20 years
20 YEARS WITTE DE WITHAnniversary event
Tuesday 26 January 2010
From 6 p.m. until late, free entry
Witte de With
Center for Contemporary Art
Witte de Withstraat 50
3012 BR Rotterdam
The Netherlands
+31 (0)10 411 0144
On January 26, Witte de With, center for contemporary art, will celebrate its 20 years of existence. On the occasion of our anniversary we present an evening of festivities and conversations between the six directors and guests, all of whom have a special relationship to Witte de With. This will be followed by a roundtable discussion, drinks and a sparkling party.
Witte de With was established in 1990 with the mission of introducing contemporary art and theory in the context of the City of Rotterdam, as well as internationally. It has grown into a prominent international center, a pioneer in the field of contemporary art. Over 300 artists have found a path to the public through our program, and the introduction of promising artists has always been especially important. Witte de With has also garnered international attention as a publisher of art books, from theoretical readers to unique artists’ editions, and through our participation in various large scale art events, such as the Venice Biennial and our upcoming exhibition in the Dutch Cultural Center at the Shanghai World Expo 2010.
The evening’s guests include: Chris Dercon (director of Witte de With 1990 – 1995, now director of Haus der Kunst, Munich); Bartomeu Marí (director Witte de With 1996 – 2001, now director of MACBA, Barcelona); Catherine David (director Witte de With 2002 – 2004, now head curator of the Direction des musées de France); Hans Maarten van den Brink (interim director Witte de With, 2005, now director of the Dutch Mediafonds); and Nicolaus Schafhausen (current director Witte de With). They have in turn invited the following guests: Angela Bulloch, Willem Oorebeek, Klaus Richter, , Tony Brown, Craigie Horsfield, Hermann Pitz, Nasrin Tabatabai, Babak Afrassiabi, Sven Lütticken and Roger Buergel.
We also invite artists, visitors, colleagues, supporters, Friends and Patrons to join us on this occasion, to celebrate Witte de With’s achievements to date, and to look together towards the future.
And the moral of the story is…
4 days of non-stop film / Morality Act III
4 – 7 February 2010
Open 24 hours/day: from Wednesday 3 February at 23:59 to Sunday 7 February at 23:59
Morality is Witte de With’s year-long leitmotiv, defining an assemblage of projects subdivided into several acts. They include six group exhibitions, a symposium, performance program, publication and web platform. Act III is the film cycle titled And the moral of the story is…
This curated program presents moral tales as told by artists and film-makers through the medium of the moving image. The films range from mainstream to art-house movies, from technically complex works with elaborate scripts and settings to hand-held, “homemade” films. Due to the ease of its digital production, reproduction and distribution (legal or otherwise), film is now a ubiquitous medium. Used and abused in the form of propaganda, or employed more subtly to reinforce (and undermine) dominant modes of thinking in society, film is one of the most sophisticated ways to transmit a moral message or explore a moral question.
Featuring works by AES+F, Fikret Atay, Sven Augustijnen, Yael Bartana, Guy Ben-Ner, Rossella Biscotti, Mark Boulos, Olaf Breuning, k r buxey, Heather Burnett, Chim↑Pom, Sunah Choi, Chto Delat/What is to be done?, Martha Colburn, Phil Collins, Joost Conijn, Stefan Constantinescu, Keren Cytter, Jeremy Deller, Nathalie Djurberg, Stan Douglas, Harun Farocki, Cyprien Gaillard, Johan Grimonprez, Ivan Grubanov, Alfredo Jaar, Christian Jankowski, Job Koelewijn, Florence Lazar, Erik van Lieshout, Renzo Martens, Gustav Metzger, Valérie Mréjen, Ciprian Muresan, Wendelien van Oldenborgh, Adrian Paci, Julika Rudelius, Masaharu Sato, Deborah Stratman, Pilvi Takala, Stefanos Tsivopoulos, Artur Żmijewski…
Curated by Zoë Gray, assisted by Hessel de Ronde
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