Kunstavond: In Conversation with the Archive…

Kunstavond in Rotterdam

Every first Friday of the month, from 6:00 PM to 9:00 PM, V2_, WORM, MaMA, and Kunstinstituut Melly open their doors for free during the vibrant Kunstavond. The Witte de With Quarter transforms into the epicenter of cutting-edge art in Rotterdam, featuring exhibitions, installations, performances, talks, music, and more. Four institutions within one block showcase where experimentation and innovation in art come to life. Four institutions, one block, infinite discoveries. Kunstavond is organized by Kunstblock, a collaborative network of institutions along Witte de Withstraat.

For this edition this is what you can experience at Melly:

Draw, Withdraw, Redraw

This is the second presentation in the series In Conversation with the Archive…, where the archivist of Melly, marjolijn kok, will place the themes of the third floor exhibition, Draw, Withdraw, Redraw within the wider context of the institute. The exhibition itself will not be discussed as you can see it for yourself. The exhibition plays with the double meaning of drawing and its derived words. For us, Draw relates to recognition and border making; Withdraw relates to resisting the oppressive and refusal as used by Fred Moten in his fugitive strategies; and Redraw relates to reimagining, thinking about different ways of living. Keywords are; movement, undefinable, improvisation and ongoing. As you can imagine many artists who have shown their work at Melly can relate to these keywords, however, tonight we look at these terms in a cultural-political way.

Please note that the language of this event is English.

Archive

Kunstinstituut Melly’s Archive focuses on our institution’s exhibition history and activities from 1990 to the present. Our archive has been a valuable resource for many arts professionals, researchers, educators and students interested in learning from the contents and processes behind our extensive events and exhibition programs. The Archive is primarily a production archive. It contains materials related to the making of exhibitions, such as loan agreements, correspondence, and floor plans. It also preserves documentation of exhibitions and events, including exhibition guides, photographs, invitations, videos, and audio recordings.

Anyone interested in the history of Kunstinstituut Melly is welcome to submit a research inquiry or arrange a visit to the archive. To do so, please contact us at archive [​at​] kunstinstituutmelly.nl.

Online Archive: MELLY X ARCHIVAL CONSCIOUSNESS

It has always been our goal to make the archive as accessible as possible. While online accessibility is a key objective for Kunstinstituut Melly, it remains a long-term project. In collaboration with Archival Consciousness, we have taken the first step by joining their web archive, Biblio*Graph. Photographs from our first decade (1990–2000) are now available online, and we are currently digitizing a selection of our publications.

Click here to discover the online archive.