Program 2008: Individuality
Witte de Withstraat 50
3012 BR Rotterdam
The Netherlands
+31 10 411 0144
info [at] wdw.nl
Witte de With puts the individual artist at the heart of its 2008 program. Like the musical parts played by the members of an orchestra, the various elements of this program vary in scale, in duration, and in tone, creating a sense of natural flow over the course of the year. At times they run in parallel; at others they overlap or interfere with one another, with clear solo passages emerging. Nevertheless, the impulse behind each manifestation remains the same: to create a moment of concentration around a singular practice by putting the work of an individual artist under the spotlight.
EXHIBITIONS
The year begins with Liam Gillick’s mid-career retrospective (19 Jan – 24 Mar), which sees Witte de With’s interior transformed by a labyrinthine architectural intervention. Its meta-structure will remain long after the exhibition itself closes, creating a challenging context in which the work of other artists will be presented.
First among these is Manon de Boer (25 Jan – 24 Feb), whose exhibition features two films exploring the genres of documentary and portraiture. This is followed by an exhibition of two of Keren Cytter’s video works (1 – 30 Mar). She adopts a very different approach from that of de Boer, working with theater actors to create scenes that blur fiction and reality.
Subsequently Gareth Moore (3 Apr – 4 May) will present his enigmatic explorations of the life and work of Viktor Schauberger, a turn-of-the-century naturalist and inventor from Vienna. This will be followed first by an exhibition by Claire Fontaine (10 May – 8 June), the collective who declare themselves to be an artistic readymade for neo-conceptual art; and then by Annette Kelm, whose photographs question the mute quality of the image (13 Jun – 24 Aug).
On the top floor of Witte de With, independent of Gillick’s intervention, two other solo shows will take place. In early spring, Geoffrey Farmer’s first major solo exhibition in Europe (3 Apr – 1 Jun) will reveal his performance-based approach to sculpture and installation, with a work that continues to shift and mutate over the course of its presentation. During the summer, Saâdane Afif will experiment with a new variant of his exhibition practice, developing work that incorporates musical elements, writing and installation (13 Jun – 24 Aug).
LECTURES
In addition to presenting exclusively solo exhibitions, Witte de With will host monthly lectures by leading art historians under the title Cornerstones, focusing on the work of one key artist. The program until the summer is as follows:
7 February: Dominic van den Boogerd on René Daniels
6 March: Vanessa Joan Müller on John Baldessari
1 April: Douglas Crimp on Gordon Matta-Clark
8 May: Michael Fried on Douglas Gordon
5 June: Peter Osborne on Robert Smithson,
3 July: John C. Welchman on Mike Kelley
PUBLICATIONS
Witte de With expands its publications range in 2008 with several new formats, editions and collaborations. The Sourcebooks series – a now established platform for in-depth engagement with artistic practice – will continue focusing on artists in transitional moments of their careers.
Several of the solo exhibitions in 2008 will present opportunities to collaborate with other institutions on extensive monographic publications, including Liam Gillick (with Kunstverein München, Kunsthalle Zürich and the Museum of Contemporary Art, Chicago), Manon de Boer (with Frankfurter Kunstverein), and Annette Kelm (with Kunstwerke Berlin).
Renowned German critic Diedrich Diederichsen has been invited to think with us over the course of the year about the “added value” that art has for society. His thoughts will be published in the spring as a book-length essay, in the inaugural volume of the new annual series Reflections. This series seeks to address broad cultural leitmotifs that are critical to an engagement with contemporary culture. Diederichsen’s ideas will thus form a leitmotif for all Witte de With’s activities in 2008.
