With Exchanging Roles. Alternative Platforms from Rotterdam, Careof continues its investigation — already begun with the project Too Near Too Far: an Introduction to the Australian Independent Art Scene — into alternative methodologies of cultural organization and different approaches to the production, presentation, and reception of artwork. These projects, by creating a dialogue with international circuits, present in Milan interesting self-managed realities where the artist also takes on the roles of organizer, promoter, or curator. Mostly existing outside the institutional framework, artist-run initiatives can take shape in physical spaces, as well as in the online universe or through paper-based tools such as magazines and fanzines.

For Exchanging Roles, Patricia Pulles, curator at Museum Boijmans Van Beuningen, was invited by Careof to select eight platforms conceived and managed by individual artists or collectives from Rotterdam. Their practices, built on a collaborative and exchange-based dimension, express the open and lively atmosphere of the Dutch city. Antistrot is composed of a group of artists expressing themselves through murals and publications. Foundation B.a.d, De Player, and Het Wilde Weten represent three examples of artist-managed spaces: Foundation B.a.d.’s project reflects on the socio-political role of artistic initiatives realized in Rotterdam’s popular neighborhoods; De Player is housed in an abandoned club converted into a space for visual arts, performance, music, and theatre; Het Wilde Weten is one of Rotterdam’s historic realities, with studios and exhibition spaces. Museum Van Nagsael was born as a neutral micro-exhibition space available to numerous invited artists. Among the goals of the founders of Fucking Good Art is the desire to focus attention on the many initiatives taking place in the city, developing a critical debate around the publication of the same name. Wormhole stems from its founder’s interest in drawing and is a platform for international artists working with graphics as well as other disciplines. Pages is the name of the group that created the bilingual Iranian-English periodical but also operates in other fields, involving international artists on issues ranging from culture to social topics.

In his novella “l’avventura senza pari di Hans Phaall,” published in 1935, Edgar Allan Poe, who was then 25 years old, placed a quest for freedom in the city of Rotterdam. The protagonist is the Rotterdammer Hans Phaall, who decides to take to the air in a hot-air balloon to escape the oppressive and bourgeois environment of his hometown. Today, Rotterdam’s artistic climate is known for its relatively open character. Many artists say that one of Rotterdam’s attractive features is that one can work and experiment anonymously, while the city also offers opportunities for collaboration. There is a surprising number of collaborative enterprises (both conventional and informal) in Rotterdam. Compared to other Dutch cities, artists here assign less importance to individual work, preferring collective collaborations. While Rotterdam artists expand their horizons by traveling abroad, foreign artists come to Rotterdam drawn by the city’s openness and often participate in artist-in-residence programs started about ten years ago through initiatives by Rotterdam artists such as B.a.d., Het Wilde Weten, Kaus Australis, and Duende. The main idea was to work together in a broad cultural climate where young artists can establish mutual contacts, experiment, and show their work outside the official circuit. With major cultural events such as Manifesta (1996) and Rotterdam Capital of Culture (2001), artist initiatives and residencies have become important breeding grounds for artistic talent.

My purpose at Careof is not only to present artist initiatives but also other alternative platforms that fully exist in the city. I have chosen a description where both kinds of initiatives are considered and where the white cube of the alternative desires to generate in the city; this correctly adds itself to a specific medium; that by itself sets aside a role in the district; but those that reflect Rotterdam’s climate of art in the city. All participants actively create additional space and possibilities in Rotterdam for the artistic climate and, from their own free character, promote opportunities for (international) exchange. The participating initiatives in the exhibition “Exchanging Roles” all share the fact that, alongside their role as artists, they autonomously dedicate themselves to other fields of activity observed from their own perspectives. This can range from managing shops, a platform for sign art, or their own relatively small white cube, and all this, as the fanzine Fucking Good Art defines it with its relative motto, “selflessly at the service of our Community.”
Patricia Pulles

With the contribution of Center for the Arts Rotterdam and the Consulate General for the Netherlands in Milan