Garage Rotterdam

Coming up at Garage Rotterdam 💫

Join us for talks, performances, shared meals and new encounters in the coming weeks.

✦ Friday 2 October 2026 | TALKS about architecture

Felix Holland of Localworks Localworks takes the stage at TALKS about architecture .

19:30–21:30 · Lecture + Q&A · Drinks afterwards
Language: English · Tickets via the link in bio.

✦ Thursday 8 October 2026 | Garage Café #16

Garage Café opens its doors again for its sixteenth edition. An informal meeting place for artists, makers and audiences, Garage Café offers space to encounter new work and exchange ideas. During ten-minute contributions, artists share ongoing research, experiments and works in progress.

Featuring anna andrejew anna andrejew, Yang Yu Yang Yu, Minh Thu Nguyen, Emily Hsiang-Yun Huang Cloud Poetry Film 雲朵影像詩 and Romana Klementis Romana Klementis

18:00–20:00 · Admission: €2 or pay what you can · Soup: €5

✦ Friday 23 October 2026 | Live at Garage Rotterdam

An evening of experimental electronics and improvisation, with live performances by A. Crespo Barba Adrián and Lucija Gregov Lucija Gregov, Christine Cornwell Christine Cornwell and Ruben Kotkamp ʀᴜʙᴇɴ ᴋᴏᴛᴋᴀᴍᴘ.

20:00–22:00 · Admission by donation
RSVP via the link in bio.

✦ Friday 30 October | Both Hats On
Meet-up for Artist-Parents & Workshop: Creating a Working Conditions Rider for Artist-Parents THE ARTIST AND THE OTHERS

This meet-up brings artist-parents in the Netherlands together to discuss current challenges, share best practices and find a supportive community.

09:30–13:30 · Language: English · Free

✦ Friday 13 November 2026 | Natafelen

Dining among the artworks? Take a seat at Garage Rotterdam for a four-course dinner within An Eye Dreads the Sun. Together with the curator and participating artists, discuss the exhibition in a more intimate setting.

The dinner is prepared by chef Marnix Benschop, with an optional w**e pairing by De Gouden Ton.

18:00–22:00 · Four-course menu: €50 · W**e pairing: €30
Reservations: [email protected]

⏩️More information and tickets via the link in bio.

Thank you to everyone who joined us last Friday to celebrate the opening of 𝘼𝙣 𝙀𝙮𝙚 𝘿𝙧𝙚𝙖𝙙𝙨 𝙩𝙝𝙚 𝙎𝙪𝙣 ⊹

Here’s a glimpse of the opening, featuring works by
AYO Ayo, Taqwa Ali Taqwa Ali, Atousa Bandeh Atousa Bandeh, Nolan Oswald Dennis nolan oswald dennis and Jennifer Tee Jennifer Tee, curated by Cynthia Jordens.

The exhibition brings together works in which materials carry stories and traces of origin and loss, and transmit knowledge. Earth, plant-based pigments, textiles, sound and the human voice become vessels of memory, allowing what has been displaced, silenced or lost to resurface.

And a special thank you to ˙⋆✮PARSA for the tunes.

𝘼𝙣 𝙀𝙮𝙚 𝘿𝙧𝙚𝙖𝙙𝙨 𝙩𝙝𝙚 𝙎𝙪𝙣 is on view until 15 November 2026.

𝗨𝗣𝗖𝗢𝗠𝗜𝗡𝗚
Saturday 19 September, 20:00 – A Score for Atat’s Homestead, performance by AYO Ayo, performed by Phantom Wizard Phantom Wizard - Composer.

More info via the link in bio. 🔗

📸 Bas Czerwinski

Saturday 19 September, during GRAW, AYO’s installation ‘A Score for Atat’s Homestead’ will be activated in a performance by Phantom Wizard. ⊹

𝘼 𝙎𝙘𝙤𝙧𝙚 𝙛𝙤𝙧 𝘼𝙩𝙖𝙩’𝙨 𝙃𝙤𝙢𝙚𝙨𝙩𝙚𝙖𝙙
Performance by Ayo, performed by Phantom Wizard - Composer

Witness an intimate rendition of AYO’s A Score for Atat’s Homestead at Garage Rotterdam, currently on view as part of 𝘼𝙣 𝙀𝙮𝙚 𝘿𝙧𝙚𝙖𝙙𝙨 𝙩𝙝𝙚 𝙎𝙪𝙣, performed by composer and improviser Phantom Wizard under AYO’s artistic direction. In her work, AYO explores how sound can make hidden histories and a lost homeland audible. During the performance, sculptures, field recordings, instruments and live improvisation come together, giving personal and collective memories form through sound. The Abu, AYO’s glass interpretation of a traditional Luo wind instrument, also takes on a new sonic dimension within the performance. In this way, the installation becomes a living, shared memory.

