Rotterdam 3012 BR
The Netherlands
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Friday 6–9pm
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Pablo Castañeda: Border Autoficitons
Beatriz Santiago Muñoz: The Navel of the Dream
Sam Samiee: A Garden of Clouds
Rotterdam Cultural Histories #22: Hortus Botanicus
September 9–December 31, 2022
On Friday, September 9, 2022, Kunstinstituut Melly in Rotterdam will inaugurate exhibitions featuring works by Mexican artist Pablo Castañeda and Puerto Rican artist Beatriz Santiago Muñoz. Part of the institution’s ongoing Solo Duets exhibition series, these are the artists’ first solo exhibitions in the Netherlands. In its newest project space Anchored, Kunstinstituut Melly opens a solo presentation by the Iranian-Dutch artist Sam Samiee, along with a new edition of the documentary project Rotterdam Cultural Histories.
Pablo Castañeda: Border Autofictions
An artist living in Mexicali, Baja California—which in Mexico borders Calexico, California in the United States—Pablo Castañeda has spent decades picturing his immediate environment and surrounding landscape, his friends and the local arts community. His first solo exhibition of the artist in Europe, Border Autofictions, presents over forty paintings, from 2006 to date, and a newly commissioned mural painting. The exhibition title alludes to both the artist’s context, as much as to the social environment figured in this work. The curator of this exhibition is Kunstinstituut Melly’s director, Sofía Hernández Chong Cuy, who is also from Mexicali.
Beatriz Santiago Muñoz: The Navel of the Dream
Beatriz Santiago Muñoz works primarily with expanded moving images. She develops her films and videos through writing, as well as through chance encounters and structured improvisation with nonactors. Including newly commissioned and recent film works, The Navel of the Dream develops the artist’s ideas around visual archeology, decolonized spaces, and alternative models of being. These works are exhibited in conjunction with a new series of drawings and objects. This exhibition marks the artist’s first in the Netherlands and is presented as part of Gatherings and Passages, a multi-year collaboration with Sour Grass, the Barbados-based curatorial agency led by Annalee Davis and Iyawo (Holly Bynoe Young).
Sam Samiee: A Garden of Clouds
In A Garden of Clouds, Iranian-Dutch painter Sam Samiee revisits the botanical garden that stood in Rotterdam before 1870. Drawing on his psychoanalytic training, the artist explores social “anchoring” through the Boomgaardsstraat, where Ken Lum’s artwork Melly Shum Hates Her Job stands today. Lucid images of plant specimens, medical histories, Persian gardens, and Dutch maritime paintings are brought together as floating signifiers with portraits of Witte Corneliszoon de With and Melly Shum. This exhibition is curated by Vivian Ziherl, Kunstinstituut Melly’s Research and Programs Manager, as part of our institution’s Anchored exhibition series, which explores the histories of our building, street, and neighborhood. The presentation takes place alongside Rotterdam Cultural Histories #22.
Rotterdam Cultural Histories #22: Hortus Botanicus
Our institution’s building—located on Witte de Withstraat 50 in Rotterdam—stands on what was the original location of the city’s nineteenth-century Hortus Botanicus. Sited on these grounds from 1826 to 1870, the botanical garden was established for educational purposes, especially by the city’s Clinical School. In 1870, the garden was demolished to pave new roads, including that of the Witte de Withstraat, as well as to redevelop the surrounding area as envisioned by city planner William Nicolaas Rose.
Biographies and images
A press pack with biographies can be downloaded here. For press requests, please contact Jeroen Lavèn.
About
Kunstinstituut Melly is the new name of the institution formerly known as Witte de With Center for Contemporary Art. Conceived of as an art house in Rotterdam, our mission is to present and discuss the work created by visual artists from here and afar.
Kunstinstituut Melly is supported by the city of Rotterdam and the Ministry of Education, Culture, and Science. Additional support is provided by the Hartwig Art Foundation. The solo exhibitions of Beatriz Santiago Muñoz and Pablo Castañeda are supported by Ammodo. In 2022, 84 STEPS is supported by Frame Finland, ifa — Institut für Auslandsbeziehungen, Mondriaan Fund, IASPIS, and Goethe Institut Rotterdam. The presentation of Sam Samiee is supported by Stichting Elise Mathilde Fonds. Rotterdam Cultural Histories #22 is made possible by City Archive Rotterdam.
