The Eye of Photography is dedicated today to Art Rotterdam, Rotterdam Art Week, Haute Photographie… This edition has been curated and written by our correspondent John Devos.
Rotterdam Art Week
Art is everywhere in Rotterdam, and certainly during Art Rotterdam and the Rotterdam Art Week. Art, design and architecture lovers will find various fairs throughout the city, special exhibition openings in museums and art institutions, pop-up exhibitions and open studios. In our contributions, we will talk about the insurmountable fair Art Rotterdam (and its galleries and projects), the design fair Object, Haute Photographie, Het Nederlands Fotomuseum, De Kunsthal, Het Huis van de Fotografie and, last but not least, the event Rotterdam Photo.
For visitors who really don’t want to miss anything, see the complete programme at www.rotterdamartweek.com
Art Rotterdam (Images 1)
The twenty-fifth edition of Art Rotterdam, from Thursday 1 to Sunday 4 February 2024, will once again take place in Rotterdam’s monumental Van Nelle Factory. Both outside and inside we will find initiatives. Outside, a large exhibition of monumental works, by young artists but also by established names.
Inside, much more awaits. More than 100 galleries participate in the anniversary edition: from the Netherlands of course but also delegations from Luxembourg, Belgium, Germany, UK, South Africa, Romania, Iran, Spain, France, Italy, Denmark, Ireland, Slovakia & Hungary.
Prospects/ the Mondriaan Fund showcases the work of 86 talented, up-and-coming artists… And Galerie Ron Mandos, on the occasion of its twenty-fifth anniversary, is presenting a show entitled Best of Graduates Legacy (more on this in contribution 3). Art Rotterdam is not really a fair focused on photography, but the medium is certainly featured in established galleries, Best of Graduates and Prospects.
Art Rotterdam Practical
Open from 1 to Sunday 4 February 2024 from 11 a.m. to 7 p.m. each day
Van Nelle Factory
Van Nelleweg 1
3044 BC | Rotterdam
The catalogue is to be consulted www.GalleryViewer.com
A complete list of participants: www.Artrotterdam.com/en/galeries
Tickets are only available online
€ 22,50 per ticket / off peak ticket € 16,50 per ticket via www.Artrotterdam.com
Object Design Fair (Images 2)
OBJECT is a unique pop-up platform for design labels as well as limited editions and one-offs from established and upcoming designers. Working in different design disciplines and with various materials. OBJECT is the place where the cutting edge between design, crafts, fashion, architecture and art becomes evident and it is a must see for people interested in interior, design lovers, art professionals and collectors. Every year OBJECT occupies an iconic building in or around Rotterdam, the designers are present for a personal meet and greet.
Visitor Information
HAKA-building,
Vierhavensstraat 40,
Rotterdam
February 2nd – 4th 2024 daily 11 am – 6 pm
Entrance fee: €17,50
Free for children under 16 years old
http://www.objectrotterdam.com
1.2 Art Rotterdam, The Galleries at Art Rotterdam – Part 1: 22,48m2, Andriesse Eyck, Bildhalle.
22,48m2 Romainville – Mazaccio & Drowilal (1988 & 1986) (Images 3)
Elise Mazac and Robert Drowilal have formed the duo Mazaccio & Drowilal since 2009. Their work embraces a multitude of images gleaned from the media, which they distort and combine to create series that are both striking and incisive. For ART ROTTERDAM, they present their series entitled «Identikit». This term, a contraction of the words «identity» and «kit», has two meanings: on the one hand, it evokes the «composite portrait», a representation of an individual composed by gathering descriptions provided by witnesses during an investigation. On the other, it is used to describe something standardized in the extreme. This series explores the close link between identification with media images and the construction of identity. Initially, the artists collected testimonies from friends and followers of similarities, more or less subjective, between Elise Mazaccio and media personalities who populate our collective imagination through pictures coming from television series, redcarpet moments and various artistic representations. Then, using the portraits of the people or characters mentioned, they sought to establish the best possible correspondences with photographs of Elise taken in the course of her daily life over a period of around ten years. This artistic approach explores how our perception of media images shapes and influences the construction of our own identity.
