhone if They wished to take a hour long tour through the streets of Prague Immediately outside the exhibition building. The tour was created by four leading Dutch scenographers – the iPhone was your guide: map, visual references , audio and means of recording your experience . This last example – a personal favorite – raises issues of where reality meets theater , by asking participants to frame their experience through photographs they are instructed to take. ”
www.newparadiselaboratories.org : I found the Dutch National Pavilion and the walking tour to be a well- integrated and forward- looking experience at the Prague Quadrennial – amongst my favorites there . The tour was well- written and evocative , the ending was fulfilling and memorable .