International arts festival
9–10–11 September 2011
Witte de Withstraat – Museumpark
Rotterdam, The Netherlands
www.dewereldvanwittedewith.nl
De Wereld van Witte de With Festival celebrates the Victory of the Bottom-up Approach
From 9 to 11 September 2011 the international arts festival De Wereld van Witte de Wit (The World of the Witte de With) is held in Rotterdam, the Netherlands. Young European artists will alienate and disrupt the public space and surprise the audience without government interference. With their DIY attitude, they will make the most of what the city has to offer: both on the streets and in Rotterdam’s art institutions. The programme includes open-air visual arts, debates, performances and live art. For example, the international collective of architects Exyzt will create pop-up hotel rooms. Bill Drummond (ex-KLF) will build a bed and V2_ presents the solution for an environmental problem using open source.
Victory of the bottom-up approach!
The World of the Witte de With has invited two young curators to formulate the starting point of the festival edition 2011. Curators Hidde van Schie (1978) from Rotterdam, the Netherlands and Lukas Feireiss (1977) from Germany, state that young artists see the city as a dynamic space offering creative and alternative opportunities beyond the conventions of architecture and urban planning. They are using the rules of the urban environment to their own advantage. The public space belongs to everyone and, at the same time, to nobody in particular. In this power vacuum the momentum always belongs to those who take the initiative. In other words: the victory of the bottom-up approach. Van Schie and Feireiss worked together with Rotterdam’s art institutions to select a number of European artists who will celebrate this victory together with the audience, featuring art in public spaces, debates and performances.
A few highlights of the programme are:
Exyzt: Far West Hotel
The Far West Hotel – five sheriff stars is the starting point for unknown adventures! Would you like to sleep on a rooftop, on the square or along the canal? During the day there are performances and at night the shelter is transformed into a hotel room. Bookings: www.dewereldvanwittedewith.nl. EXYZT is an international architecture collective that experiments with video, music, design and photography in order to explore new strategies for creating alternative spaces.
Bill Drummond
Bill Drummond is a Living Legend during De Wereld van Witte de With. He is a Scottish musician, media personality, writer and artist. In the late 1980s, Drummond became famous as co-founder of the avant-garde pop music band the KLF. The successor of KLF is the ‘avant-art’ collective the K Foundation established in the 1990s. With its controversial actions, the K Foundation targeted the establishment at large. For example, they disrupted the award ceremony of the Turner Prize, gave away truckloads of beer to the homeless in London and burnt a million British pounds in cash in an airport warehouse. The video recordings of Watch the KLF burn a Million Quid caused a massive commotion. During De Wereld van Witte de With, Drummond will build one of the forty beds that he is building around the world.
V2_Institute for Unstable Media – Open Sailing / Cesar Harada: Protei
The French-Japanese artist Cesar Harada travels all over the world to achieve his ultimate goal together with researchers and technical people: building an international research centre that will float on the oceans. After the disaster with BP’s DeepWater Horizon drilling platform in the Gulf of Mexico, Harada decided to use his international network to develop a product to fight oil spills. Together with a team of engineers and designers he developed Protei, a sailing ship that can independently clean up oil spills at sea. Several prototypes of the Protei have now been built in various places in the world. This summer, the first full-size model will be built in Rotterdam. The project is a perfect example of how a citizen of the world can influence the sea as habitat. The ship will be exhibited on the street during de Wereld van Witte de With.