BIOGRAPHY
Elise Mazac (b. 1988) aka Mazaccio and Robert Drowilal (b. 1986) are two french artists who work together as a collaborative duo called MAZACCIO & DROWILAL. Working principally with photography and collage, the duo deconstruct multiple facets of contemporary visual culture through their process of gathering and arranging mass-media images. Their visual practice and aesthetic approach are heavily influenced by the Internet’ new iconographies and digital culture.Mazaccio & Drowilal have explored a wide breadth of subjects pertaining to celebrity, branding, artificiality, and identity. In 2013, Mazaccio & Drowilal were awarded the 3rd BMW Residency at the Musée Nicéphore Niépce. In 2017, they were residents at International Studio & Curatorial Program (ISCP) in New York. Their work has been exhibited in solo exhibitions at Rencontres d’Arles, Paris Photo, Les Abattoirs, Toulouse, Multimedia Art Museum, Moscow and the French Institute, New York, and group exhibitions in Galleria Continua, Les Moulins, Musée Nicéphore Niépce and Palais des Beaux-Arts Paris. In addition, they have published several artist books including Wild Style (2014), Champagne (RVB Books, 2015), The Happiness Project (RVB Books, 2018), and Paparazzi (RVB Books, 2021).They are visiting lecturers at Ecole cantonale d’art de Lausanne (ECAL) in Switzerland.
22,48m2
93230 Romainville France
www.2248m2.com
+33 (0)9 81 91 72 17
Andriesse Eyck Galerie Amsterdam Charlotte Dumas 1977 (Images 4)
Andriesse eyck gallery Amsterdam – Nederland is delighted to present 4 artists at the upcoming edition of Art Rotterdam – amongst them one photographer: Charlotte Dumas
“During her visit to New York in 2016, in the Pierpont Morgan Library, Charlotte Dumas spotted a pencil drawing of the elephant Hansken made by Rembrandt van Rijn around 1637. Hansken was the first elephant that was brought to the Netherlands in 1633 and Rembrandt drew her often.
Interested in our relationship with animals, Charlotte Dumas decided to look at the different aspects of the complicated and often exploitative history related to the use of elephants and their ivory. Although small in size, these black and white photographs relay a powerful message in favor of the gentle giants.”
andriesse eyck galerie
1016 GT Amsterdam
www.andriesse-eyck.com
T +31 (0)20 623 623 7
Bildhalle Amsterdam Zurich Laurence Aëgerter, Casper Faassen , Glithero, Joost Vandebrug & Onoko
Laurence Aëgerter 1972 (images 5)
Laurence Aëgerter’s extensive œuvre comprises of photographic series, site-specific installations, community projects and artist’s books, addressing the permanent transformation that lies in the essence of things. By making an inventive use of archives and existing images from illustrated books to museum collections, she examines the archive that shapes our collective memory. Displacement and translation play an important part in her work.
For the series Louvre Plage – Sables, Aëgerter develops her research about the transience of existence throughout artefacts. She has laid out sand from the beach in Marseille where she grew up onto the book ‘Les Merveilles du Louvre’ (Hachette, Paris, 1958). Iconic masterpieces of antique sculptures and objects are simultaneously appearing and disappearing under a layer of sand. Louvre Plage – Sables is somehow an archeology of images.
Her works are included in private and public collections of a.o. Paul Getty Center Los Angeles, The New York Public Library, The Metropolitan Museum of Art New York, Nederlands Fotomuseum Rotterdam, Museum of the Mind Haarlem, Fries Museum Leeuwarden, Museum van Loon Amsterdam, MAMAC Nice, Sèvres Manufacture et musées nationaux and BnF Bibliothèque Nationale de France Paris.
