Kim Bouvy » EXHIBITION

Learning from…Rotterdam - Kunsthalle Wilhelmshaven

Commissioned work, installation, publication
Exhibition ‘Learning from Rotterdam’ - Kunsthalle Wilhelmshaven (DE) 24 June - 2 September 2012
With Elian Somers (NL), Kim Bouvy (NL), Oliver Gudow (DE) and Jost Wischnewski (DE)
Curated by Viola Weigel (dir. Kunsthalle Wilhelmshaven)
Publication Magazine KW June 2012

5 new works I made during a short stay in the North German town of Wilhelmshaven on invitation by Dr. Viola Weigel from Kunsthalle Wilhelmshaven. The new works were shown together with the installation ‘Phantom City’.

The title of the exhibition refers to the seminal publication ‘Learning from Las Vegas’ by Scott Brown, Venturi and Izenour (revised ed. 1977) which, indirectly, formed my starting point when photographing the city of Wilhelmshaven.
There, I was not looking so much for similarities between the two cities, but tried to grasp the vernacular specificity of this seemingly anonymous urban fabric in the North of Germany. The 5 images displayed were all taken along one road, the Bundesstrasse/Bismarckstrasse, cutting through the different fabrics of this rather dispersed city.

‘Lena’ - c-print on aluminum, 75 x 95 cm

The exhibition takes a certain assumed analogy between the two harbor cities of Wilhelmshaven and Rotterdam as starting point: both were damaged during the Second World War (Wilhelmshaven also during WW I), both cities are closely tied to their harbor and therefore ’sacrificed’ for a greater cause in different moments in history to serve a purpose that goes beyond its own economical and social borders.
A new phase for Wilhelmshaven will commence soon: In August 2012, the JadeWeserPort will be opened: a new and Germany’s only deep water container port located at the German Bight on the North East side of Wilhelmshaven. The other deep water port in Western Europe is…Rotterdam. The realization of the JDW port is in a sense connecting the two cities and harbors - not the least as competitors. Not only looking at Rotterdam in an economical sense, but also learning from Rotterdam in a social and cultural sense might be valuable, is what (the curator of) this exhibition is implying.

The magazine ‘KW’ published in June featured our works and texts about Rotterdam and Wilhelmshaven by ao Viola Weigel and Caroline von Courten.