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Frans van Lent is a Dutch video/performance artist and curator, based in Dordrecht, the Netherlands. Studied at MaHKU, Utrecht (MA Fine Arts). He tutors at the Willem de Kooning Academy, Rotterdam (since 2000).
His recent projects include the Unnoticed Art Festival, The ConceptBank and The ParallelShow. There is no clear distinction between his practice as a performance artist and his curatorial projects. He recently published the book Unnoticed Art (ISBN: 978-90-808675-0-5) and he is now working on a book on The ParallelShow. The Unnoticed Art Festival balances on the line between public and private. It shows artworks hiding in normality. The language, used to express the works, fits in the average social behaviour in public space and, because of that, remains unnoticed to bystanders. Creating the concepts and executing the works are split. The artists submit their concepts more or less as manuals and the selected works are then carried out by a group of (non-professional) volunteers. Unnoticed Art Festival took place unannounced in the centre of Haarlem (NL) in 2014 and in the centre of Nijmegen (NL) in 2016.
The ConceptBank is a open-source performance databank. It is filled with performative concepts of many contemporary artists. Visitors to the website can find the concept of their choice by means of an easy accessible search engine. They are free to print the concept and carry out the work on a place and time of their own choice.
The ParallelShow is a series of impromptu performances of occasional collaborations of performance art practitioners. It takes place unexpectedly at and around public exhibitions in museums and galleries.TheParallelShow is never announced, no invitations are sent. So far the Parallelshows took place in Leiden (NL), Rotterdam (NL), London (UK), Valencia (E), Leuven (B), Dordrecht (NL), Delphi (GR) and Berlin (D).
The book mentioned was The Presentation of Self in Everyday Life by Erving Goffman.
