De Balie Kijkt: It Is True But Not Here

A Dutchman growing up in Latin America sounds like a Sting song. Multidisciplinary artist Dick Verdult creates films, performances, graphics, drawings, sculptures, radio shows, writes books and makes music. He sees the world as a single, interactive system (globalism), and approaches social, cultural, scientific and humanistic issues as a ‘happy transcultural mutant’. The documentary It’s true but not here examines Verdults multidisciplinary, international art practice. After the screening, curator Stefan Malešević enters in conversation with him and the director: Luuk Bouwman.

Over the course of his career, spanning more than half a century, Dick Verdult is seen as an outsider. But the madness in his work appears to be very controlled. His strength lies in choosing to see globalism not as a problem, but as a source of inspiration.

The documentary was directed by Luuk Bouwman, a Dutch cinematographer, musician and director, known for his film on early Dutch fascism All Against All, presented at IDFA in 2019. He also worked as a cinematographer for Dick’s first feature fiction film: If Yes, Okay.