What happens once daylight has faded and Rotterdam lights up? Who is still moving through the streets, which locations stay awake, and what kind of narratives take place when most of us are asleep? In the exhibition Drawn: Rotterdam! Night Work, city artists Tessa Biemans, Peyman Fazeli, and Steef Offerhaus each present their own, unique perspective on this subject. Commissioned by Rotterdam City Archives and CBK Rotterdam, over the past few months these city artists ventured out into the city to capture the ‘night in motion’ theme. The end results will be shown at Kunsthal Rotterdam from Saturday 17 October.
The drawings brought together in Drawn: Rotterdam! Night Work offer fragmented glimpses into the many different aspects of Rotterdam by night. Together they make up a snapshot in time of a city that never stops moving, not even when it is dark.
Tessa Biemans
Tessa Biemans (1988) makes highly atmospheric works. Combined, the numerous pastel drawings she created as a city artist make up a mosaic of Rotterdam by night: steaming bodies on a dancefloor, the flashing lights of an ambulance driving by, and the moonlit Maas river. Everyday scenes alternate with mysterious depictions, populated by shadowy figures and other supernatural entities. Biemans’ work thus creates space for what remains hidden in the light of day.
Petman Fazeli
Peyman Fazeli (1984) creates his works on a black background to which he introduces light by means of refined drawings in pencil and charcoal. To Fazeli this is more than just a choice of materials, but reflects a way of thinking as well. As the night alters that which is visible, our attention shifts. This is also made visible in the works he created as a city artist: illuminated clouds, the light of a street lamp, or a bright spotlight cause various scenes to emerge from the darkness.
Steef Offerhaus
Steef Offerhaus (1994) is no stranger to Rotterdam night life. He used to work as a graphic designer and organiser in the club scene. As a city artist he therefore already had a clear idea of what he wanted to depict. Over the past period he followed various communities into the night, including taxi drivers, graffiti writers, and fast food restaurant employees. He translated these experiences into a number of collages. Offerhaus’ work visualises a psychedelic universe: using a spontaneous signature style, the tsunami of stories he tells us unfold like a nocturnal trip.
Rotterdam City Artists
Even before the bombing of Rotterdam on 14 May 1940, but especially during the post-war reconstruction period, artists were already capturing changes in the city. Until the end of the 1980s, the Rotterdam City Archives annually commissioned artists to make such drawings. In 2018 this tradition was reinstated in collaboration with CBK Rotterdam, and ever since city artists have again been contributing to the collection of the Rotterdam City Archives. This year, the city artists were selected by a jury consisting of the artist Pris Roos, Cindy Stegeman and Ove Lucas (CBK Rotterdam), Erika Hokke and Anna de Bruyn (Rotterdam City Archives), Thys Boer (N8W8 Rotterdam), and David Snels (Kunsthal Rotterdam curator). After the exhibition, all drawings will be added to the Rotterdam City Archives as part of its Rotterdam Collection.
