The end of the new normal? Entering the realm of the new freedom? Change is probably symbolized by the first art fair in Rotterdam from 1 to 4 July. Art Rotterdam is not exclusively devoted to photography (we have to wait till Unseen Amsterdam from 17 to 19 September in the Westergas), but still Rotterdam offers a wide selection of photography on and round the fair. Moreover the weekend offers a lot of animation spread throughout the city: the Art Rotterdam fair, the National Photo Museum, the galleries including the new Kahmann gallery, the design and interior fair Object to name just a few. In three contributions we try to give you an idea.
Not convinced? Art Rotterdam offers a lot : 10,000m2 of exhibition space, about 100 galleries, an estimated 4 to 500 artists in the official section, numerous side events on the festival site and beyond AND a selection of young talent (the Mondriaan Fund gives young artists the opportunity to come forward for the first time in a fair within the fair) The majority of the galleries are of course Dutch, but there is also a large international representation. Now the presence of those galleries from France, Italy, Belgium, Switzerland, Austria, Slovenia and Slovakia are to me proof that there really something happening.
The location of the fair is a sufficient motive to travel to Rotterdam: the Van Nelle factory is a building designed by Leendert van der Vlugt (1894-1936) & Johannes Brinkman (1902-1949) and was realized in the period 1925-31. At that time, Van Nelle was a global player in the trade in “colonial commodities”, coffee, tea and tobacco. The building is a world-class monument of functionalism, the New Building (das Neues Bauen) and is contemporary to the New Objectivity (Neue Sachlichkeit/ Nouvelle Objectivité) where a new sense of space was created using reinforced concrete. It was recognized in 2014 as a monument on the Unesco World Heritage List. It radiated optimism and positivism, and a certain visitor named Le Corbusier (1887-1965) stated:
“In Rotterdam you have a wonderful proof of life to come! Of a purity, so unconditionally pure!”
In the next three contributions we will successively talk about
Part 1
- ART ROTTERDAM FAIR
- ANDRIESSE EYCK GALLERY
- BINOME
Part 2
- CAROLINE O’BREEN
- FLATLAND
- GRIMM Amsterdam / NY
- KAHMANN GALLERY Amsterdam/ Rotterdam
- RAVESTIJN GALLERY
Part 3
- Gallery WOUTER VAN LEEUWEN
- MIEKE VAN SCHAIJK Den Bosch
- DUTCH PHOTO MUSEUM
- KAHMANN GALLERY Rotterdam
- OBJECT Design Fair
You will be given a brief review of the photographers brought by the galleries with a link to the gallery/institution’s website. The texts were largely supplied by the galleries and were only edited by us.
ART ROTTERDAM
Andriesse Eyck galerie Amsterdam
Charlotte Dumas (1977) lives & works in Amsterdam
The vital thread in Dumas’ work is the notion that the state of humanity can be read and studied by the way we relate to animals. Her choice of subject relates directly to the way we use, co-exist with, and define specific animals, assigning various symbolisms to them as well as our own personal reflections. It is her belief that the disappearance of the actual presence of animals as a given in our society greatly affects how we experience life and for example our ability to be empathetic with one another.
Lidwien van de Ven (1963) Lives & works in Rotterdam & Berlin
Lidwien van de Ven’s main interest is in the realm of the political and religious. In her research she takes documentary approach, though the work can’t be labelled as photojournalistic as such. Van de Ven’s photographs record that which is outside the frame of news stories and investigate the frontier between reality and representation, image and language, news and contemporary history.
Annet Gelink Gallery
Bertien van Manen (1942) Lives & works in Amsterdam
With a career spanning over 40 years and a number of legendary photo books to her name – amongst them A hundred summers, a hundred winters – Bertien van Manen (1942) is known for her intimate, detailed portraits of life as others live it. Recent exhibitions include a large retrospective at the Stedelijk Museum, as well as exhibitions at MoMA, New York, the Metropolitan Museum Tokio, Japan and Fotomuseum Winterthur, Switzerland. Her work is part of the collection of the Stedelijk Museum Amsterdam, MoMA, New York, and Maison Européenne de la Photographie Paris amongst others.
Binome Galerie
For Art Rotterdam Galerie Binome is presenting DOMINANT SUNS, a duo show by artists Laurence Aëgerter and Mustapha Azeroual, whose protean works revisit traditional creative processes, such as tapestry or gum bichromate, in a very contemporary approach. In dialogue with the great builders of cathedrals or modern painters, the works translate a form of obsessive relationship with light.
Mustapha Azeroual (1979) French-Moroccan
Mustapha Azeroual is a self-taught photographer. A scientist by training, his research is based on the observation of processes of appearance of the image and its manifestations, transmitted to the viewer through experimentation with the media of distribution. Combining installation, volume and sequence with old photographic processes, he updates the historical techniques of photography and printing, while opening up the field of investigation of the photographic image beyond its presupposed limits (flatness and temporality). The question of the photographic and the materiality of the image is at the heart of his creative process. Radiance is an inventory of the colours of light at sunset, a key moment in the day with regard to chromatic 8
Laurence Aëgerter – (1972) Lives & works in Marseille & Amsterdam
Sometimes solemn, sometimes playful, Laurence Aëgerter’s works question the signifying power of the images that surround us and that often overtake us, unconsciously, which she declines in the form of intimist or monumental pieces in photography, in situ installations, collaborative projects, or even artist’s books.
https://galeriebinome.com/contact/
Practical information
tickets
Have to be booked in advance: https://artrotterdam.com/en/
Coronameasures
Visitors are welcome without testing | Face mask is not mandatory | 1.5-metre distance is
Tickets clearly state your starting time, but once inside they are valid indefinitely.
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