Computer says “Home”: A Fabric of Homes, 2024, Photo Gamze Ronald

Computer says “Home”: A Fabric of Homes 

Artist Duo Gamze Ronald

Interactive installation, long durational performance 

Computer Says ‘Home’: A Fabric of Homes is an interactive installation, made by Gamze Ronald with live performance,  where we ask the audience to share their experiences of Home on paper. These stories are shaped live during the exhibition by performers with migrant backgrounds, who hand-stitch the paper together. This creates a new entity in the installation. By doing so, we create a large network of people who interact socially during the exhibition period. Which makes the relationship between art and place visible, through the social network of people who come to visit the venue. As a result, we see the work as research and presentation in one, created before the eyes of the audience. The project was developed at Stanly Hall Theater, organized by Future Rituals in London (2024). The first presentation will take place during BIG ART 2024 in Amsterdam. We aim to develop our installations in different locations in the Netherlands and Turkey, and a publication of our total project.

Computer says “Home” 

The project combines the bureaucratic alienation, the papieren werkelijkheid, and our lived experiences of home. We understand “computer says” as a parody of “Computer says no” form of bureaucratic system to answer whether people are informed by the facts of their whereabouts.  

A Fabric of Homes

The project makes the relation to our social surroundings visible by stitching together all the conversations we have with our audience. We will ask them to write down their relation to home. Afterwards, a performer will work with the written text, which will be decomposed as material for the installation. Another performer will stitch the texts of the audience together to create a large “fabric” with a shape of a tent. By doing so, we create a large network of people that socially interact over the period of the event. To make visible the relation of art and place, by the social network of people coming to visit the venue. 

Performers: Nasma Alshutfa, Steef Kersbergen, Aoife Mc Donnell, Rana Kelleci, Laura Korakova, Cristina Lebedeva, Mar Esteban Martin, Natsumi Sakai

Foto en video: Jiaojiao Li

Umbrella project

Computer says “Home”: A Fabric of Homes is part of our umbrella project Overcoming the Obstacles over Time: A Commitment to Love and Touch. A dialogue between color and frame, space and movement, which Gamze Ronald have been creating since the pandemic. From April 2020 we were not allowed to meet each other because of the Corona pandemic regulations in Turkey and the Netherlands. Gamze, at that time, got a paper from the Dutch Embassy which stated that she was a threat to the Nation. In our online calls, we decided to commit to love and touch, as resistance to bureaucratic definitions that alienate rather than define us. 

Ronald holds a BA in Fine Arts from ArtEZ (2006-2010), and a minor in Political Philosophy at the University of Utrecht, followed by a master’s in Interior Architecture at the Royal Academy of Art (KABK) in The Hague (2022-2024) and a master’s in Education in the Arts at the Piet Zwart Institute in Rotterdam (2023-2025). His artistic contributions have been recognised with residencies at Sundaymorning@EKWC, Oisterwijk (2020), and the C. Rockefeller Center for the Contemporary Arts, Dresden organized by Goethe institut Niederlande (2019), in addition to exhibitions at prestigious venues worldwide, including the BIENALSUR in Buenos Aires (2023), Muzeum Mazowieckie in Płock (2023), Bronx River Art Center in New York (2022), Prague Biennial in Prague (2022), European Culture Centre – Palazzo Mora, in Venice (2017 and 2020), CODA Museum (2014).             

Gamze holds a BA in Art Management from Yıldız Technical University in Turkey (2010-2016) and an MA in Art Praxis from the Netherlands Art Institute (DAI), ArtEZ Hogeschool voor de Kunsten (2022-2024). She is currently co-curator of OPA – Open Performance Academy in Rotterdam from 2024. She worked on performative staging in the acting school ‘Studio Oyuncuları’, led by Sahika Tekand (2019). She was awarded several residencies: Co-Creation Live Factory: Dissenting Bodies Marking Time, Venice International Performance Art Week (2020), PS Performance Site The Hague (2017 and 2019) and DOOResidency in Amsterdam (2021). Her works have been exhibited at several museums including; Huis Marseille Museum of Photography in Amsterdam (2023), Muzeum Mazowieckie in Płock (2023) and the European Culture Centre Palazzo Mora in Venice (2020). 

Gamze Ronald live and work in Rotterdam and Istanbul

Computer Says “Home”: A Fabric of Homes is supported by Amarte Fonds and CBK Rotterdam

Film documentation