In his collages, usually washed with charcoal and ink, Neo Matloga shows characters in everyday situations. Matloga's characters are hybrids. Their faces are formed by merged photos of friends, family and famous South African political and artistic figures. Eyes, mouths and ears look out of proportion, skin color changes inside a face, hair and hats are on the wrong heads. Matloga's hybrid people can be seen as a reference to the transformations (physical and emotional) of individuals and to having different perspectives or thoughts about yourself or others.

About the specific selection of works for NDSM, on view from May 12, Neo Matloga writes: “The characters exude confidence while relaxing, enjoying, playing cards or chatting over a drink. A reminder to the audience that we share many experiences outside the political constructions of color. I ask the viewer to come one step closer, immerse themselves in the scenes and take note of the characters that mark their existence in the spaces in which they are located. '

Neo Matloga was born in 1993 in South Africa and currently works between Mamaila and Amsterdam. He studied in Johannesburg, and was a resident at De Ateliers in Amsterdam, where he mainly painted. Neo Matloga's collages will be shown on the 'NDSM Billboards' from May 12 to the end of July, providing space for artists on large building boards: “In addition to the building signs on the western part of the NDSM, where construction is underway, at NDSM-Oost, we give artists the opportunity to post their artistic statements on building boards. With its 10 hectares, the shipyard provides a beautiful background for large images in response to the context of the NDSM in order to make the work highly visible to Northerners and Amsterdammers. With this work by Neo Matloga, we address the question of who is represented in the public space and which voices are heard and seen there in order to create a polyphonic public space,” says curator Petra Heck.

In 2023, Marwan Magroun call himself Photographer of the Fatherland and has been an ambassador for (Dutch) photography for two years. A position that is in line with his mission to make (visual) culture more accessible. Magroun: “Photography should be for all of us, not just privileged people. It's important to make sure that a large number of people who don't have access to photography come into contact with it.”

The self-taught maker is a much sought-after photographer who knows how to depict important and sometimes sensitive social issues. Representation and empowerment his recurring themes in his work, for example, he focuses on redefining contemporary visual culture by making it more accessible and inclusive.

With projects such as KROSI and The Life of Fathers, Magroun has quickly built up a respectable name in Dutch photography. KROSI consists of a series of images, with Rotterdam architecture as backdrop, in which, together with stylist Meryem Slimani, he maps out the connection between culture and fashion. The Surinamese name for clothing is krosi, many Surinamese words are used in Rotterdam's slang. This shows how cultures and customs blend into urban life. What traditions and customs do Rotterdam young people include in their current fashion choices? What can we learn from each other by looking at clothing, behavior and customs?

In the winter of 2023, three images from the KROSI series will be available on NDSM. A similar concrete jungle where different (sub) cultures and styles come together. About the specific selection of works for NDSM, on view from January 9, Magroun says: “It's nice to see that my work from 5 years ago is becoming increasingly relevant. Claiming your spot, with your luggage, in this society is actually an all-time theme.”

The works will be on view at NDSM from January 9, 2023 to the end of June 2023. Click the button at the bottom of this page for Marwan Magroun's website.

About the artist

Born in Rotterdam to Tunisian parents, Marwan Magroun learned photography when he received a camera as a gift on his 26th birthday. His stepfather found the old-fashioned camera on the street but didn't know what to do with it. That's how Magroun started documenting the world around him, in addition to his work at, among others, the tax authorities. The beginning of a career path, because at the age of 31 he decided to become a professional photographer. His award-winning transmedia project The Life of Fathers about single fathers with a migration background in Rotterdam. His work has won several awards, including the Zilveren Camera 2020, Paul Peters Photo Award and SO Award 2021. His documentary was selected for the International Film Festival in Rotterdam and shown on Dutch television.

We interviewed Daniele Frazier about her creative process, inspirations and her work on site. You can find the whole conversation here.

The skydancer, a figure moving by the wind, uses the same medium that is mainly used as advertising by car dealers, shopping centers or furniture boulevards. More recently, the sky dancers showed up in mêmes. Online, with their ecstatic movements, they act as a blank canvas on which various emotions can be stacked via text.

Daniele Frazier made a new installation by 9 sky dancers especially for NDSM in 2023. Under the title 'A Vital Mess', the artist works with the same brightly coloured inflatable advertising objects. But she denies the commercial message by putting confusing and contradictory messages on the characters she designed herself. Loaded, positive and negative words like ETERNITY and NOTHING of ALL THE WAY and GONE TOO FAR alternate. Depending on where you are standing, or how the wind behaves, you will see certain words that may or may not make associations with each other. Another example is PLEASURE, THRILLS and RAPTURE with AGONY, PAIN and TORTURE on the back.

Daniele Frazier also presented her previously made work 'It Takes Two', sky tubes in the shape of a hammer and nail that continuously 'misses' the nail on the head. The artist previously showed this work at the Socrates Sculpture Park in New York. This work can be seen as a direct reflection on all the construction problems surrounding NDSM, but also refers to the crafts that are now carried out by many makers at NDSM, and it also makes a reference to the shipyard industry, the history of the site.

