Humobisten 

De Humobisten –aka Gyz La Riviere & Rufus Ketting- have a long-term collaborative practice as artists, cultural organisers and designers. Additionally, La Riviere and Ketting produce individual bodies of work. This is entirely appropriate since their solo works as artists are usually notably different from their joint works. Variously involved in bands, underground party scenes and the street culture scenes – such as skateboarding- for more than a decade in Rotterdam, where they live and work, both produce works that often draw on these influences and reinterpret them through a more conceptual framework. In the joint work of de Humobisten – whether as artists or more commercial graphic designers- there is always an underlying conceptual approach, almost always with an absurdist, punky feel to its modes of operation, perhaps most recently evidenced in the registration of a performance work in Rotterdam where a popular children’s character (a bear) and its signature tune are reworked as absurdist cabaret. With a title that roughly translates as ‘We’re Angry Again’, the performance saw one of the Humobists dressed in a bear costume singing to the well-known song; replacing the usual lyrics with clever twists in the traditional style of political cabaret to comment on everything from social exclusion to terrorism.