Gwen van den Eijnde

Born 1981 in Zierikzee/Netherlands. After having completed one year of study in animation film, he studied with Edith Dekyndt at the Visual Arts and Textile Departments of the Ecole Supérieure des Arts Décoratifs in Strasbourg/France from 2000 until 2005.

In 2006, van den Eijnde was awarded a fellowship for the Water Mill Summer Program, Robert Wilson’s Academy for Arts, New York, NY/USA. He worked as a costume assistant on Damon Albarn and Jamie Hewlett’s circus opera »Monkey Journey to the West« at the Manchester International Festival in Great Britain in 2007, as well as for the costume designer Olivier Beriot, and the costume atelier Caraco-Canezou in Paris.

Van den Eijnde’s focus lies on sculpture and costume design. By also wearing the costumes he designs in his performances, as he did eg. for »Cérémonial« Palais des Fêtes, Strasbourg in 2004, he develops the theme of the »sculpture of the self«, and incarnates a whole gallery of imaginary characters.

During his first stay at Akademie Schloss Solitude in 2008, he realized a collection of experimental costumes in collaboration with the Württembergisches Staatstheater Stuttgart. He presented the costumes in the performance »Spiegelkabinett« in the Weißer Saal of Schloss Solitude. Furthermore, he took part in projects of other Solitude fellows, among others with the video artist Daniel Kötter for his project »Arbeit und Freizeit (1) – Solitude« as well as with the violoncellist Séverine Ballon and the artist Roselyne Titaud for the performance »S’ils me regardent il me regarde« in the gardens of the castle of Bussy-Rabutin in France.

Currently, van den Eijnde works on »Der Hippogryph«, an installation and performance in the project space rstr4 in Munich/Germany as well as on »Im Hirschgang«, a performance in three tableaux at Akademie Schloss Solitude.