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Strings of Life / Pattern of Exploitation

Live Free Entrance

Join us on Thursday, January 23, for the group exhibition Strings of Life/Patterns of Exploitation of twelve students of the Willem de Kooning Academy! Inspired by the practices of Cihad Caner and Nolan Oswald Dennis, whose works are currently on view at Kunstinstituut Melly, they delve into topics such as storytelling, memory, cultural heritage or cycles of exploitation. Entrance is free!

Strings of Life

Strings of Life explores the ties that bind us and the evolving stories we carry through time. Inspired by Cihad Caner’s approach to storytelling and reenactment, the artists reflect on how memory, identity, and cultural heritage shape individual and collective experiences and the narratives we pass on. Through a variety of mediums, the exhibition invites the viewer to consider the resilience, transformation, and shared connections that define our lives and the narratives we pass on.

Ana-Maria Cretu reflects on inherited social hierarchies and DNA using embroidery, while Ottavia Natoli uses comics to reimagine care as both a personal and collective experience. Sofie Waas highlights the forgotten histories of Dutch-Indonesian culture through masks inspired by traditional puppet shows, and Gaia Trouwborst maps the emotional landscapes of Rotterdam using aquarelle paintings. Eva Schelvis explores the tension between modern life and our prehistoric brains through a series of oil paintings. Elvin Eldho photographs the hybrid identities of Malayalis in Delft, while Kees Stapel critiques religious dogma and reflects on faith and trauma through storytelling and collage.

Together, these works invite the viewer to consider the evolving narratives that define our lives and the connections that endure across generations.

Patterns of Exploitation

Patterns of Exploitation examine systems that shape our world—cultural, technological, historical, and economic structures—designed to influence, control, and exploit. This exhibition explores cycles and contradictions within these systems, exposing privilege, inequalities, and collective experiences.

Remy de Boysère visualises and critiques the commodification and privilege in football, while Madelief Verbij uses collage to satirize the normalization of exploitative advertising aimed at children. Simon Mensger reveals the profit-driven transformation of land use in Limburg through photographs and linocuts, and Christina Akel uses drawings to reflect on how exploitation in their home country, Syria, fosters mental estrangement and constant state of nostalgia. Nico Collier interrogates the exploitative mechanics of short-form video platforms through embodied research, visualized in a video installation.

These perspectives deeply relate to Nolan Oswald Dennis’s work shown at Kunstinstituut Melly, who explores patterns of exploitation by exposing hidden structures and colonial practices of extraction in archaeology and geology. As Nolan, we want to lay bare and reimagine systems of knowledge and power.

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