The 24th edition of Art Rotterdam, annual Dutch contemporary art fair, will take place from 9 to 12 February 2023 under the guidance of Fons Hof, former director of Galerie Hof & Huyser in Amsterdam
Art Rotterdam at the Van Nelle Factory
Art Rotterdam will be held in what has become its iconic location, the Van Nelle Factory, an event space situated on the banks of a canal in the Spaanse Polder industrial zone north-west of Rotterdam. Counted among the Unesco’s World Heritage Sites since 2014, this is a former factory of the Dutch company Van Nelle, where tea, coffee, tobacco, chewing gum, cigarettes, instant pudding and rice were processed. Built between 1925 and 1931 by architect Leendert van der Vlugt and civil engineer J.G. Wiebenga, it was conceived as an ideal factory and immediately became a symbol of the modernist and functionalist culture that developed during the interwar period.
From 2000 to 2002 the building underwent a renovation process, which converted the former factory into an event location, office complex and museum. The renovation opera was directed by Eric Gude, a Dutch specialist in the conversion of former industrial sites, and Wessel de Jonge, an authority in the renovation of modern architecture, who chose to keep intact its industrial soul and original structure, while transforming it into a sustainable building, powered by green energy and provided with water recycle facilities.
However, the Rotterdam art fair has not always been held at the Van Nelle Factory. Indeed, for fourteen editions its home had been the Cruise Terminal on the Wilhelmina Pier, a smaller event space located in what was originally the arrivals and departures hall for the Holland America Line steamships, which over the years brought hundreds of thousands of immigrants from the old continent to the United States.
Art Rotterdam: an international fair with a local footprint
Art Rotterdam first started in 2020, when the Dutch art market was mainly national. At the time, the country already had an art fair, based in the capital, the Amsterdam Art Fair, but the local galleries asked for another showcase for their artists.
Of course, Art Rotterdam is smaller than the Amsterdam fair, but during the years it has grown and become more international: «Ours is still today a small fair, but at the beginning it was even smaller and local. After a few years, the art world experienced an internalization process and there were many new galleries coming up, which have gradually become the main art galleries in the Netherlands now. There was a demand for much more international fairs, so we started to internationalize too, and look for new collectors and curators. Still, we did not want to lose our local footprint, so we made a lot of connections to the city of Rotterdam: besides visiting the fair, you can also choose among a program of activities scattered around the city. And this is how Rotterdam Art Week began».
Rotterdam Art Week: the city as an open-air fair
From 8 February, day of Art Rotterdam’s opening, until 12, day of its closing, Rotterdam will become itself an open-air art fair, with a series of events related to art, but located throughout the city: installations, parties, pop up shows, open studios and workshops, as well as special openings of exhibitions in museums and art institutions.
The partnership between the fair and the city began in 2013 and is meant to extend the boundaries of the former, while at the same time boosting tourism in the latter: «We designed Rotterdam Art Week with the aim of making the fair more attractive for foreign tourists, turning it into an occasion to not just see some art, but also to visit the second art city in the Netherlands».
The traditional art fair: being multidisciplinary
Rotterdam Art Week extends the boundaries of the traditional art fair also in its being multidisciplinary, since it combines art with photography, music, visual art, design, architecture and topical issues of our time. For example, the 2023 edition will feature an exhibition of twenty-four Dutch female artists who lived and worked in the vanguard of modern art during the first half of the past century (Kunsthal Rotterdam); a show dedicated to energy and innovative solar technology (Het Nieuwe Instituut); a presentation of the nominated architect’s submissions for the 2022 Architecture Prix de Rome (Het Nieuwe Instituut); a market with affordable pieces of art made by artists, young creatives, photographers and musicians (Unity in Diversity); a festive gathering where artists from a variety of disciplines and visitors can dance while coming into with each other and get to know each other better (Kunstenaarsbal).
