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| | .gif?v=20231025160335 "MyOma Press Release")
- My Oma includes more than 40 visual artists and special initiatives to foster historical learning and intergenerational exchange;
- The project opens with a three-day festive weekend, 8-10 December 2023;
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My Oma is admission free for visitors accompanied by a grandparent, a mentor or persons of 65+.
Kunstinstituut Melly is delighted to announce its upcoming project My Oma. During its five-month time period, from 8 December 2023 to 12 May 2024, the project involves a group exhibition, concerts, performance, public programs and education activities. Conceptually interlaced throughout these formats are the figure of the grandmother, queries on ancestral knowledge, and ideas of cultural heritage.
The exhibition includes artworks and projects created from the year 2000 to date, with several specially commissioned for the occasion. When it pertains to existing artworks, most of these will be experienced for the first time in the Netherlands. The exhibition and its special initiatives aim to promote historical learning, as well as to strengthen intergenerational bonds through artistic and cultural exchange. |
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| | | The figure of the grandmother is the protagonist of My Oma. This female elder is approached as a real figure in some instances. At times, the grandmother is an imaginary character; a latent and already sentient figure; a specific position in time. The figure of the grandmother allows for various approaches to traditions, ancestry, and diaspora. It also welcomes the reconsideration of gendered and ageist determinations surrounding cultural and material legacy. As such, the project addresses grandmothers as plural protagonists imbued with agency, as well as the subject of social projections.
My Oma is designed to explore kinship, conflict, and legacy evoked in contemporary art shaped by oral histories, migration routes, and shifting gender roles. The exhibition will feature drawing, painting, textiles, video, and installation art. My Oma also includes a series of performances and event-based activities specially commissioned for the project. Embodied knowledge and micro-narratives are central to these, as much as to the curatorial project as a whole. The bilingual title —with the English my and the Dutch oma for grandmother—is meant to communicate this personal approach.
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| | | Show and Tell
Artist’s talks, lectures, and performances take place inspired by personal grandmother stories, as well as by ideas, objects, or traditions inherited by their grandmothers or passed on through generations.
Music for My Oma
A line-up of concerts and sound performances organized by Kunstinstituut Melly in partnership with the Amarte Foundation, as part of the 'Melly X Amarte' sound art and music program. The program was initiated in September 2023 with an open call for existing or newly proposed music or sound pieces inspired by grandmothers or ancestral knowledge. The selected musicians and artists will be announced in November.
Education Activities
Public programs and mediator-led exhibition walkthroughs are among the offerings that will be scheduled during the exhibition period of My Oma. These programs are meant to deepen the personal and public experience of the artworks in the exhibition, and to relate these to issues of the present experience of culture.
Bewaard by Sijben Rosa
In creating a new body of work, Sijben Rosa engages with people whose sense of mortality is in greater focus due to aging or illness. Through conversation, they, together with Sijben, identify meaningful objects from their personal surroundings. However idiosyncratic, these pieces mark, encapsulate, or speak the story of their lives. Inspired by these conversation pieces an installation of biodegradable sculptures is created by Sijben. An exploration of how objects attain significance and value through lived experience, Bewaard is a solo-exhibition by Sijben and the last iteration of Kunstinstituut Melly's Solo Duets exhibition series.
Free Admission
With an interest to strengthen intergenerational bonds, Kunstinstituut Melly will offer free admission to exhibition visitors accompanied by a grandparent(s) or mentor(s), as well as to people 65+. This special offer is valid during the exhibition period of My Oma, as well as Bewaard by Sijben Rosa. General admission fees to Kunstinstituut Melly is 6 Euros for general audiences and 3 Euros for CJP, students and 65+. Every Friday, exhibitions are admission-free to everyone from 6-8 PM as part of de Kunstavond.
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| | | My Oma includes work by: A Maior (Portugal), Funda Baysal (Turkey), Yto Barrada (France), Meriem Bennani (Morocco), Nurul Ain Binti Nor Halim (Malaysia), Lia Dostlieva and Andrii Dostliev (Ukraine), Shardenia Felicia (Curaçao), Yoeri Guépin (Netherlands), Ola Hassanain (Sudan), Melike Kara (Germany), Susanne Khalil Yusef (Germany), Charlie Koolhaas (Netherlands), Liedeke Kruk (Netherlands), Marcos Kueh (Malaysia), Berette S Macaulay (Sierra Leone), Raimundas Malašauskas (Lithuania), Silvia Martes (Curaçao), Hana Miletić (Zagreb), Jota Mombaça (Brazil), Amanda Moström (Sweden), Maria Pask (Wales), Sheelasha Rajbhandari (Nepal), Anri Sala (Albania), Sara Sallam (Gizeh), Stacii Samidin (Netherlands), Asa Seresin (United Kingdom), Julia Scher (United States), Katerina Šedá (Czech Republic), Buhlebezwe Siwani (South Africa), Judy Watson (Australia), and Sawangwongse Yawnghwe (Burma). List in formation.
