Yet from Airiness, Miracles abound An experimental symposium of Piet Zwart Institute

"Yet from Airiness, Miracles Abound”* is an experimental symposium featuring fragments, samples, and rehearsals of ongoing research by first year students of the Piet Zwart Institute Master Fine Art. Over the course of an afternoon, they will share their current and evolving artistic research in the form of workshops, video screenings, performances, listening sessions, and publications. The experimental symposium will take place in the Auditorium at Kunstinstituut Melly.

*The title is inspired by Hole Theory, written by Pope.L in 2002. The text can be found here.

With contributions by:

Paula Punkstina

Aida Valdes Gomez

Francesco Zanatta

Tindra Eliasson

Sara Francola

Jan Nixon

Maurizio Segato

Evelyn Roh

Bárbara Silva Freitas

Kaiyu Wang

Schedule:

11.00. - LIGHT GARDEN ___Bárbara Freitas + Tindra Eliasson. Workshop

Water a garden, let the light flood the space. In this workshop we will explore the material potential of light, through space, objects and community. We will collectively build an installation by running projections through and around physical objects and unlikely surfaces

12.45 - THE EARTH IS MOIST AND ALL THE WORLD IS FRUITFUL___Francesco Zanatta.

Listening session and workshop. The workshop revolves around a listening session centered on a sound composition created by the artist. During and after the listening session, participants will be asked to respond to the sonic stimuli through writing and drawing, and will be guided throughout the process. By sharing and discussing their contributions, the group will explore how sound can shape visual imagination, and vice versa. Encouraging a process of wonder and inner discovery, the workshop invites participants to reflect on time, memory, and imagination, and on how these experiences shift as we move between auditory and visual modes of perception.

14.00 - 15.00 : BREAK

15.00 - CONSTELLATIONS___Janek Nixon. Performance

A live sound performance drawing on accidental and overlooked recordings from the personal archives of the class to create an evolving sonic landscape. Blending found sounds, field recordings and archival fragments in real time, the performance explores memory, translation and chance through a shifting composition.

15:45 - LOVE BOAT____Aida Valdés + Paula Punkstina + Sara Francola. Workshop

Through the idea of emotional collage, Paula, Sara and Aida propose the creation of love songs and poems, which are then transformed into small paper boats that will navigate the canals of Rotterdam. The workshop unfolds as a collective space where writing, memory and affect are translated into material forms. Language becomes both intimate archive and physical object, drifting between narrative and sculpture.

ONGOING:

- TESTIMONY___Video by Kaiyu Wang

Moving image work based on Kaiyu’s own experiences of racism while living in the Netherlands. With the spoken words, the work transforms forms of everyday violence that are often ignored, downplayed, or left outside official records into visible testimony. It reflects on how the body can become a site of testimony when personal experience is repeatedly questioned or dismissed, carrying the traces of injuries that have not been acknowledged.

- WON´T YOU STAY? (Studio version)___Collective Video

- A THIRD, FOURTH SERENADE ___Publication display by Evelyn Roh and Maurizio Segato

Presentation of the publication that emerged from a period of research and collaboration between Evelyn Roh and Maurizio Segato. As a visual score for Cantabile (a video produced in February 2026), the publication follows the progression of the video, unfolding and expanding upon the themes, images, and references that informed their research. Both the video (accessible via the QR code on the last page) and the publication are the result of an exploration of the collection at the Speelklok Museum in Utrecht and of the Dutch cultural heritage in the field of the manufacture of music boxes, automatic musical instruments and barrel organs. The publication is opening a visual window onto the dynamics underlying the production and circulation of these instruments, their lives, and their resonance within the contemporary musical landscape. The publication will be available for purchase.

Image: "Without the words to say" (2026) by Paula Punkstina and Sara Francola