Three artists in residence in conversation with two special guests from Rotterdam will discuss the history of the city, its harbour and civic memory. Topics include the changing public image of the port, the responsibility of the artist to the public and the relationship between cultural values and official historical representation.
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Marly Weemen (NL) is a city guide. But she prefers the term ‘time travel guide’. She combines her expertise as designer with her knowledge of Rotterdams modern history. In her tours she shows you details you otherwise wouldn’t notice, opens up unexpected locations, tells forgotten stories and shares her personal experience as a resident. Marly organises her own tours with Timeless Rotterdam. She also works as an architectural guide at UrbanGuides and as an exhibition guide at the Kunsthal.
Eva Visser (NL) holds an MA in social history and graduated on the topic of harbour labour relations. She works as researcher and teacher at Creating 010, a research centre that studies new developments in the ‘creative industries’ and is tied to the Willem de Kooning Academy and the School for Communication, Media and Information Technology. She’s a contributor for Puntkomma – the free newspaper on art and culture in Rotterdam – since its came into being in 2013.
Mimi von Moos (CH) living and working in Basel. She works with multiple disciplines including sculpture, video, photography, drawing, writing and performance. Her practice circles around the subject matter of memory and the ways in which the world is understood, individually as well as collectively. Von Moos is concerned with the tangibility of the everyday world, of which she intervenes with site specific installations and/or performances. Since completing her Fine Arts Master degree in 2012 in Basel, she has exhibited frequently in Germany, Switzerland and the USA. For the True Memory Symposium she will present works that have been formed by the engagement around the Rotterdam Euro Port.
Lauren Frances Adams (US) mines the histories of power, labor, and material culture to make surprising connections that resonate with current sociopolitical issues. Solo exhibitions include Back Lane West, Cornwall, UK; Contemporary Art Museum St. Louis; EXPO Chicago; and Conner Contemporary, Washington, D.C. Group exhibitions include: The Walters Art Museum, Baltimore; Contemporary Applied Arts, London; CUE Foundation, NY; Mattress Factory and the Andy Warhol Museum, Pittsburgh. Residencies include Cité Internationale des Arts in Paris, Skowhegan School of Painting and Sculpture, and a Joan Mitchell Foundation MFA Grant. Adams is the co-founder of Ortega y Gasset Projects in New York. For the symposium, Lauren will share artworks related to labor and empire in cultural memory and civic monument.
Natalie McIlroy (SCOT) is a visual artist currently based in The Hague. Primarily working out with the studio environment, she is inspired by people, communities, social history and ‘non art’ spaces. Working as an artist in residence in Spain, USA, Scotland and the Netherlands, McIlroy combines intuitive responses with historical ‘truths’. For the True Memory Symposium, she will discuss recent work created in response to the Wilgenstaete building; a high rise, social housing complex that is situated directly across the railway line from Kaus Australis. Built during the post war housing shortage that was deemed ‘public enemy number 1’, Wilgenstaete’s memories will be revealed throughout the evening.
