(for contact : treeofknowledge@bessbarkholt.com)
BESS is a composer, singer, performer, thinker/writer, film-maker and producer.
BESS creates and produces music in a field challenging to categorize between experimental composition, pop, improvisation and (sound) art.
She also creates performances and film, as part of her artistic work.
Working themtically with questions about gender and construction of identity. An abstract formal language that seeks to rather transform than have a poignant (academic) didactic way of understanding and speaking of the world. Music being language and musicality existing everywhere. A free visiting of different realms and combining of genres, thinking-systems and platforms of showing work. Her identity always being somehow confused and clouded with her actual art material, she challenges conventional ideas of the artist as a persona and how this character works and is represented in society.
In addition, she has collaborated with filmmakers, making soundscapes for images/ film, with professional dancers on the development of performances, as both performer and composer, has been part of theatre productions, contributed to publications, created and been a part of exhibitions and played in several band constellations, as musician, composer and improvisor.
Latest work include :
Maya Westman Memorial Concerts, a group of acknowledged singers interpret the songs of the record ‘White Dwarf’ written and recorded by Maya Westman, a singer and composer who sadly passed away in 2019. The group performed at Huset i Magstræde (cph) and Spot Festival (Aarhus), 2023-24
Collaborator and musician of the music project SERF by Tamu Kniwane, performing in Great Yarmouth , curated by original projects, 2023
Release of two singles, respectively ‘Solar Eclipse’ collab w. Nadir Letang LeCushnie (2023) and cover of Mac DeMarco ‘Alone Again’ (2023)
Release of sound-art composition ‘Sounds of Softness’ with Annett Stenzel (2023)
Release of two sound traces and tracks ‘Wishpond Sessions 1 & 2: “are we home” & “the key is to go through it” from the Performance in the installational exhibition ‘Temporary Homes’ at Støberiet (cph), curated by Tania Ballentine. (2022)
DJ Crystal DiCaprio, Elias Bendix release concert at Demokratigaragen (cph), at ‘Fabrikken for Kunst og Design’ (Amager, cph), Distortion Festival, Urban Rigger Panel Debate (Refshaleøen, cph), at DJ Brevet’s Dansefest(H15, Kødbyen, cph) 2022/23
Screening of video-performance piece ‘Virginia Supreme (relation)’ at the ‘Meta Alarm 2’ film screening event in Bermondsey Project Space, London, curated by artist/ film-maker Laura Moreton-Griffith, 06/11-2022
Composer of the sound-design for the performance ‘Plateauic’ performed and created by Daniel Mølholt Bülow and Jonas Kjeldgaard Sørensen at ‘Villa Kultur’ in Copenhagen, February 2022
Composer in the film ‘f Silence Song’ by Annett Stenzel, 2021, shown at Spring Exhibition 2021 at Charlottenborg (cph), and excerpts at BUALA / Art Teleported (New York) 2020
Online show and exhibition at Cromwell Place, Degree Show of the graduating class of Contemporary Art Practice, Moving Image, the Royal College of Art, June 2021
Panel discussion co-facilitator at ‘Urgency of the Arts Assembly’ – at The Royal College of Art, introduction of artist Tamu Nkiwane, including artists Legacy Russel and Shahzia Sikander and Abbas Zahedi
Performance-installation during the exhibition ‘Temporary Homes’ – performances and installations dealing with questions around precarity of housing in urban areas and refugee-crisis and a spiritual approach to the notion of the feeling of home, curated by Tania Kristin-Ballentine, Støberiet in Copenhagen, 10/15-2021
Performance at ‘Market Place’ – a multi-dimensional art and performance-installation and market place, curated by Dalin Waldo at Støberiet, Copenhagen, 10/08-2021
Performer and participant in the film-piece and band biography ‘Ladyjerks’, created by Annett Stenzel, represented at ‘Forårsudstillingen 2021 (Spring Exhibition 2021)’ at Charlottenborg, Denmark
Release of the mixtape ‘Let’s Sing This Love Song’ at The Lake Radio, Denmark, 2021
Represented with video-work ‘The Soul’ at online streamed film-festival ‘She chews Art’ 2020 by artist Jing Su, August 2020
Artist Talk at Folgendes, Hamburg – reflections on art practice in a neoliberally constructed society and art environment, invitation by artist and filmmaker Annett Stenzel, 30/06-2020
Collaboration with artist Christopher Tym on his graduate project ‘Kiss Me Click’ on the Royal College of Art 2017, composition of four songs for the project as well as performing in the work.
In January 2017 she performed ‘The Facebook Rave’, an interwoven sound performance- and installation reflecting on Facebook through sound, in the group exhibiton ‘MEMEMEME’ at the Crypt Gallery in London.