My Oma is organized by Kunstinstituut Melly and curated by Rosa de Graaf, Sofía Hernández Chong Cuy, Jessy Koeiman, Julija Mockutė, and Vivian Ziherl. Its key producers are Shana Lewis, Pilar Mata Dupont, and Wendy van Slagmaat-Bos. Advisors to the research and planning process of My Oma: Diana Campbell (chief curator, Dhaka Art Summit, Bangladesh), Edward Gillman (director, Auto Italia, London, UK), Sun A Moon (director, Space AfroAsia, Dongducheon, South Korea), and Manuela Moscoso (director, CARA, New York, USA).
A press-pack with biographies and images for all participating artists confirmed can be downloaded here.
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| | | Press Preview
Friday, 8 December, 11 am to 12 pm
Join the artists and curators for a press preview of the exhibition. To attend, please register by sending an email to: press@kunstinstituutmelly.nl.
Opening Reception
Friday, 8 December, 6 to 9 pm
Join us in a public reception in honor of the participants of My Oma. The opening includes live music as part of the program Music for My Oma co-presented by Melly and Amarte, as well as an art performance by Ola Hassanian and another by Julia Scher.
Live Music and Performances
Saturday, 9 December, 2 to 6 pm
An afternoon of concerts and sound performances under the umbrella program 'Music for My Oma' as well as artist’s talks, lectures, and performances take place inspired by personal grandmother stories as part of a special program, Show and Tell.
Farewell Party
Sunday, 10 December, 2 to 6 pm
Sofía Hernández Chong Cuy, who concludes her directorship at Kunstinstituut Melly, gives a brief presentation of her six-year tenure, followed by a wine reception. The afternoon program includes an additional line-up of performances.
Art Raffle
Sunday, 10 December, 5 pm
We announce the winners of a special art raffle organized as part of a crowdfunding campaign push made during the My Oma opening weekend in benefit of PAUL, a book honoring Paul van Gennip, who began working at our institution's foundation in 1990 and retires in 2024.
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| | | A Mic of One’s Own
Visit or participate in a new edition of A Mic of One’s Own, a series of collaborations between The Writer’s Guide (to the Galaxy) and Kunstinstituut Melly. As always, the theme of this edition is inspired by a current exhibition at Kunstinstituut Melly, with this time My Oma.
Taal Tours
For the My Oma exhibition, trained art educators will be offering guided ‘Taal (language) Tours’ in four different languages: Dutch, English, Turkish, and Papiamentu. Between January and April 2024, several tours will take place.
Sensory Tours
Art educators with expertise in accessibility will offer guided tours created for people with special needs. These ‘Sensory Tours’ are designed for the blind and visually impaired; the deaf and hard of hearing; the mentally and/or mobility impaired; people with invisible disabilities, e.g., who are highly sensitive or easily overstimulated.
More information on these activities will be listed in the Engage website-page. Additional public programs and education activities are in development. Suggestions are always welcome and can be sent to education@kunstinstituutmelly.nl.
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| | | | A press pack with biographies and images for all participating artists can be downloaded here. For press requests or for further information, please contact Liza Wolters via press@kunstinstituutmelly.nl. |
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| | Kunstinstituut Melly’s mission is to organize activities on the latest developments in contemporary art and theory. It creates exhibitions, publications, and educational programs of artistic merit and cultural significance. It also commissions new art, supports innovative research, and advocates for cultural partnerships. Kunstinstituut Melly welcomes audiences year-round in its +3,500m2 nineteenth-century building, located at 50 Witte de Withstraat in Rotterdam, The Netherlands.
Kunstinstituut Melly is supported by the City of Rotterdam and the Ministry of Education, Culture and Science in The Netherlands. Project support is earned through fundraising activities, individual donations, and foundation grants. In 2023, additional support was provided by grants from Droom en Daad and Hartwig Foundation. My Oma has received support by Amarte Foundation, AMMODO, Creative Australia, Czech Centre Rotterdam, Fonds 21, SAHA Association, Stichting DOEN / Vriendenloterij Fonds, and Teiger Foundation.
This supporters list is in formation; if you would like to contribute to My Oma with a grant or donation, please reach out. |
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Witte de Withstraat 50
NL-3012 BR Rotterdam
Open: Wed-Sun, 11am—6pm
Fri, 6—9pm, Kunstavond, free entrance
More information about accessibility
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First image: Harriët Freezer, grandmother of Charlie Koolhaas who also participates in 'My Oma' © Dirk de Herder / Nederlands Fotomuseum
Images in courtesy of the artists, chronologically
(2-5): Berette S Macaulay,
Judy Watson, A Maior and Sawangwongse Yawnghwe. For full credits of the images, please see the press kit.
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