With its cultural programming, the NDSM-werf Foundation asks what public space means, who and what is seen and discussed in public space, and how it can remain a public and cultural space that is not exclusive and is embraced by everyone. Daniele Frazier uses her wry humor in an apparently unambiguous and mostly commercially used medium such as sky dancers. Daniele Frazier's work always addresses the politics that are actually inherent to all art shown outside the museum walls. The 9 sky dancers will be seen outside at NDSM (at the ferry landing) from May 19 to June 25, 2023 from Wednesday to Sunday: 12.00 — 18.00.

Daniele Frazier (USA, lives and works in Brooklyn, NY), more info via the button below.

The cloudy skies over NDSM and the IJ invite you to dream and fantasize. The installation 'WolkenPoort' developed by an artist Yasser Ballemans together with students from Klein Amsterdam primary school. WolkenPoort is a monument that focuses on dreaming about the future. Flags are often used to commemorate something or to indicate who owns a place. They therefore (just like monuments) often confirm existing power structures. But can flags also symbolize inspiration, change and movement?

With these questions, Yasser Ballemans worked with students from Klein Amsterdam on behalf of the NDSM-werf Foundation. Students from Klein Amsterdam (now group 8) proposed various designs in a workshop, some were on the “art committee” that provided feedback on the final design, and the students indicated that it would be nice if a new “farewell ritual” were associated with the WolkenPoort every year.

The WolkenPoort has become a ritualistic gate that honors the children of the last school year. A gateway with a changing sky full of dreams about a vibrant future. The children drew or photographed a cloud that they noticed, gave them an idea or simply loved last year, and these can now be seen as a flag in the Cloud Gate (made by Graphical Workshop Amsterdam). Together, they form a temporary cloudy sky. These flags stand for inspiration, change and movement. Central is the wish to tell the children that they can continue to sail on their own compass and have ownership over it.

After six weeks at NDSM, WolkenPoort will move from the NDSM shipyard's ferry landing to Klein Amsterdam's schoolyard at the end of June.

About the artist

As a visual artist, Yasser Ballemans is interested in the role of art in rituals, such as parades, campfires, carnivals and commemorations. In many projects, Ballemans investigates how meaningful art can be created together.

The words were made in Helvetica, a Swiss typeface from the late 1950s designed for its neutrality and clarity.

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In the four printing colors — Cyan, Magenta, Yellow, and Black — it referred to widespread distribution. In the new vocabulary of Picturesque the elite became a utopia: Elitopia. In the word Glamoglobality the jet set became an attitude that saw tourism as a world view for the rich. Bee Narcynicism the selfish individual took cynicism as a guide over solidarity. Introspeculation made self-esteem a value to speculate on for profit.

Despite the fact that these terms were not yet in the dictionary, they accurately described the time, not only specifically that of art, but also the context of politics and economics. The words could be related to a time when the artist was often seen in terms of marketing and the globalized 21st century could even be considered the century of the self.

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This work was initially commissioned and co-produced by the 1st Riga Biennale of Contemporary Art, June 2 — October 28, 2018.

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belit sağ (1980, Turkey, she/them) is a visual artist and teacher living in Amsterdam. At NDSM, they will present a new work commissioned by Stichting NDSM-werf in response to the (invisible) history of the shipyard. 'An-sisters (NDSM) 'connects and traces the stories and struggles of female migrant workers from Turkey through the generations. sağ interviewed several women: a former textile worker talks about working at various locations in Amsterdam, including the NDSM in the late 80s and early 90s; her daughter reminisces about her mother's working life; an organizer/translator talks about co-ownership of a textile workshop at NDSM DSM in the late 1980s. In addition to the interviews, the video installation includes excerpts from archives as an Institute for Sound and Vision and a spoken word audio piece that consists of the interviews. An-sisters (NDSM) traces the materiality, precarity and invisibility of female migrant workers through the generations.

Belit's work was first shown at the NDSM shipyard during Museum Night 2022 and was part of the NDSM Light exhibition. The work was created in collaboration with Institute for Sound & Vision.

The Great Indecision Council

The Great Indecision Council has billions of members.

The Great Indecision Council has the honor of sharing some pieces of human knowledge with non-humans.

The Great Indecision Council does not make any decisions.

What do we say that interests us? What are we really interested in? In the intimacy of our smartphone or computer, we secretly tell Google what we want to know. By retrieving the most searched words from Google search and Google news in real time and bringing them to NDSM's public space via image and sound, 'The Great Indecision Council' presents visitors with an involuntary self-portrait of our contemporary networked society and the invisible public digital domain. 'The Great Indecision Council' only works with data from the country where the session takes place - the Netherlands -, which is mixed with animations designed by the artist. The Great Indecision Council is a 20 meter long light and sound installation at the top of NDSM's Y-slope and invites the audience to glimpse computer-generated singing.

This artwork was part of the NDSM Light exhibition that was shown at NDSM in November and December of 2022.

First version was produced for Into the Great Wide Open in collaboration with MU, Eindhoven.

