The work of artists Ana María Millan and Rosalind Nashahibi is showcased in Witte de With’s second-floor galleries, which its director, Sofía Hernández Chong Cuy, designated last Spring to present two concurrent solo exhibitions every exhibition season. In Witte de With’s third-floor is a group exhibition with work by Dora García, Sharon Hayes, Emily Jacir, Mahmoud Khaled, Carlos Motta, Wu Tsang, and Akram Zaatari, as well as a letter by Quinn Latimer.
Additionally, at Witte de With’s Untitled are two new displays, one featuring mail art by Marcos Kurtycz, and a second one focusing on a 1991 public art project in Rotterdam by John Ahearn and Rigoberto Torres. Since May 2018, Untitled is sited in Witte de With’s ground-floor gallery and includes art installations, as well as a bookstore and an initiative dedicated to collective learning.
Below is a brief overview of these exhibitions. A press pack with images for all exhibitions and biographies for all participating artists can be downloaded here. For press requests or for further information, please contact Jeroen Lavèn via [email protected] or call +31 10 411 01 44.
Ana María Millán, a solo exhibition
Within the realm of fantasy, where subaltern groups may feel more at home than in reality, Ana María Millán searches for agents who expressly intend to re-signify our present, approaching animation as a tool to invent, and at times simply claim, a meaningful space in this world. This exhibition showcases the artist’s work on gaming culture and Live Action Role Play. Included are animations and watercolors portraying people Millán engaged in creating this body of work in her native Colombia, in Mexico, where she temporarily resided, and in Germany, where she currently lives.
Rosalind Nashashibi, new work
For years, the artist Rosalind Nashashibi has been in dialogue with the curator and writer Raimundas Malašauskas, who was invited to organize this exhibition. The common thread among the works in this exhibition, including paintings and a new film by the London-based artist, is an exploration of emotional relations. The exhibition premieres the first of three parts of a new film created by Nashashibi, co-commissioned by Witte de With Center for Contemporary Art, Edinburgh Art Festival, Vienna Secession, and Foksal Gallery Foundation.
A group exhibition with work by Dora García, Sharon Hayes, Emily Jacir, Mahmoud Khaled, Carlos Motta, Wu Tsang, and Akram Zaatari, as well as a letter by Quinn Latimer
This exhibition includes recent work by artists that have addressed central subjects of epistolarity. It is organized considering the emergence of new forms of epistolary exchange, as expressed in digital missives, and, here, as manifested in visual art through theoretical fictions. The exhibition includes an annotated wallpaper and a series of public programs, which regard an epistolary visual culture. The accompanying publication consists of a letter, which you can receive by signing up to our mailing list.
Mauricio Marcín on Marcos Kurtycz
Mail art was one of the many mediums employed by Marcos Kurtycz (1934-1996), a Polish artist who moved to Mexico in 1968. His “bomb letters,” which he began creating in 1981, and which consisted of systematically sending artistic missives to institutions and individuals, are among his most interesting yet rarely seen artworks. For Untitled, in Witte de With’s ground-floor gallery, curator Mauricio Marcín presents an evolving display of these.
On John Ahearn and Rigoberto Torres
Twenty-seven years after Witte de With commissioned artists John Ahearn and Rigoberto Torres to develop a public art project portraying local Rotterdamers, the institution revisits these sculptures and reaches out to each of the participants. This display, within Untitled, showcases process photography and ephemera of the original project, alongside testimonies and new photographic portraits.
These exhibitions are organized by Witte de With’s director, Sofia Hernández Chong Cuy, and its team: Samuel Saelemakers, curator; Rosa de Graaf, associate curator; Jessy Koeiman, curator of collective learning; Wendy van Slagmaat-Bos, production officer. Guest curators: Mauricio Marcín and Raimundas Malašauskas.
Several events and programs take place throughout the year. For more information, please follow us on Instagram, Facebook, and Twitter or check our calendar.