Dürst Britt & Mayhew is thrilled to invite you to a performance by Maxim Ventulé, who will premiere songs based on the poetry of Willem Hussem (1900-1974).
This performance will take place at the gallery on Sunday 15 February, during the finisage of ’The clouds are changing colour’. In this transhistorical group exhibition Willem Hussem’s visual output enters into dialogue with works by his good friend Piet Ouborg (1993-1956) and with work by four contemporary artists represented by the gallery: Paul Beumer, David Roth, Alejandra Venegas and Wieske Wester.
Maxim Ventulé (1996) is a visual artist and musician. He is known as the singer and songwriter of Dutch Indie-folkband De Toegift, who received raving reviews from music critics for their first two albums ‘De Toegift’ (2023) and ‘kleine auto, grote hot wheel’ (2025). After hearing their songs on the radio Dürst Britt & Mayhew approached Ventulé asking if he would be interested in setting Hussem’s poetry to music.
Sunday's performance will be the first manifestation of Ventulé's adaptation of Hussem's textual output. Next to the songs for which Ventulé deconstructed and reconstructed various of Hussem's poems, he will also perform songs by De Toegift. The performance will start at 4pm.
Maxim Ventulé graduated in Fine Arts from St. Joost School of Art & Design in 2023 and is based in Antwerp. In his work the use of language, image, performance and sound are of equal value. Alongside his individual artistic practice and being member of De Toegift, Ventulé is part of the collective 'it is part of an ensemble', a dynamic group of artists and performers producing exhibitions, theatre works, and publications. In the fall of 2021 Dürst Britt & Mayhew hosted the collective for six weeks in their gallery space.
