The opening of the EREB exhibition was on August 31, 2024.
From the speech of Ivo:
We are now standing here in the midst of new works by both Machteld and Arianne, which were created last July and August when they were invited to work together here for two months as Summer Guests.
For years they had been looking for an opportunity to do this, to find a place to quietly, fully committed, make work that otherwise would not have been possible, because of all the daily worries. They used this summer to use techniques consisting of small material elements to create a number of monumental works that have been brought together in a wonderful way, using techniques that consist of small material elements.
The starting point was not to create new work together, but to bring together each new work within a common theme that concerned them: EREB (EUROPE).
Their search, ever since it was known that they would work here as Summer Guests, took place both in the past and in the present. What did Europe look like and what did that mean for Europeans and for everyone who enters Europe? The land and the water, the borders with or without fences, or invisible on the seas, the rivers, the routes to travel. Europe owes its existence to migration; Europeans themselves have roamed the world en masse to find a new life. What will the impending restrictions, if new politicians really take control, mean for the right to exist of Europe itself? How many washed-up people on the run will the fishermen in the Mediterranean still find in their nets if Europe closes itself off even further?
Arianne's and Machteld's works encompass a lot of space, consisting mainly of no material: air. The open structures provide a lot of freedom to let thoughts flow. Perhaps that is precisely the freedom that we are in danger of losing in Europe.
Nieuw Charlois is a gallery/shop and a webshop, where work is shown and sold by Rotterdam artists and designers who live and/or work in the Rotterdam neighborhood of Oud Charlois.
