A Conversation with iRAP Tutor Bert Scholten

FMI Graduation Show 2026 Interview Series

By Olivia Niuman

Bert Scholten joined the staff as a tutor in the iRAP (Interrelational Art Practices) department halfway through this year. “It was interesting to get to know all of the students in the middle of their progress,” he reflects. He sees his role with the graduating students as one that is supportive and there to give energy; encouraging his students to be critical of what they are doing, and why, while also keeping the fun in the process. “It’s good to not lose the love of what you’re doing.” 

I sat down with Bert to have a discussion about the graduating iRAP students, their methods of working and what can be expected from the graduation show in June. I wondered if he noticed any interesting dialogues between the students graduating this year — conceptual or material ways in which some of the practices might resonate with each other. 

“Some students have interests in memories of different sorts. Memories through food or memories through stories.” He shared that many students are currently working with stories, though not necessarily all with storytelling as a medium. “Also, maybe, the phenomenon of a story or how a story works. What the construction of a story is, or how stories are used. So, it can be storytelling as a medium, but it’s also often about what the function of that story is, maybe in a bit more of a meta way.”

While the range of contexts and practices within the iRAP program can be quite broad, I was curious if Bert noticed any similarities between students with the more fundamental building blocks of their work — their artistic base units, to borrow the term from artist Amy Sillman. Were there any interesting differences or similarities between students that maybe aren’t obvious until one starts thinking through this lens of the unit? 

Bert emphasized that he is of course summarizing his perception of the students’ work, and maybe they would think of their units in a different way. But he observed of a few students:

“Jedidja Smalbil is investigating in her thesis the language that she uses when doing her work. What I notice is that she writes about having a cup of coffee and a biscuit, and it’s almost like those things are also her unit: one conversation over a cup of coffee. It's often elderly people or care homes or different places where she is looking for the stories around people who live on the ship and work as a shipper."

“Tai Lun Hsieh is working a lot with food and the memories around food. So her unit would probably be some ingredient that is almost like a carrier of something, of a story or memory that goes along with it. So that’s similar to Jedidja with the cup of coffee.” 

“Then there’s Lena Krysiak, who is also working on the history of her family in Poland, and the family house, which she never really visited. I feel her work is more about all of these stories almost between objects and between things; she sees the story as maybe a thing that tricks us a bit.” 

After discussing some of the students’ work in more depth, I started to think about how the iRAP students, and maybe the program in general, is oriented around revealing or bringing attention to certain units that form how we exist in the world but that we are not necessarily conscious of. Many of the projects seem to bring awareness to how social dynamics and physical spaces shape how people relate to each other and exist in the world. 

I asked Bert if he also agreed with this idea that iRAP students often reveal certain “units” that weren’t known before. 

“Yeah, maybe. A lot of them also use themselves as a kind of measure. They are also the bridge between the audience and different social groups.”

He continued, “Most of them are interested in a more natural way of being a part of something, of embedding themselves somewhere or almost like using a different profession as a way of blending in. Sometimes it might feel like being undercover, and sometimes it might be very natural, or sometimes it might be very absurd.” 

The iRAP program, in comparison to the other departments at Frank Mohr, is more externally focused and socially engaged, with students working in communities and contexts that are beyond the institution. I asked Bert if he’s noticed if that makes it more difficult or challenging to place work in the context of the graduation show. 

“I feel the students have a good sense of different contexts, and they can move through different contexts.” He said that this sensibility towards different contexts is perhaps something that iRAP students share overall. 

So, what could a visitor to the graduation show expect to see? How could these kinds of practices be translated into something that a visitor could experience or understand? 

“Well, for some of the works, the community they work with could also be the visitors of the graduation show. For some, it’s more of a representation of something that happened.” 

Some students will be staging performances or working with installations that actively involve the audience, while others will show remnants or documentation of projects that occurred at a different time or place. Visitors can thus expect to engage in the same contextual awareness that iRAP students practice: questioning how the line between viewer and participant is shaped, blurred, or activated by the specific place; in this case, the A-Kerk. 

The iRAP students’ graduation work, along with the other three departments at the Frank Mohr Institute, will be on view at the A-Kerk in Groningen from 25-28 June, 2026. For more interviews, information, and details about the students and their graduation work, keep an eye on the event page on our website and follow us on Instagram.