Kunsthal Rotterdam

The must-see exhibition of this autumn! From 24 October, experience an impressive overview of Paul Signac (1863–1935), the master of Neo-Impressionism, at Kunsthal Rotterdam. At the end of the nineteenth century, building on the work of Georges Seurat, Signac developed Pointillism: a painting technique in which dots and short brushstrokes come together to form a rhythmic symphony of colour. This exhibition offers an in-depth introduction to Signac’s work, presented on a scale rarely seen in the Netherlands. At the same time, Symphony of Colours reveals how his influence resonates in the painting of his contemporaries.

Chairs as you’ve never seen them before: in A Chair and You, these everyday objects become the stars of an immersive performance. This fall, Kunsthal Rotterdam presents an exhibition built around one of the world’s most significant private collections of chairs, assembled by collector Thierry Barbier-Mueller (1960–2023).

In the vicinity of the southern Spanish tourist resorts along the Almería coastline, around 3.5 billion kilos of vegetables and fruit are grown each year. What does the world behind this largest greenhouse complex in Europe look like? This autumn at Kunsthal Rotterdam, the photographer Rob Hornstra and the author Arnold van Bruggen will show how countless migrants who have no legal residency status have to work under abominable circumstances to produce food for European markets. Their photographs and stories are part of the large-scale project The Europeans, in which Hornstra and Van Bruggen set out to capture contemporary Europe.

How do you translate a live performance into an exhibition space? Kunsthal Rotterdam and Theater Rotterdam are joining forces for a special experiment: the successful production (Sur)render by theatre-maker and choreographer Alida Dors serves as the starting point for an immersive exhibition. In this new form, you experience the themes of the multidisciplinary theatre production not only as a spectator, but become part of them yourself.

Now That You’re Here presents a retrospective featuring more than 250 drawings from the past six years of Jip van den Toorn’s career. The exhibition reveals how an idea is conceived and subsequently developed. Through drawings, sketchbooks and videos, Now That You’re Here offers visitors a glimpse into what it is like to be a cartoonist in an increasingly unpredictable world.

From Friday 13 February, Kunsthal Rotterdam will be showcasing an intervention to its building by Rotterdam artist and designer Sabine Marcelis (1985). On the characteristic ramp traversing the building, as well as in HALL 6, the Kunsthal’s display window, Marcelis will be presenting her site-specific work Continuum. The project is part of the Kunsthal’s programme component Kunsthal Inside/Out, which invites designers to develop a new work that is visible both inside and outside of the Kunsthal. The building’s architecture, designed by Rem Koolhaas (OMA), serves as its point of departure.

What happens once daylight has faded and Rotterdam lights up? Who is moving through the streets, which locations stay awake, and what kind of narratives take place while 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 perspective on this theme. Commissioned by Rotterdam City Archives and CBK Rotterdam, over the past few months the city artists ventured out to capture the theme ‘night in motion’.