Collective Healing From War

The Peace Research Institute Oslo (PRIO) organizes an art residency in Rotterdam through the INSPIRE project and is supported by the Goethe-Institut, Verhalenhuis Belvedere and Zuid. Boijmans Van Beuningen. Four artists, with personal experience of war and oppression, are brought together for 2 months to create art and to explore collective healing. By creating together, the group of artists aims to counter the many ways that war, oppression and exile are commonly silenced or distorted.

About the residency

The residency will create space for dialogue around the artists’ creative work with local audiences in Rotterdam, a city that was subjected to heavy bombing at the start of the Second World War, in 1940. One central theme of the art they create will be collective healing processes after war, oppression and exile.

Diala Brisly, Cindy Horst, Daria Pugachova and Khalid Shatta are the artists who will be collaborating creatively during the two-month period. Others, including Nastassja Nefjodov, will participate for shorter periods of time. The residency will be concluded with a festival week where the artists’ work will be exhibited at Zuid. Boijmans Van Beuningen, the Hague-based knowledge platform KPSRL and the Goethe Institute in Rotterdam.

Program festival week

5 october from 16.00 to 19.00 - A panel discussion and exhibition in The Grey Space in The Hague
6 october from 16.00 to 18.00 - Book launch event at Goethe-Institut Rotterdam
7 october from 14.00 to 18.00 - Open studio day at Zuid. Boijmans Van Beuningen
11 october from 16.00 to 18.00 - Ukrainian Classroom at Zuid. Boijmans Van Beuningen
12 october from 14.00 to 16.00 - Art in war dialogue with Sandra Smets at Zuid. Boijmans Van Beuningen
13 october from 16.00 to 18.00 - Film screening and discussion at Goethe-Institut Rotterdam
14 october from 14.00 to 18.00 - Final event residency at Zuid. Boijmans Van Beuningen

“This residency brings together artists with unique experiences of conflict in places like Sudan, Ukraine, and Syria. Our experiences of war are unique, but we also share a lot in terms of what we’ve gone through. Coming together in this project with people who understand each other helps us explore and create together,” - Diala Brisly, a Syrian visual graphic who will attend the residency

Art Amid the Ruins

Parallel to this project, Depot Boijmans Van Beuningen presents Art amid the Ruins. A project that delves into the lives of Rotterdam artists in the aftermath of the bombing of May 14, 1940.

The project consists of a book, a presentation in Depot Boijmans Van Beuningen and an interactive walking map. The book is called The Firebird Generation. Artists in a destroyed city and is written by Sandra Smets, historian and guest curator. In the Depot you can see art from the collection that was made during the war years or has a clear connection with it. The interactive walking map contains hundreds of historically interesting points in Rotterdam. The museum invites everyone to go out and explore this history themselves.

Art Amid the Ruins, from September 4, 2023 to January 14, 2024. More information via Kunst tussen de ruïnes - Museum Boijmans Van Beuningen.

*This residency is organized by PRIO as part of the INSPIRE project and is supported by the Goethe-Institut, Verhalenhuis Belvedere en Zuid. Boijmans Van Beuningen.