Collaboration between Vegard Vinge and Ida Müller and students of the Royal Danish Academy of Fine Arts on the performance-film ‘Dissection of a Body’, making and performing the soundscape of the film. The film hasn’t been released yet. 2016
Concerts in the bands ‘Ladyjerks’ (Tania Ballentine, Gertrud Kongshjelm, Ida Duelund Hansen, Camilla Munch, Maja Westman and more), ‘The Cactus Band’ (Tamu Kniwane, Victoria Kaldan, Freddie Mason, Jazbo Von Magius Gross, Alistair Stewart, Wylbi Windhymn, Nadja Voorham, Rhine Stone, Nicholas Pervez) ‘Emsig Bazooka’ (Yasmin Bjórnsdottir, Tone Lyngsøe, Anna Wærum)
Concerts as solo act ‘BESS’ with musicians Benjamin Gower-Poole, Pernille Ravn-Højgaard, Mads Nørgaard, Rasmus Elhøj, Benjamin Ømann, Nina Egekvist, Benjamin Neehammer
Has played concerts in Scandinavia and London in a wide range of venues, from the smallest underground scenes to concerts at Copenhagen Jazz Festival. Following is picked out: warm-up act for ‘Bisse Tour Fuldt Flor’ at Tobakken (Esbjerg), Posten (Odense), Plantagehuset (Thisted), Store Vega, (cph), among other venues, 2018 The Greenwich Pensioner, Royal College of Art, Bow Arts Café, 2017 at the boat Bapor Taboo at Art Licks Weekend London, Lost Senses / Sunbury House, Café Oto London, 2017 Bremen Teater, Huset in Aalborg, Literaturhaus in Copenhagen, Operaen in Christiania, Copenhagen, ‘Salon Pissoir’/ Børneteatret in Copenhagen, Moriska Paviljongen in Malmö, Copenhagen Jazzfestival 2013, 2014, Idealbar/ Vega in Denmark, 5e at the Meat District in Copenhagen, self-arranged concerts in the industrial rehearsal-space area at Refshaleøen, Dome of Visions near Den Sorte Diamant in Copenhagen, Mayhem, Mellemrummet, The Wedding House in Copenhagen, Øen, Temple bar, Blågårds Apotek, Tårnstudiet and more.
Solo exhibition at the exhibition space, Øen in Copenhagen, fall 2016, exhibiting sculptures, prints and text connected to the musical release ‘Mooncore’.
In September 2016 released ‘Mooncore’ as a digital work, as well as 50 unique graphic/ photographic prints, as individual artworks with download codes on, for the full album.
In March 2016, she was co-creator and performer in the show ‘Spring Collection’ – built in Dansehallerne, Carlsberg – a collaboration between the Academy of Art in Copenhagen and School of Contemporary Dance. Composition for film-piece by Tore Hallas and written words and development of dance-piece with Rasmus Bjørkvad.
In February 2016, BESS released her first full album ‘Bez & Rummet’ (‘Bez & Space’) on the LP a double EP bestående of the two sides respectively: ‘Bez’ and ‘Rummet’.
She published in 2015 the cinematic and auditory work ‘HA ° ND’– which consisted of 5 songs accompanied by a stick together end film + a bonus track. In addition, a secret B-side with 12 musical footnotes.
The publication came out at 40 entirely exclusive and uniquely created red cassette tapes.
Composer and performer in a musical and performative piece, co-created by students from Rythmic Music Conservatory and The Danish Theatre School – ‘Ingen Tilslutning’, 2015. Directed by Johan Sarauw.
She collaborated with Roja Pakari about movie ‘Hair’ in 2013 and Roja Pakari’s graduation film at the Film School in 2015 ‘ZAYESH’.
Has previously collaborated with the dance company ‘Panic Organic’, where she composed the music and the performer in the play ‘Pregnant with Possibilities’, which was performed in Dansehallerne, autumn 2011.
Education:
2018-2021 – Master’s Degree of Fine Arts (Master of Art) The Royal College of Art, London – Contemporary Art Practice – specialisation in performance and moving image
2013-2017 – Bachelor’s Degree of Music (Bachelor of Music) Copenhagen Rythmic Music Conservatory, Copenhagen – specialization as singer, composer and producer (2015-2016 – exchange at The Royal Danish Academy of Fine Arts)
2012-2013 – Jazz Course at the renowned Boarding School for Jazz Musicians in Sweden, ‘Skurup’s Folkhögskola’ – specialization as a singer
2011-2012 – MGK – musical foundational course, Helsingør, Denmark – specialization as a singer
Has recieved solo lessons and mentoring from following artists:
Tanja Schlander – sound artist, astrologer and clairvoyant (2022)
Barkusina Hanusova – performance artist, London (2017)
Mariam Wallentin – composer/ singer, Stockholm (2016)
Heidi Mortenson – composer / electronic musician/ singer, Aarhus (2015)
Nana Jacobi – singer/ composer/ entrepreneur, Copenhagen (2014)
Signe Høirup Wille-Jørgensen aka Jomi Massage – singer/ composer/ performance artist, Copenhagen (2013)
Clara Bryld – singer/ composer/ pianist, Copenhagen (2012)