Mirte Hartland is a singer-songwriter, music-making word artist, language magician with guitar. By juggling sung and spoken words, guitar and vocals, she investigates where melody and story reinforce each other. Her work consists of a carefully composed collage of atmospheres and images with a melancholic undertone. Her live act is small and personal with a balanced sound. In the name of Poetry Cirlce Nowhere she wrote, created and played performances for festivals such as Oerol, Lowlands and De Parade. She also produces recordings of her own work and guides young talents in writing for the stage.
During 2024, Mirte was the Spoken Word guest resident at the Rijksakademie. During this period, Mirte was invited to lead, in collaboration with the Workshop Social Practice, a workshop in which visual artists and spoken word artists came together in search of words to communicate the complicated societal or environmental issues expressed within the arts. This workshop was hoped to be the start of a durable exchange between the two disciplines to look for more inclusive expressions in language.
The Spoken Word residency is part of the two-year project ‘Artistic Ecologies: New Compasses, Tools and Alliances’. A collaboration between the Rijksakademie, What, How & for Whom/WHW and Neue Nachbarschaft/Moabit. The project consists of a series of artistic and educational activities that examine art’s social placement in relation to what art can do to tackle the devastating effects of the eco-social crisis.
Browse through the full archive of our alumni.