Minerva Talk: Let’s talk about failure

On Thursday, October 16 at 16.00 we are hosting the first Minerva Talk of the school year, in collaboration with the Bas Jan Ader team of the Art Academy.

During the talk, we will zoom in on the work of Bas Jan Ader and focus on the themes of failure, falling, trying, and not succeeding. How do artists deal with these themes? How does creative failure manifest in children? How do you cope with your own perfectionism? And can you actually fail enough within Minerva?

We will explore these questions with artists Feiko Beckers and Lily Dollner, researcher at the Arts Education research group Ineke Haakma, and teacher Hille Engelsma.

• Thursday October 16
• 16.00pm—18:15pm
• Main hall Minerva Art Academy – Gedempte Zuiderdiep 158 
• English spoken

Programme

The timetable is indicative. Sometimes we run ahead and sometimes we run slightly over.

About the guests

Lily Dollner
Performance

Lily Dollner (UK/IE, 2000) advocates 'unproductiveness' in her work and uses a rational, procedural framework to support absurd and impossible performances. Impracticability is embraced over the utilitarian mentalities and social constructions that have infiltrated our daily lives. Productivity culture and industrialism are parodied in her circular, functionless works, where 'the point' is absent, abstract, or unattainable.

Ineke Haakma
Lecture

Dr. Ineke Haakma is senior researcher at the Art Education research group at Hanze University. Her research, "The Voice of the Child and Youth," focuses on children’s and young people's perspectives on the arts, covering themes like creativity, cultural identity, play, curiosity, and space for experimentation and failure.

She studied clinical and developmental psychology and educational science, earned her PhD in orthopedagogy, and has worked as a lecturer, postdoc, and senior researcher at the University of Groningen, Lentis Research, and Hanze University.

Feiko Beckers
Artist talk

He works with everyday histories based on events from his own life, stories about failures, accidents or embarrassing situations that he has personally experienced. His work seeks answers to the unexpected, merciless character of unfortunate events. With video, performance, installations and even music, he constructs narratives that are unexpectedly interrupted, their determined and unavoidable failure impending and self-evident.

His work has been exhibited at De Appel, Amsterdam; Palais de Tokyo, Paris; Beursschouwburg, Brussel; Tenderpixel, Londen; Museum Kranenburg, Bergen; ; STUK, Leuven; Kunstverein Braunschweig; Fries Museum, Leeuwarden and at Gallery Stigter van Doesburg, Amsterdam.

Hille Engelsma
Lecture

Teacher Art Theory/Philosophy and Art History at Academie Minerva, Hanze University

David Stroband
Host

Teacher and researcher in the field of theory and reflection at Academie Minerva, Hanze University

More on Bas Jan Ader

Until October 17, 2025, the exhibition Fall: Five Fails – New Works after Bas Jan Ader can be viewed in the Koepelzaal of Minerva Praediniussingel. Eleven third-year Fine Arts students present work inspired by the themes of failure and falling in Bas Jan Ader’s art.

Would you like to dive deeper into Bas Jan Ader and prepare for the talk? In the library, you can watch two documentaries about Ader and explore a book collection by teacher Hille Engelsma on the artist. You will also find the book Creative Failure by Ineke Haakma there.