AYO is a Kampala-raised, Rotterdam-based multidisciplinary artist working across sculpture, sound, performance, and film. Through time-based and collaborative works, she researches how intangible cultural heritage – language, memory, oral transmission, Indigenous knowledge systems – presses against and enters material forms, opening rooms where histories are enlivened, shared, and at times, misunderstood.

Phantom Wizard (b. 1998, Amsterdam) is a composer and improviser whose work dissolves boundaries and reimagines traditions. Phantom Wizard blends natural soundscapes, the sonorities of Afro-diasporic music, experimental electronics and the many ancient traditions sourced from the Surinamese melting pot.

📍 Garage Rotterdam
⊹ Saturday 19 September, 20:00
✦ Free entry

👀 Sneak peek… a closer look at the materials of 𝘼𝙣 𝙀𝙮𝙚 𝘿𝙧𝙚𝙖𝙙𝙨 𝙩𝙝𝙚 𝙎𝙪𝙣.

1. Detail of drawing in ‘A Score of Atat’s Homestead’ (2025) Ayo
2. Hibiscus, sea salt and water on paper, ‘Until the Salt in the Sea Ferment to Honey’ (2025) Taqwa Ali
3. Hand-dyed wool and ceramic Jennifer Tee
4. Detail of ‘A Score for Atat’s Homestead’ Ayo
5. Seashells in ‘The Rainmaker Who Took The Gods To The Streets’ (2025), installation, Taqwa Ali
6. Textile, metal, acrylic paint, detail of ‘A Thousand Sunsets’ (2026) Atousa Bandeh
7. Textile, ‘Boy in Yellow Vest’ (2026) Atousa Bandeh
8. Detail of ‘Tampan Tree of Life, Naga~Nagini’ (2024), collage of tulip petals, piezography Jennifer Tee
9. Hibiscus, ‘The Rainmaker Who Took The Gods To The Streets’ (2025) Taqwa Ali
10. Detail of ‘Specifications for a Reverse Archeology (2022–23)’, Nolan Oswald Dennis nolan oswald dennis

Come see the works in full and celebrate the opening with us! ⊹

Join us tonight, Friday 11 September, for the opening of 𝘼𝙣 𝙀𝙮𝙚 𝘿𝙧𝙚𝙖𝙙𝙨 𝙩𝙝𝙚 𝙎𝙪𝙣 at Garage Rotterdam, curated by Cynthia Jordens.

📍 Garage Rotterdam
✦ 19:00–23:30

Up next at Garage Rotterdam → 𝘼𝙣 𝙀𝙮𝙚 𝘿𝙧𝙚𝙖𝙙𝙨 𝙩𝙝𝙚 𝙎𝙪𝙣

We look forward to welcoming you back in September for the opening of An Eye Dreads the Sun, curated by Cynthia Jordens.

Materials are not silent witnesses. They carry stories and traces of origin and loss, and transmit knowledge. In 𝘼𝙣 𝙀𝙮𝙚 𝘿𝙧𝙚𝙖𝙙𝙨 𝙩𝙝𝙚 𝙎𝙪𝙣, earth, plant-based pigments, textiles, sound, and the human voice act as vessels of memory. In the works in this exhibition, materials offer a way of tracing the marks left behind by history.

The title, drawn from a poem by Etel Adnan, evokes an ambiguous image: the sun as a life-giving force as well as an eye that witnesses violence, strife, and displacement. In the monumental installation ‘A Thousand Sunsets’ (2026), Atousa Bandeh gives this tension material form. The installation brings together the ever-changing colours of sunsets, seemingly suspending this fleeting moment in time.

The exhibition focuses on what often remains out of sight and what the sun ultimately brings to light. Taqwa Ali works with natural materials such as seawater, salt, hibiscus, and limestone to explore the relationship between landscape and displacement. In ‘A Score for Atat’s Homestead’, AYO evokes a remembered homeland through sound. In Jennifer Tee’s work, the tulip refers to colonial trade networks, while Nolan Oswald Dennis reworks the tools and logic of archaeology to question how histories are extracted from land.

