Exhibitions
Exhibitions
Metaphormaxxing: A Mapping Game -
Metaphormaxxing: A Mapping Game -
In the offline world, our physical traits generally influence how people perceive us. The online sphere offers more flexibility in how we can express our identity. Photography, emojis, stickers, GIFs, and memes have become a language of their own, helping us express emotions, ideas and how we see ourselves. Through digital self-expression, we can also share various experiences of gender. In the past years, this has increasingly been based on more traditional gender norms. We recognize this in the rise of terms such as girlboss, tradwife or sigma male.
These shifts have also impacted the images we use to express ourselves online. We use images to communicate and convey meaning, but how are these images interpreted by others? Do we truly understand each other? Foam, in collaboration with the online platform The Hmm, has created an online mapping game to explore this: Metaphormaxxing. The title refers to how online images are used as a metaphor for ourselves. Foam and The Hmm invite you to examine the collective meanings we assign to images.
More information about the exhibition can be found on the website of Foam.
Play Metaphormaxxing: A Mapping Game online via this link.
The Delay, The Wait, The Repeated Sequence -
The Delay, The Wait, The Repeated Sequence -
The Delay, The Wait, The Repeated Sequence (December 2024 - January 2025) shares various interpretations on waiting. The exhibition contemplates the time we spend waiting, and considers the potential of time that seems to have stopped. What is there to be gained when we take time to rest and prioritize care – both for ourselves and for others? Is this where we might find the solution for pressing social issues, or does waiting keep us in a state of slumber?
Across the ferry, works can be found by artists Joakim Derlow, Julia-Beth Harris, Minhu Jun, Özgür Deniz Koldaş, Ramón Jiménez Cárdenas and Sophie Schreurs. Many of the works are interactive, offering multiple ways to spend your waiting time on the ferry. A zine in which additional interpretations of the theme are shared, written by Yasmine Ben Abdessalem, Remmelt Bot, Thierno Deme, Rowan Stol and Kübra Terzi, can be read in the waiting room of the ferry.
What meaning do you assign to time spent waiting?
More information about the exhibition can be found on the website of Amsterdam Ferry Festival.
The zine can be accessed here.
A video capturing the exhibition during the opening, made by Alessio Dispenza, can be found here.
Accidental Storylines -
Accidental Storylines -
Accidental Storylines | November 2 – 17, 2024
With a focus on the small things that often escape our attention, Joost Stokhof brings everyday scenes to life in his illustrations. The series Accidental Storylines consists of a growing archive of drawings based on memories, thoughts, views, photographs, dreams, and everything in between. All drawings are created in one go—without prior planning and no touch ups afterward.
In the exhibition Accidental Storylines (November 2 - 17, 2024), Amsterdam Ferry Festival presents nearly 150 images from the series on one of the ferries that travels between NDSM and Central Station. By being immersed in Joost Stokhof’s world during their journey, ferry passengers are encouraged to recognize the poetry in their everyday surroundings.
More information about the exhibition can be found on the website of Amsterdam Ferry Festival..
- 'Waarde als Bekentenis' - Ashley Nkechi Igwe
- 'Waarde als Bekentenis' - Ashley Nkechi Igwe
Makerscollectief LFMC (Lowrey Foley McClane), Tolhuistuin en Amsterdam Ferry Festival sloegen op International Feminist Day (8 maart) de handen ineen door samen de openbare ruimte in te nemen met kunst van vrouwelijke en non-binaire makers en de stemmen van feministische activisten en schrijvers.
Voor deze gelegenheid presenteerde Amsterdam Ferry Festival het werk van schrijver en socioloog Ashley Nkechi Igwe. Tijdens de vaart werd de reiziger verrast met een poëtische interventie die te lezen en beluisteren was.
De tekst ‘Waarde als Bekentenis’ was te lezen op de ramen van IJveer 64 die zich tussen Centraal Station en de Buiksloterweg bewoog. Ook was op de ochtend van 8 maart een voordracht van de tekst te beluisteren tijdens de vaart.
Lees en luister de tekst terug via de website van Amsterdam Ferry Festival.
De Maasdamme Collectie - The Maasdamme Collection -
De Maasdamme Collectie - The Maasdamme Collection -
De Maasdamme Collectie (October 2022 - September 2023) features the work of artist Rita Maasdamme (1944-2016). Maasdamme’s collection of dioramas tells about the histories of the former Dutch colonies from the unique perspective of enslaved people, Maroons, and the Indigenous population. Scenes are enacted with fabric dolls, which Maasdamme called her “creations”. Each creation is carefully crafted with an immense amount of detail and dedication.
The curatorial team, consisting of Inez van der Scheer, Annemarie de Wildt and myself, worked in close connection with Maasdamme’s family to develop an exhibition that honoured the life and work of Rita Maasdamme, as well as addressed and questioned the way the Dutch colonial past is being approached in the context of museums.
Click here to read NRC’s review of the exhibition.
De Gouden Koets - The Golden Coach -
De Gouden Koets - The Golden Coach -
From June 2021 until February 2022, the exhibition The Golden Coach was on at the Amsterdam Museum. For the first time since the start of its restauration in 2015, the coach was on show again to be seen by the public, in the city that once gifted it to young queen Wilhelmina in 1898. I was part of the research team consisting of 11 experts that made the exhibition and the extensive program surrounding it.
The exhibition highlighted diverse perspectives on this controversial piece of driving heritage. This was achieved by expanding on its complex history, commissioning 18 contemporary artists to respond to and reflect on the coach., and inviting visitors to share their views and think about different future scenarios.
My focus was for a large part on curating and producing public programs, such as Museumnacht (2021), several episodes of the talkshow AM LIVE, and the performance a_GOLDEN[R]AGE…(?) by Bernard Akoi-Jackson. In collaboration with Dr. Emma van Bijnen, I worked on a qualitative research project that analysed a corpus of almost 3000 visitor responses stating their desired future for the golden vehicle.
Uit de Wereld -
Uit de Wereld -
The exhibition Uit de Wereld (April 13 - 23, 2023) celebrates the launch of the eponymous book by Albert de Leeuw and Yvonne Zoethout. Alongside 23 portraits, the book tells the personal stories of young adults with a mixed background. What did it mean to them to be raised with two or more different cultures, and in what ways do they relate their identity to their background? Through various stories, the book gives an honest and personal insight into the varied realities of having a mixed background.
The exhibition presents a combination of portraits directly from the book, and additional images that the makers chose for this occasion. The QR-codes beneath the portraits redirect to audio fragments. In these recordings, the portrayed person reads part of their own story. Before the story starts, they also give a visual description of their photo. By featuring the descriptions they give of themselves, the exhibition invites visitors to reflect on how someone’s identity and self-image is often heavily impacted by what others see - a theme that is prominently featured in the book.
Click here to listen to the visual descriptions and fragments from the stories.
Images from top to bottom by: Rowan Stol, Petra Katanic, Rebeca Valls, Karima Choukeri, Amsterdam Museum, Monique Vermeulen, Inez Agnese, Lard Buurman, Henk Rougoor, Jentel Schiettekatte.