performances; display of props: mixed materials
Justine Willams: website / instagram
Rotterdam, January 26, 2025
Dear Justine,
How are you? I hope that you’ve safely arrived back home to Brisbane, ‘down under’. Willem and me were happy that, during your trip to Europe, you’ve stayed at our home for three weeks, while we were away to Tierra del Fuego – a ‘down under’ as well. It felt good that our place wasn’t sitting empty and deserted.
I’m sorry that we didn’t meet face-to-face: you arrived 10 days after we’d left, and upon our return you had left, “to squeeze in a few days in Paris”. We just missed each other…
We only ‘met’ via Facetime: early morning in Brisbane, early evening in Rotterdam – or the other way around? Thses digital meets gave me an impression of your bristling personality: it almost exploded the tiny screen of my handy. “She must be a fun person”, I concluded, “to have as our guest behind DE RUIT.”
You immediately wanted to know all about it, so I explained its concept. I was happy that you wanted to create ‘something’ for it. At that moment neither you, nor I, had a clue of what it was going to be. You’ve turned your stay here into a short residency. That’s what DE RUIT is all about: an artist project space, an experimental playground!
Returning home
On our sidewalk, rather dazed and jetlagged after our topsy-turvy flight from Ushuaia via Buenos Aires to Rotterdam, we couldn’t avoid a first glimpse – and what a glimpse it was! – at what you’d been creating here.
Of course, you’d sent us some pictures and videos through WhatsApp – where would we be without it? But now seeing things ‘live’, and ‘in the real’: that was something completely different!
A shop window?
You turned DE RUIT’s all glass façade into a shopwindow – as the architects planned it some 30 years ago. “Is this now a fashion store?’ asked a passer-by. And indeed: the latest trend – ‘make do’.… Lees Meer