July 9 – 24 2011
Opening reception: Friday July 8, 2011, 7pm
Location: Station Bergweg
Address: Voorburgstraat 229, 3037 ER Rotterdam, tram station Eudokiaplein (tram 4 and 8 ) or Walenburgerweg (tram 4 and 25).
Opening hours: Tue – Sun, 12-6pm and by appointment
Anthem for the People’s Tomorrow
Graduation Show Master of Fine Art 2011
The graduation show is curated by Ellen Blumenstein, founder of Salon Populaire (DE).
This year the following students will graduate and show their work in the exhibition:
- Giles Bailey (UK)
- Martijn in’t Veld (Netherlands)
- Serena Lee (Canada)
- David Lehman (Canada/New Zealand)
- Rachel Koolen (Netherlands)
- Anna Okrasko (Poland)
- Susana Pedrosa (Portugal)
- Linda Quinlan (Ireland)
- Lee Welch (US/Ireland)
- Camilla Wills (UK)
- Timmy van Zoelen (Netherlands)
In ancient times, an anthem was a ceremonial praise to heroes, to gods or to nature, but it could also be sung to pay tribute to particular places or situations. Anthem for the People’s Tomorrow takes up on this tradition, not only celebrating the class’ completion of two intense years of joint study, but also containing both the promise and the uncertainty of what is to come.
More than functioning as a common theme for the presented works, the exhibition title refers to the students’ shared attitude towards art making and their relation to reality. Especially in light of devastating current developments in the cultural sector in the Netherlands, an insistence to trust in the world unites the exhibition’s artistic approaches and allows the artists to critically examine their cultural and social environment. Departing from their respective personal backgrounds and sensitivities and applying different strategies, the artists express an urge for positioning and belonging and at the same time transcend the realm of individual experience to open into a shared sphere of common interest. Anthem for the People’s Tomorrow conceives possible worlds for the future; a future, however, that begins now – or has already begun.
The Piet Zwart Institute is pleased to inaugurate Anthem for the People’s Tomorrow, the graduation show of this year’s Master of Fine Art graduates, in the arches beneath Station Bergweg in Rotterdam, on Friday, July 8, at 7 pm. The eleven featured artists will present their graduation projects, after having collaborated with the Berlin-based curator Ellen Blumenstein during the past year.