Always wanted to smash right through the impenetrable surface of the nearly natural, meet your inner guidance, or wander around in the magic garden of your mind’s eye?
“Come through for a guided meditation session in the Neverland cinema. This work takes the format of a screensaver to activate another form of watching together; a watching transformed into meditating. Sink in a meditative mode of perceiving through a guided meditation scripted and performed by Anne Kolbe. Sound by Rowan van As. Music from the tapes provided by DJ Kapsalon.”
Join me for an exhibition walkthrough on Mariana Castillo Deballs installation “Uncomfortable Objects”, on view at Mariana Castillo Deball, a solo exhibition at Witte de With Centre for Contemporary Art.
We talk about things all the time. We describe them, explain them, make remarks about them, try to understand them, or complain about them. What would we talk about without things? Would we become as mute as chairs, our favourite sweater or a door stop? These things may be mute, but they aren’t speechless. Objects shape our surroundings. They become charged with meaning as we live amongst them. In this FOCUS, we are going to talk to things, in order to find out what they in turn have to say, and generate a new language that emerges from and between them.
Date: Friday July 19 at 17.30 hours
Location: Melly (ground floor space at Witte de With Centre for Contemporary Art)
What does a door stop have to say to a napkin holder?
“Unintentional spills are very much part of this exhibition, partly because of the absence of walls between the student’s solo presentations in the host space De Kroon, a former electrical engineering factory on the Maas River. From the sound spillages of the woman’s voice in Johanna Kotlaris’ audio pieces, Things I Thought I Said and Things I Know I Said, to the water literally spilling over the top of Anne Kolbe’s Coniferous Fountain (2018), to the alcohol dripping down and forming dark patches on the concrete floor in Victor Santamarina’s sculptures. Whether a desired effect or an accident, the metaphor of the spill started to resonate with the way the different artists were approaching their works; through literal or imagined encounters, in evoking intimate proximity, and by using personal experience to connect to the viewer.”
Federica Bueti on ‘You have to have a sense of what your characters are doing in order to sell they play’, ‘Coniferous fountain’ and my practice.
(Federica Bueti, “Spills: Retrospective Reflections and Contaminated Afterthoughts”, 2018)
(Quote from Anne Kolbe, “An Object Choreography” (master’s thesis, PZIMFA, 2018)
Long before there were people in Charlois, there was already water. Water is always on the move and always finds a way. Historically, fountains were gathering places that occupied a central place in village- and city life. Often they were installed to commemorate a great battle, a plague epidemic or some other historical event, donated by the municipality or a patron. Unfortunately, Charlois currently has no working fountain. Niek Hilkmann and Anne Kolbe want to remedy this shortcoming and temporarily give Charlois a mobile fountain that is not tied to a single place or interpretation. After an opening ceremony, held on the 2nd June around 13:00, next to Varia, space for everyday technology, the fountain can be seen during the weekends of the Charlois Speciaal festival, in search of new meaning and appreciation.
Flags can deal with topics such as identity, diversity, similarities, agreements and contracts. They serve as markers for existing territories or get planted on freshly conquered ones. They symbolise journeys being made, fraternisation, reconciliation, but they can also provoke collisions, separation, conflicts and exclusion.
Time to reconsider the flag with Tijl Orlando Frijns! During the next flag ceremony Tijl is going to unfurl some of his thoughts on flags in the form of a performative speech. He will raise a narrative ‘flag’ that touches upon notions such as liberties, boundlessness and breaking down conventions.
You are very welcome to join us for the ceremony in the yard of Kunst & Complex, Keileweg 26, Rotterdam. There will be beers for the modest sum of a Euro!
On Saturday June 24 we open the doors to our studio’s at Kunst & Complex after rebuilding and alterations. We’re happy to welcome you! Swing by for a watermelon cocktail drink.
During Art Rotterdam 2017 I will execute and show a new project during Prospects & Concepts. In February 2017, the Mondriaan Fund organizes the fifth edition of the annual exhibition Prospects & Concepts during the international art fair Art Rotterdam at the Van Nelle Fabriek. The exhibition presents work by over sixty visual artists who received a Talent Development Grant in 2015. For this edition, the Mondriaan Fund invited Stijn Huijts to curate the exhibition.
Open
Wednesday February 8 2017 (opening and preview on invitation only)
6 pm – 10 pm
Thursday February 9 2017
11 am – 7 pm
Friday February 10 2017
11 am – 9 pm
Weekend February 11 & 12 2017
11 am – 7 pm
Artists:
Marijn Bax / Marieke Berghuis / Lola Bezemer / Wieke Bonnier / Rob Bouwman / Margriet van Breevoort / Olivier van Breugel & Simone Mudde / Michiel Burger / Brian Coutinho / Britt Dorenbosch/ Mandy den Elzen / Ingeborg Entrop / Kim van Erven / Helen Anna Flanagan / Robert Glas / Katinka van Gorkum / Timo van Grinsven / Yoeri Guépin / Niek Hendrix / Ursula Jernberg / Alle Jong / Otto Kaan / Damian Kapojos / Iztok Klancar / Anne Kolbe / Theodora Kotsi / Jasmijn Krol / Mila Lanfermeijer / Tom Lore de Jong / Chaim van Luit / Milo van der Maaden / Anne-Marie van Meel / Dorine van Meel / Quenton Miller / Abel Minnée / Pendar Nabipour / Bernice Nauta / Bart Nijboer / Marijn Ottenhof / Joyce Overheul / Temra Pavlovic / Eric Peter / Willeke van Ravenhorst / Johan Rijpma / Daphne Rosenthal / Jan Rosseel / Bert Scholten / Philip Schütte / Rosa Sijben / Luuk Smits / Margré Steensma / Laurens Stok / Mitchell Thar / Kyle Tryhorn / Romi Tweebeeke / Sanne Vaassen / Jop Vissers / Guy Vording / Jan Wattjes / Sebastiaan van Weelden / Harm Weistra / Lucian Wester / Riet Wijnen / Timmy van Zoelen
