Ellen Van Neerven

“Living in an apartment block alone sometimes feels like my room could topple backwards off the building and no one would notice.”
― Ellen Van Neerven, Heat and Light

“Children as young as five are encouraged to be aggressive to their fellow students, using the language of war and blood sports: beat, flog, smash, attack, defend, destroy. The lexicon of violence shapes a language of movement at a young age. Children are told to push through discomfort, toughen up, fight, and to harden themselves into weapons to win at all costs, humiliating another person or group of people. But sport can exist without contest and conquer. It is not about destroying. Let’s see what we create when we are not attempting to destroy something in each other.”
― Ellen Van Neerven, Personal Score: Sport, Culture, Identity