Art Rotterdam: A Special Focus on Projection & Video Art

The nineteenth edition of Art Rotterdam is located in the iconic Van Nellefabriek from Thursday, 8 February to Sunday, 11 February. And with a strong mission or, as formulated by director Fons Hof: "For a large group of art lovers, Art Rotterdam is becoming more and more the annual moment to seize the opportunity and obtain a magnificent work of art. What we want is for people to go from one experience to the other during Art Rotterdam. Collectors should feel like they’re part of a large, dynamic culture!” An effective aid in this aim is undoubtedly the typical, characteristic presentation of Art Rotterdam, which consists of a large variety of exhibition models. Focusing on young art in a varied concept, Art Rotterdam manages to increasingly stand out as a “curated fair.” With the exception of the Main Section, each section bears the imprint of a young and/or renowned curator. New, this year, is the Commonities section, designed by Lorenzo Benedetti, curator of contemporary art at Kunstmuseum St.Gallen.

In Commonities, Benedetti establishes links based on thematic and materiality between artists of various galleries present.

Open Air, intended for the presentation of large scale works on the Van Nellefabriek terrain, is curated by Niekolaas Johannes Lekkerkerk, curator at The Office for Curating, Rotterdam. Suzanne Wallinga, co-founder and director of A Tale of a Tub, curates Intersections.

The focus in this section, a platform for non-profit performance and installation art, is on the experiment. Art Rotterdam Projections, curated by Martha Kirszenbaum, will dispose of a 700 m2 darkened room with a large number of videos on big, freestanding projection walls. Kirszenbaum, working in Los Angeles and Paris, is curator and publicist. Patrick Constantin Haas, curator at the Witte de With Center for Contemporary Art, curates the New Art Section for young galleries which presents solos by up-and-coming talent.

In the Main Section, where some 70 national and international galleries have their stands, a space has also been reserved for dealers in post-war art and vintage photography. For the sixth time, the Prospects & Concepts exhibition is located in the old distribution centre of the Van Nellefabriek.

Prospects & Concepts 2017 - The enormous 2,500m2 space shows work by almost eighty visual artists who received a Stipendium for Emerging Artists from the Mondriaan Fund in 2016. The Curator is Stijn Huijts, director of the Bonnefantenmuseum in Maastricht. 

Martha Kirszenbaum, curator projections (photo Deborah Farnault) / Detail Portraits and Repetition, Juliette Blightman (Courtesy of the artist, Galerie Isabella Bortolozzi, Berlin, Galerie Fons Welters, Amsterdam)

Projections

In the Tobacco Factory, a space of 700 square metres is darkened and videos are shown on large, freestanding projection walls, in an open and interactive setting.

“It is rare that an art fair devotes such space and effort to honor and promote moving image. Projections’ provides film and video artists an important opportunity to gain audience and visibility within the context of the fair.” - Martha Kirszenbaum, Curator Projections

FONS WELTERS

video artist: Juliette Blightman

title video work: Portraits and Repetition

technique:
 Single channel video with sound

year: 
2017

GALERIE DIX9

Nemanja Nikolic, Double Noir, animation video from drawings with white chalk on blackboards, 2016, 4’04

GALERIE RON MANDOS

video artist: Hans Op de Beeck

title video work: The Girl

technique: Full HD Video transferred to Blue Ray

year: 2017

length: 16’00”

GALLERY P74

video artist: Slobodan Valentincic (OM Production)

title video work: Dislocated third eye series: Bismillah

technique: Super 8, 6-18 F/S, performance

year: 1984

length: 27 minutes, digitalized: 2007

length: The length is indefinite as the film continues to loop but in a new sequence from each window.