Casper Faassen 1975 (images 6)
Looking at Caspers Faasen’s (NL,) work is like looking through the mist of time. The artist, who has a studio in Leiden, draws inspiration from the classical painting he encountered as a child in the Netherlands. In addition, he develops his very own pictorial language with the application of Craquelé. Casper Faassen grew up in Leiden where he was influenced by the old Dutch Masters: Gerrit Dou, Jan Steen and Rembrandt van Rijn. Casper Faassen studied at the University of Amsterdam, where he continued to pursue his artistic ambitions. Here he had the chance to paint daily and compiling an impressive œuvre at a young age.
Casper Faassen was awarded Talent of the Year in the Dutch national Artist of the Year competition in 2007. In 2019 he won the ALPA Award at Photo Basel. His work is acquired by both private and public collections such as Museum de Lakenhal (Leiden), Frans Hals Museum (Haarlem), the Royal Library (The Hague) and Haagsch Historisch Museum (The Hague).
Glithero 1981 (images 7)
Glithero is the creative practice of Sarah van Gameren (NL) and Tim Simpson b. 1982 (UK). The pair have collaborated since meeting at the Royal College of Art, London, in 2007 and have produced a body of work that encompasses installations, objects and performance. Although they have a background in design, their work is notable for its interdisciplinary nature, bridging creative fields such as craft and photography. Central to their practice is a shared fascination with the meaning of making.
Glithero works are regularly exhibited internationally and can be found in numerous public collections including Centre National des Arts Plastiques (FR), The Israel Museum, Kunstmuseum Den Haag (NL) and the Museum of Contemporary Design and Applied Arts (CH).
Blueware vases is a collection of vases with cyanotype photograms of foraged weeds. The weeds are pressed in our herbarium before being captured on the vases using an original photographic process. Working in their darkroom, they make the vase sensitive to light and then attach a weed to it. It is then rotated in a beam of light, exposing the entire surface and capturing a shadow image of weed against vivid blue. Making a Blueware vase is a meticulous process and required extensive research and experimentation. The resulting images capture the flora down to the finest detail. Blueware vases are held in the permanent collections of the Israel Museum, the Design Museum Den Bosch, and Manchester Metropolitan University Collections.
Joost Vandebrug 1982 (images 8)
Joost Vandebrug is a multidisciplinary artist who studied at the Gerrit Rietveld Academy in Amsterdam. He uses a variety of printing techniques, including pigment transfers and silver-gelatin prints, on hand-made Washi, copper plates, and traditional Barite paper. He embraces the susceptibility and fragility of historic photographic techniques, often paralleling his subject matters, and goes against the photographic tradition of producing and preserving unblemished prints. His art reflects a desire to challenge traditional methods, reminiscent of the Assemblage and Xerox art movements.
Before dedicating his career solely to his art, Vandebrug worked as a commercial photographer and filmmaker. He was represented by Art+Commerce in New York and shot worldwide campaigns for clients such Nike and Superdry and editorials for magazines such as i-D and L’uomo Vogue.
Vandebrug’s Documentary film, for which he filmed a community living under the streets of Bucharest for 6 years won over a dozen international awards, received 5 stars in The Guardian and was screened in over 50 film festivals around the world.
Onoko (images 9)
Born in France, the artistic duo Manon Duparc (*1991) & François Pain (*1988), came across each other in the first months of their studies. Collision of a lifetime, they immediately recognizing themselves on the same wavelength all around, began to dream of a professional collaboration as well, which they have focused exclusively on photographic image since 2017.
Onoko wants to make a plea for the imaginary through each of its creations. For their main photographic series, ‘Percept’, Manon and François press the shutter when an atmosphere overwhelms their soul, already obscuring anything figurative that would make the shots trivial for them, we witness the formless soul of the void which is in essence, light, color and sound. The subsequently unedited images, which thus consist solely of complex color degradations, nevertheless exhibit a great sensitivity to atmosphere and its composition, in which their years of training as architects take a prominent stance.
Bildhalle
Willemsparkweg 134H
NL-1071 HR Amsterdam
www.bildhalle.nl
+31 20 808 88 05
John Devos
Correspondent L’Œil de la Photographie/The Eye of Photographie
john.devos01(a)gmail.com