Visitors will be able to move throughout the city either by private or public transport, either by free shuttle transport, organized for the 24th edition of Art Rotterdam in collaboration with Cupra. A new partner of the fair, the Spanish car company, will provide a fleet of electric cars that visitors can use for free.
A showcase for new art and young artists
While the visitors of Art Rotterdam are diverse and range between different age groups, its key word is ‘young’: «We have always been focused on new art, on discovering new trends and new artists, as there is a high claim for young art in the Netherlands. There are a lot of academies in the country and Dutch galleries are focused on them, so many famous artists studied and started their career in the Netherlands. They usually stay for a few years here before moving to bigger cities, such as New York». Because of this, Dutch collectors and art dealers are more interested in emerging talents rather than in established names, as in other countries. And this approach towards contemporary art is embodied by Art Rotterdam.
The fair also has a prize, the NN Art Award, dedicated to artists who have completed their education at a Dutch art academy or a Dutch postgraduate institution and organized in cooperation with NN Group, one of the largest insurance and asset management companies in the Netherlands. The artists’ work is displayed at Art Rotterdam and is evaluated by a competent jury, usually composed of other artists, creative directors, curators, professors, journalists.
The criteria their verdict is based on are the following: high-quality work, an interesting artistic position and adequate technical execution; authenticity and innovation (with a personal visual language); new perspectives on the world we live in and connection with/source of inspiration for the public. The selection criteria are multi-disciplinary, so all media are eligible. The winner receives a cash prize of ten thousand euros. In addition, NN Group will purchase one or more works from the four nominees for its corporate collection.
Art Rotterdam: focus on the New Art Section
For the 24th edition of the fair the New Art Section will have a central placement, right next to the entrance, in the daylight-filled atmospheric coffee factory, with two restaurants accessible from the area. Thus, the New Art Section, with sixteen presentations, will be the one defining the visitors’ first impression and will immediately catch collectors and art professionals’ attention: «With the central placement of the New Art Section, we emphasize Art Rotterdam’s basic principles: discovering new art and encouraging young talent. For many artists, Art Rotterdam means the start of their careers and we wanted to stress this core identity of us. Besides, being the entrance to the space in the fair with more energy, it is just perfect for presenting emerging talents».
Another section of the fair open to upcoming artists is the Solo/Duo, where solo shows are combined with «more curated exhibitions, where the work of two different artists mingle». However, director Fons Hof specifies that the definition ‘upcoming artist’ does not necessarily mean that the showcased artist is young by birth, but only new to the art world, something that may occur also to older people, if they started making art later in their life.
The debut of Sculpture Park
Another news of the 2023 edition of Art Rotterdam will be Sculpture Park: «It is a sculpture park, but inside. Basically, we collected a number of large-scale contemporary art sculptures meant to be placed outside and decided to locate them in a closed space inside the Van Nelle Factory, which will become a sort of indoor park. The inspiration came to us from the fact that Rotterdam has many public parks, where there are over fifty large signature sculptures».
Such sculptures are part of the public program for Rotterdam Art Week and are looked after by Sculpture International, an organization that partnered in the realization of Sculpture Park with Art Rotterdam and Stichting Doom en Daad, a philanthropic fund investing in projects that help make Rotterdam attractive and appealing to residents and visitors since 2017.
Sculpture Park will be located in the Tobacco Factory, one of the industrial and historic sections of the Van Nelle Factory, which was especially renovated for the occasion in cooperation with spatial design studio Tom Postma Design. All the works will be related to nature or the urban environment, with a part of the exhibition space dedicated to artists who live in Rotterdam or graduated at an art academy of the city, as further evidence of the connection between Art Rotterdam and its city.
Art Rotterdam
Art Rotterdam, Van Nelle Factory BV, is a Dutch contemporary art fair that focuses on new art and young artists, while boosting tourism in the city of Rotterdam through the Rotterdam Art Week, a program of multidisciplinary events related to art and located throughout the city.
