NEW WAVE. DAR x Stedelijk Museum Schiedam

From 22 June to 10 November 2024, the Stedelijk Museum Schiedam and the art platform DAR will be presenting the international group exhibition NEW WAVE. This exhibition will showcase six new room-filling installations by The Nest (Nairobi, Kenya), Nifemi Marcus Bello (Lagos, Nigeria) and Rotterdam-based artists Marga Weimans, Ameneh Solati, Yuro Moniz and Elejandro Martinez. These artists represent a new international movement in art; each of them belongs to several networks – from their own family, a collective of makers and groups of friends to communities that are deeply rooted in their local area. Their connection to these networks informs the lens through which they address global issues such as the climate, power, digitalisation and commerce in their work. The exhibition, curated by Zineb Seghrouchni from the DAR Cultural Agency, is inspired by an international trend in which the focus is shifting from autonomous artists working on their own to artists working in a highly contextualised way or as part of a collective or community.

NEW WAVE
In art, music, fashion or politics, a ‘new wave’ invariably denotes a movement that deliberately departs from standardised ideas, techniques or values. In this exhibition, NEW WAVE signifies a movement that is creating space for new perspectives and stories, shattering the Western bias that has long dominated the art world. In their work, these artists explore major global issues from a variety of viewpoints, placing non-Western perspectives and the experience of living between different cultures at the forefront. The six installations by The Nest, Marga Weimans, Nifemi Marcus Bello, Ameneh Solati, Yuro Moniz and Elejandro Martinez embody this NEW WAVE and invite visitors to experience and immerse themselves in it.

The artists

© Marga Weimans

Fashion designer Marga Weimans presents the spatial installation The 4c Body. Driven by the question ‘What is identity?’, Weimans’ work redefines the boundaries of fashion and beauty. Weimans experiments with materials, couture, architecture and digital technology across a range of disciplines. Her installation revolves around the poetic and familial meanings of her own Afro hair type, 4c. The artist drew her inspiration from the Afro locks that accumulate on the spiral staircase in her house every day, which spawned the idea for an autobiographical installation that also depicts a fictional parallel reality of hair care in a family setting. The family featured in the installation is composed of Weiman’s own relatives and AI-generated cyborgs.

© The Nest

The Kenyan art collective The Nest is constructing a new, local version of their now famous work Return to Sender in Schiedam. The installation was previously shown at Documenta 15 in Kassel and consists of a structure made of bales of discarded clothing, forcing the viewer to reflect on the impact of our extreme levels of clothing consumption. This excessive consumption results in discarded clothing being transported from Europe to the African continent, where it is dumped. The Nest symbolically sends the bales of textiles back to where they came from; in this case, Schiedam.

© Nifemi Marcus-Bello

Nigerian Nifemi Marcus-Bello describes Africa as a designer’s utopia. One of his main inspirations is the homemade utensils he finds on the streets of West African cities. He sees these products as a form of ‘unauthorised design’. In his own design practice, he combines traditional craftsmanship with the latest technology to create new designs and artworks inspired by the local context. In the exhibition, Marcus-Bello presents a pavilion design and a video installation on his current research project Africa – A Designer’s Utopia, a study of products used by street vendors in his hometown of Lagos.

© Ameneh Solati

In the multimedia installation Mesopotamian Marshes, Iranian-Iraqi Ameneh Solati explores the marshes on the border of southern Iraq and the influence that the region and its people have had on Iraq’s history. Marshland inhabitants have used their specific local skills and knowledge of the natural environment to overcome ecological challenges, resist political oppression and maintain their autonomy. Solati’s work sheds new light on the complex issues in the Mesopotamian marshes, and her installation draws from these local roots to speak to much larger global issues.

© Elejandro Martinez

Elejandro Martinez is an art director, founder of the TENS salon, choreographer and dancer. He is a prominent figure in Dutch ballroom culture, where he is known as Elly Vineyard, the father of House of Vineyard. His installation as part of the NEW WAVE exhibition represents the queer Caribbean man who, often forced or in search of something better, leaves his nest and has to create new lives, environments and families. He uses the Reveler, a key figure in Caribbean carnival, as a symbol. In his work, the storms on his native island of St Maarten – hurricanes that wipe away everything – are a metaphor for the figurative storms that arise in families through differences in orientation, gender identity or life choices. His installation, A house is not a home, conveys precisely this message.

© Yuro Moniz

As one of the world’s oldest art forms, ceramics have been a way of telling cultures’ stories for centuries. In her ceramic work, Yuro Moniz freely draws inspiration from artisanal traditions from around the world. In the run-up to the exhibition, Moniz is organising three table sessions, during which communities close to her heart will contribute to her work. In so doing, she will highlight the traditional, collective process of making ceramics. In a meditative space, Moniz will present 365 of her clay objects, each telling a story of community, tradition and identity.

DAR x Stedelijk Museum Schiedam

For the NEW WAVE exhibition, the Stedelijk Museum Schiedam has joined forces with the DAR Cultural Agency. This art platform, founded in 2022 by Zineb Seghrouchni (1981), is committed to cementing a new norm that takes shape outside of traditional institutions. DAR introduces new movements and dreams in the arts and supports the development of underrepresented artists.

DAR initiates cultural programmes, represents artistic talent and provides a home for creative growth. With strong roots in architecture and design, Seghrouchni has a passion for building. She has a natural talent for forging international connections, as well as for innovation. Seghrouchni writes, curates, designs and researches urban phenomena and spaces in relation to art and culture, from Milan to Dakar and beyond. Through the DAR Cultural Agency, she is creating a platform and opportunities for artists to collaborate with businesses, museums and brands.

This exhibition is part of the museum’s New Art programme, which is supported by the Basic Funding Scheme for Regional Museums (Basisinfrastructuur voor regionale musea).