Hartwig Art Foundation & Holland Festival present: The Worm - Ed Atkins

Phone call

In The Worm, visual artist Ed Atkins presents a telephone conversation with his mother. She is heard but not seen, while Atkins is represented as a digital avatar listening intently, occasionally muttering something of agreement, sympathy, or surprise. He only asks questions when her story falters. The mother is close to the ear but spatially far away. The son's 3D model has extreme close-ups, odd angles, abrupt cuts, clumsy gestures, and unconscious tics.

'The way she (Atkin's mother, ed.) talks about her mother, Nanny Bea, is how I could talk about my mother, thwarted artists, manic depressives with chronic dysmorphism through and through. All hereditary poison. This "compassion" was hard on both sides, a self-confident performance, but it was also love.'

—Ed Atkins

Location

Parnassusweg 220, 1076 AV; daily from 2pm to 8pm