STARS is an installation of Cosimo Scotucci that wants to give (part of) the urban landscape of NDSM a new boost. A composition of luminescent spheres was hung in a broken crane that used to be used at the shipyard and on the trees around it. The bulbs lit up at night and gave extra energy to the surrounding landscape. From shades of red to blue, the bulbs mimic the sun's radiation spectrum, which is used by plants to grow and relax. A useful and important process, as light is required for their metabolic processes. During the day, STARS absorbs the sun's radiation, at night it gives it back and thus transforms the landscape into a dreamscape that is reminiscent of a shimmering sky at night.

STARS was part of the NDSM Light exhibition that was shown at NDSM in November and December 2022.

With “Barrier Tape”, SpY put an everyday urban utensil — usually used to control people's movement — into a different perspective and used it to create a surprising piece of art that invited visitors to interact with the installation. The emphasis was on the interaction between the work and the natural elements around it.

The installation formed an expansive, ever-changing surface that visitors could circle in and around. Hanging on parallel strings and moved by the wind, the ribbons swung together as one, generating a majestic sea-like sound and creating a wave-like movement throughout the composition.

From “Barrier Tape”, SpY continued to work on a collection of sculptural installations based on objects from real, everyday life, hypnotic patterns and immersive experiences. With his work, he questioned urban landscapes, explored cities as playgrounds of imagination, and created immersive experiences where he made visitors part of the work.

The works for NDSM come from a series of self-portraits entitled Somnyama Ngonyama. Here, visual activist and photographer Zanele “decided to focus the camera on themselves this time.” In contrast to their life project of documenting their black LGBTQ community in South Africa and beyond, these portraits portray them as well as image-makers.

About the series, Muholi said in a conversation with Renée Mussai that the series confirms those who doubt when they speak to themselves, when they look in the mirror, to say correctly: “You're worth it. You count. No one has the right to undermine you because of your being, because of your race, because of your gender expression, because of your sexuality, for everything you are.”

Zanele Muholi currently lives and works in Umbumbulu. In 2009, they founded Inkanyiso (www.inkanyiso.org), a forum for queer and visual (activist) media, and in 2002, they co-founded the Forum for Empowerment of Women (FEW).

Zanele Muholi's photos will be shown on the 'NDSM Billboards' from August 1 to September 14, with which the NDSM-werf Foundation offers space for artists on large building boards: “In addition to the building signs on the western part of the NDSM, where construction is underway, at NDSM-Oost, we give artists the opportunity to post their artistic statements on building boards. With its 10 hectares, the shipyard provides a beautiful background for large images in response to the context of the NDSM in order to make the work highly visible to Northerners and Amsterdammers. With this work by Zanele Muholi, we are addressing the question of who is represented in public space and which voices are heard and seen there in order to create a polyphonic public space, especially now with Pride Amsterdam,” says curator Petra Heck.

The work originally referred to the war in Syria, where a widespread media image showed civilians in Aleppo hiding behind three buses. The buses were set up as one of the many barricades in the city to protect civilians from snipers.

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With this art project, the NDSM-werf Foundation draws attention not only to the war in Syria, but also to Ukraine and does not want to lose sight of other conflict areas and civilians and victims. This is how you connect Halbounis 'Monument': the voices from Syria to the voices from Ukraine and those from other hotspots around the world. For Halbouni, the work represents hope, freedom and humanity.

Curator Petra Heck: “War situations, crises, refugee flows; attention disappears as soon as the news is taken over by other newsworthy events. At that time, Manaf's 2017 work referred to Syria and Syrians. And is still up to date when you think about childcare in the Netherlands, for example, about the unequal situations that arise with different refugee flows, who can go to work immediately and who cannot. And there have only been refugees, like now from Ukraine. The balancing buses stand proud, fragile and at the same time powerful with their noses up, not to mention war zones and casualties, as Ama van Dantzig called it: as a 'highway to heaven'.”

(Un) monument

Halbouni's project is presented in the programme series' (Un) monumenting'. The central question in the series is: What should or could a monument be or could be today and for whom? For this program, the foundation invites makers and artists to reflect on this question by creating or presenting (temporary) work at the shipyard.

The container arch is now an integral part of the NDSM shipyard for many festival visitors. Once placed as a set piece for DGTL, other festivals are now also using it. Due to the cancellation of the festivals in corona time, the NDSM-werf Foundation decided to periodically give the arch a different interpretation, to symbolize the dynamic feeling that the festival season gives. To do this, she invites artists to give substance to it. For this second edition, the NDSM-werf Foundation, festival DGTL and STRAAT Museum had joined forces to ask the artistic duo Karski & Beyond.

Karski (1974) and Beyond (1983) are an artist duo from the Netherlands. They have a background in graphic design and are very intensively involved in the graffiti scene.

As an experiment, they started working together in 2012. Because they liked the first mural made collectively, they decided to join forces. Their work is known for using original and vibrant color combinations. It contains realistic, graphic and abstract elements, often with surprising depth and dynamism. For Karski & Beyond, art is a way of expressing yourself, and making gigantic paintings, like this one on the container arch, makes them feel alive. “As a duo, we like to push the limits for as much contrast and depth as possible.”

Curious about all the different container bow jackets over the past few years? Check out the article in the online magazine.