Opening: Friday 11 September 2026, 19:00–23:00
On view: 12 September – 15 November 2026

With works by: AYO Ayo, Taqwa Ali Taqwa Ali, Atousa Bandeh Atousa Bandeh, Nolan Oswald Dennis nolan oswald dennis, Jennifer Tee Jennifer Tee

Design Jesse van Meel

𝗙𝗶𝗻𝗮𝗹 𝘄𝗲𝗲𝗸 🗯️ This is your last chance to visit 𝗛𝗼𝘄 𝗧𝗼: 𝗟𝗶𝘃𝗶𝗻𝗴 𝗧𝗵𝗿𝗼𝘂𝗴𝗵 𝗜𝗻𝘀𝘁𝗿𝘂𝗰𝘁𝗶𝗼𝗻𝘀 at Garage Rotterdam. The exhibition is on show until Sunday, July 19. Don’t miss it!

𝗩𝗶𝘀𝗶𝘁 𝘂𝘀: Wednesday–Sunday, 12:30–17:30.

⏭️ 𝗙𝗶𝗻𝗶𝘀𝘀𝗮𝗴𝗲 | 𝗛𝗼𝘄 𝗧𝗼: 𝗖𝘂𝗿𝗮𝘁𝗼𝗿 𝗧𝗼𝘂𝗿
Saturday, July 18, 16:00–17:00

Join us for the finissage, where curator Marijn Bril will guide you through the exhibition and share more about the works, the underlying themes, and the questions the exhibition raises. What does it mean to live through the instructions we face every day, and how do instructions shape our behaviour?

Participating artists: Effi & Amir, Tingyi Jiang, Eva & Franco Mattes, Lana Mesić, Yoko Ono, José Quintanar, Coralie Vogelaar, and Erwin Wurm.

Curated by Marijn Bril, winner of the 2026 Garage Rotterdam Prize for Young Curators.

Marijn Bril Effi & Amir Tingyi Eva & Franco Mattes Lana Mesić Yoko Ono

📷 1, 4, 5, 8 & 9: Bas Czerwinski
📷 2, 3, 6, 7 & 10: Aad Hoogendoorn

Join us for a summer edition of Natafelen, set within the exhibition 𝗛𝗼𝘄 𝗧𝗼: 𝗟𝗶𝘃𝗶𝗻𝗴 𝗧𝗵𝗿𝗼𝘂𝗴𝗵 𝗜𝗻𝘀𝘁𝗿𝘂𝗰𝘁𝗶𝗼𝗻𝘀. During this intimate evening, we will dine among the artworks and engage in conversation with curator Marijn Bril and several participating artists. Between courses, they will share stories, reflections, and insights into the exhibition.

The four-course dinner is prepared by Marnix Benschop, De Gouden Ton provides a matching w**e arrangement.

Natafelen x How To: Living Through Instructions
Friday 3 July 2026

Doors open at 18:00 for a welcome drink 🍸

Four-course dinner | €50.00
W**e arrangement | €30.00
*Rotterdampas 50% discount

Reserve your seat via [email protected] 💌

𝗛𝗼𝘄 𝗧𝗼: 𝗟𝗶𝘃𝗶𝗻𝗴 𝗧𝗵𝗿𝗼𝘂𝗴𝗵 𝗜𝗻𝘀𝘁𝗿𝘂𝗰𝘁𝗶𝗼𝗻𝘀 is currently on show at Garage Rotterdam, visit the show every Wednesday to Sunday until July 19th.

Participating artists: Effi & Amir, Tingyi Jiang, Eva & Franco Mattes, Lana Mesić, Yoko Ono, José Quintanar, Coralie Vogelaar, and Erwin Wurm.

Curated by Marijn Bril, winner of the 2026 Garage Rotterdam Prize for Young Curators.

To proceed, please follow the instructions carefully.

Instructions are everywhere. From fitness routines and makeup tutorials to algorithms, official procedures, and implicit codes of conduct, they shape how we move through everyday life. At first glance, they appear as neutral tools – simply as ways to get things done. They help us operate a device, follow a workout, or complete a form correctly. At the same time, instructions translate complex realities into manageable steps, defining what counts as logical, desirable, or successful. As such, they encode cultural norms, institutional priorities, and power dynamics.

𝗛𝗼𝘄 𝗧𝗼: 𝗟𝗶𝘃𝗶𝗻𝗴 𝗧𝗵𝗿𝗼𝘂𝗴𝗵 𝗜𝗻𝘀𝘁𝗿𝘂𝗰𝘁𝗶𝗼𝗻𝘀 approaches instructions both as a method and as a subject of critical inquiry. Through performative strategies, illustrations, and video installations, the artists examine how instructions shape behaviour, identities, and perception. They dissect manuals, rewrite tutorials, and develop new instructions that – echoing the spirit of Fluxus – range from poetic to absurd.

Marijn Bril Effi & Amir Tingyi Eva & Franco Mattes Lana Mesić Yoko Ono

Images: Aad Hoogendoorn