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= Marja Samsom = Marja Samsom is a Dutch artist with an expertise in conceptual art, media art and performance art. She was a part of early conceptual art in the Netherlands and has been featured in The Clocktower, Franklin Furnace, New York Times and Vogue.

Amsterdam
Marja Samsom started her career as an artist in the 1970's in Amsterdam. She began making polaroids, printed stills and live performances. She referred to these live performances as 'Super-8 Movies'. Samsom performed a lot during these years. She performed in various venues, among which gallery De Appel in Amsterdam. Besides her performances in Amsterdam, Samsom also quickly got Dutch as well as international invites to perform or exhibit her works. These invites came from places like the Centraal Museum in Utrecht, the Franklin Furnace Archive in New York and various galleries. Marja Samsom also worked closely with Gallery Swart.

In her work, Samsom often plays with multiple identities, mostly the housewife and the pin-up. Questioning the artistic identity is an important part of Samsom's work.

Marja Samsom's so-called 'long term performances' are great examples of how the artist plays with identities. In these long term performances, Samsom takes on a part for a longer period of time. During her career, Samsom has taken on various parts. She is most known for the parts of Miss Behave and Miss Kerr. Others are called 'Madame Hulot en vacances' and 'Marja van Marken'. These artistic identities are still a part of Marja Samsom's work.

Samsom's work also includes themes that can be seen as feminist. For example, in her performance 'Sardine Strip' (performed in De Appel in 1976), Samsom, who is wrapped in tinfoil, slowly strips, revealing a tinfoil bikini. These kind of performances from Samsom are often received as sensual and feminist. Nevertheless, Samsom does not explicitly define herself as a feminist.

Samsom typically doesn't give an explanation with her work, but lets the public interpret it in their own way.

New York
In the 1980s, Marja Samsom moved to New York City because she felt she had reached a certain height in the Netherlands and saw the United States as the next step. Here, she also met her husband Akiro Tasaka.

Samsom continued her artistic career in New York, performing and exhibiting in various galleries. To be able to afford her work as an artist, she also worked as a caterer on the side.

Eventually, Samsom began her restaurant The Kitchen Club in 1985 in New York. The Kitchen Club started out as a place where Samsom hosted dinners for close friends, but quickly grew to be an established restaurant. It became a popular hub among art- and fashion-people - people like Lou Reed, Laurie Anderson, Malcolm McLaren and Catherine Deneuve loved to visit.

In 2010, Marja Samsom decided to close the restaurant because she wanted to focus more on her performance art. However, she still organizes culinary workshops in New York City.

After The Kitchen Club, Marja Samsom became artist in residence at art institute The Clocktower in New York City. During her time here, Samsom developed her storytelling performance/installation 'Shrine' and developed various shows. These shows were broadcasted on The Clocktower's "ARTonAIR". During this time, Samsom started to integrate her love for cooking more in her works and created the alias 'the Dumpling Diva'.

In 2015, Samsom published a small book called Diary of a Forgotten Actress 1972-79. The book was curated by the photographer duo Inez and Vinoodh. The book contains various pictures and images of her work over the years.

Today
Today, Marja Samsom still lives and works in New York City. Samsom focusses on performance art, storytelling and creating objects.

These objects sometimes match Samsom's performances. For her 'Miss Taken Identities' performance, she made three large objects out of paper mache, that can also function as individual art pieces. This way, Samsom combines various art disciplines.

In succession of the Diary of a Forgotten Actress book, Samsom has recently published a new book. This book will combine her work, correspondence with friends and family and other kinds of peeks inside her life and career.

Collections
Marja Samsom's work is part of various art collections, for example:


 * Dutch Cultural Heritage Agency has early objects and video works from the late 1970s.
 * Dutch media art platform LIMA.
 * There are various archival documents to be seen in De Appel.