Melanchotopia
03 Sep - 31 Dec 2011
MELANCHOTOPIA
3 September - 31 December, 2011
Adam Gillam, Adrià Julià, Alex Morrison, Arnoud Holleman, Danai Anesiadou, Dirk Bell, Erik van Lieshout, Filip Gilissen, George van Dam, Guillaume Bijl, Harald Thys & Jos De Gruyter, Harold Ancart, Henrik Plenge Jakobsen, Jean-Pascal Flavien, Kate Newby, Kostis Velonis, Lawrence Weiner, Leon Kahane, Lidwien van de Ven, Markus Schinwald, Mårten Spångberg, Michael Beutler, Michael van den Abeele, Minouk Lim, Monica Bonvicini, Murray Gaylard, Nasrin Tabatabai & Babak Afrassiabi, Nina Pohl, Octavian Trauttmansdorff, Olivier Foulon, Peter Hutton, Peter Wächtler, Pierre Bismuth, Ricardo Okaranza, Saâdane Afif, Sarah Morris, Slavs and Tatars, Steffen Jagenburg, Sven Augustijnen, Thea Djordjadze, Tobias Spichtig, Tomo Savić-Gecan, Zin Taylor
Witte de With’s Melanchotopia is an exhibition that invites more than forty international artists to work with different venues in the city-center of Rotterdam – places where people live and work – and to activate their potential as spaces for ideas, discourse and invention.
From large-scale interventions to very simple gestures, Melanchotopia supports a range of artistic practices that go beyond the classical approach to displaying art in public space. Working with the existing dynamics of the city, Witte de With’s intention is to bring forward the diverse layers of daily life in Rotterdam, creating a rich framework for subjective encounters. It is an exhibition about the reality of Rotterdam.
Today, Rotterdam seems to be on hold between its past and its future: filled with nostalgia for the pre-WWII city and in wait for the utopian future, which is perpetually stalled in unfinished developments and reconstructions. Projections about yesterday and tomorrow drive the image of the city, that seems to lack a present. Melanchotopia performs the present of the city through the specific practice of each artist.
Over the course of the exhibition (and remaining active until 31 December 2011) Witte de With’s galleries is reconfigured to become the epicenter of Melanchotopia. The projects, which spread throughout Rotterdam’s center, are brought together via a graphic mapping. Several art works and installations are also on show inside the epicenter and it is the site for numerous events.
3 September - 31 December, 2011
Adam Gillam, Adrià Julià, Alex Morrison, Arnoud Holleman, Danai Anesiadou, Dirk Bell, Erik van Lieshout, Filip Gilissen, George van Dam, Guillaume Bijl, Harald Thys & Jos De Gruyter, Harold Ancart, Henrik Plenge Jakobsen, Jean-Pascal Flavien, Kate Newby, Kostis Velonis, Lawrence Weiner, Leon Kahane, Lidwien van de Ven, Markus Schinwald, Mårten Spångberg, Michael Beutler, Michael van den Abeele, Minouk Lim, Monica Bonvicini, Murray Gaylard, Nasrin Tabatabai & Babak Afrassiabi, Nina Pohl, Octavian Trauttmansdorff, Olivier Foulon, Peter Hutton, Peter Wächtler, Pierre Bismuth, Ricardo Okaranza, Saâdane Afif, Sarah Morris, Slavs and Tatars, Steffen Jagenburg, Sven Augustijnen, Thea Djordjadze, Tobias Spichtig, Tomo Savić-Gecan, Zin Taylor
Witte de With’s Melanchotopia is an exhibition that invites more than forty international artists to work with different venues in the city-center of Rotterdam – places where people live and work – and to activate their potential as spaces for ideas, discourse and invention.
From large-scale interventions to very simple gestures, Melanchotopia supports a range of artistic practices that go beyond the classical approach to displaying art in public space. Working with the existing dynamics of the city, Witte de With’s intention is to bring forward the diverse layers of daily life in Rotterdam, creating a rich framework for subjective encounters. It is an exhibition about the reality of Rotterdam.
Today, Rotterdam seems to be on hold between its past and its future: filled with nostalgia for the pre-WWII city and in wait for the utopian future, which is perpetually stalled in unfinished developments and reconstructions. Projections about yesterday and tomorrow drive the image of the city, that seems to lack a present. Melanchotopia performs the present of the city through the specific practice of each artist.
Over the course of the exhibition (and remaining active until 31 December 2011) Witte de With’s galleries is reconfigured to become the epicenter of Melanchotopia. The projects, which spread throughout Rotterdam’s center, are brought together via a graphic mapping. Several art works and installations are also on show inside the epicenter and it is the site for numerous events.