Volle Band

Volle Band was an audiovisual performance collective centered around bicycles. The urban environment is explored through guerilla sound performances. Squares, bridges, streets, all kinds of public spaces can be occupied and turned into a stage. In this manner the numina – the spirit presiding over a place – is temporarily altered. A parallel world in which the space and the sound suddenly start to combine their energy by creating a fictive landscape.

"The desire to use our direct environment as a stage makes the use of bicycles a logical choice. If one looks around for suitable performance spots, one starts to observe the environment with different eyes. An area that would normally be overlooked is suddenly ‘interesting’, ‘beautiful in an ugly way’ or ‘nicedystopian’ (‘fijndystopisch’ in dutch). The discovery and exploration of the direct environment is one of the foundations of the project. In that sense, our performances and expeditions can be considered ‘inverted tourism’ . A new kind of ‘tourism’ in which one gets to know the direct environment in a new way. The bicycle with its active and participatory attitude is the symbol of the new, inverted tourist that Volle Band advocates."

The team consisted of sound artist / composer Sjoerd Leijten, visual artist / animator Didier Jansen and philosopher / psychiatrist Olle Kruyt. Former members were Daan Dirk de Jonge and Zac Stibbs.

After the tragic death of Olle in 2018, we honored him with a bicycle procession in which the Volle Band bicycles played a leading role. 2018 also marked the end of Volle Band.