The work of Margit Lukács and Persijn Broersen moves between film, installation, and performance, exploring the relationship between culture and nature. Drawing on their interest in media, music, and technology, they connect mythological, historical, and scientific sources with questions of representation and appropriation. Through carefully constructed virtual worlds — combining live action, photography, and digital animation — they reflect on the interplay between imagination and reality.

At the Pitcairn Museum Video Department, Hof van de Leeuw (Lion’s Court) is presented, a cinematic opera in which the Binnenhof appears as a virtual, myth-laden stage. Inspired by the discovery of fourteenth-century lion bones and the symbolism of stranded whales, the artists construct a digital hortus conclusus where power, morality, and prophecy converge.

The lion Faust, sung by baritone Michael Wilmering, embodies a ruler pursuing a self-destructive form of freedom, inspired by Faust from the work of Johann Wolfgang von Goethe. His drive for power and progress culminates in a moral conflict ultimately engulfed by rising waters. In contrast, the ideas of Johan de Witt emerge, whose words — voiced by the whale (alto-mezzo Carina Vinke) — advocate for a republic grounded in freedom and equality. In collaboration with composer and political scientist Bram Kortekaas, a Faustian dilemma unfolds: how far can one go in pursuing ideals, and at what cost?

In their work, Lukács and Broersen visualize the complex relationship between culture and nature, driven by their interest in media, music, and technology. They intertwine these elements with the politics of representing and appropriating nature, drawing from mythological, historical, and scientific sources.

Across film, installation, and performance, they unravel the origins and mythologies of both real and fictional landscapes from multiple perspectives. Their practice involves constructing virtual worlds in which live action, photography, and experimental digital animation converge. In collaboration with scientists, researchers, musicians, and choreographers, their work reflects the many references that shape the imagination and appropriation of landscape.

Their work has been presented at the Stedelijk Museum Amsterdam (Amsterdam, NL), the Centre Pompidou (Paris, FR), Haus der Kulturen der Welt (Berlin, DE), Rencontres Internationales Paris Berlin (Paris/Berlin), HEK Basel (Basel, CH), the WRO Biennale (Wrocław, PL), the Sydney Biennale (Sydney, AU), Rencontres d’Arles (Arles, FR), the Wuzhen Biennale (Wuzhen, CN), and the Gwangju Biennale (Gwangju, KR).

Margit Lukács (1973) and Persijn Broersen (1974) live and work in Amsterdam.

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