KUNSTHAL LIGHT #15: In the absence of light

Pim Palsgraaf
21 September 2016 – 5 March 2017

For Kunsthal Light #15, the raw spatial work of the Rotterdam artist Pim Palsgraaf (1979) takes over the building like a parasite. Slowly but surely, with the passage of time his constructions intervene in the concrete, iron and glass of Koolhaas’ architecture. Palsgraaf draws his inspiration from the city’s zones of friction and ragged outskirts – the forgotten places where no one comes, sometimes hidden from view as they await a new function. His dark buildings grow to form an abandoned city that floats aboved the heads of the visitors who walk through it. A sense of uneasiness seizes anyone who realised what is going on above them.

KUNSTHAL LIGHT #14: Sic semper

Inge Aanstoot
30 April – 21 August 2016

Inge Aanstoot (1987) has made an impressive wall painting for Kunsthal Light #14, populated by human figures, self-portraits and a large variety of animals. It invites the viewer to discover the narrative that lies hidden between the brushstrokes. Inge Aanstoot is fascinated by the selective and subjective way in which people deal with information and interpret history to suit their purpose. In the Kunsthal she selects who and what appear in her ‘historical’ wall painting by association. Thus she writes history herself, paradoxically in the exactly the same way as history is always written. Aanstoot criticises the history textbooks by shifting the frame, but the frame still remains.

KUNSTHAL LIGHT #13: Strange Habits

Susanna Inglada 
15 January – 10 April 2016
_{Partner: Mondriaan Fund} 

For Kunsthal Light #13, the museum’s display window is taken over by theatrical, dark characters created by artist Susanna Inglada (Spain, 1983). She has drawn these figures in the space provided using charcoal and paint. Inglada likes to work without a fixed frame or canvas. This allows her the freedom to construct lively scenes, her creations serving as the players and props in a theatrical performance. Inspired by the culture and politics of her homeland Spain, Inglada creates her own world using symbols of violence and power, with the figures appearing to respond to each other.

KUNSTHAL LIGHT #12: Encounter – Installation 2015

Aura Rendón Benger
12 September 2015 – 3 January 2016
_{Partners: Mondrian Fund}

Aura Rendón Benger (1989-) graduated from the Koninklijke Academie voor Beeldende Kunst in The Hague in 2014 with large objects of kite material filled with air. When they are positioned, filled and suspended, these ponderous and at the same time light ‘beings’ occupy the space. The long narrow space of the Kunsthal showcase was the ideal location for the recurrent themes in Rendón Benger’s work such as distance, proximity, intimacy and the role of the public. Rendón Benger played in her interactive installation with childlike joy and sensual experiences of visitors who clashed with the objects as they made their way through the space.

KUNSTHAL LIGHT #11: Curating the collection (1992 – 2014)

Tim Hollander
7 June – 30 August 2015
_{Partners: Mondrian Fund}

For edition 11 of Kunsthal Light, Tim Hollander scrutinised the components with which an exhibition is presented to the public, acting in the role of both artist and curator of the exhibition. Digging around in the depot and archives of the Kunsthal, he brought to light ‘hidden treasures’. With collages of ground plans, sketches and routing designs and using plexiglass covers, socles and paint colours, Hollander made a presentation of the ‘collection’ that the collectionless Kunsthal does not have.

KUNSTHAL LIGHT #10: Shadows of a downfall

Thera Clazing
7 March – 24 May 2015
_{Partners: Mondrian Fund}

Thera Clazing graduated in 2014 from the Fine Art department of the Utrecht School of the Arts. Using latex and charcoal, she draws and paints on walls endless, desolate landscapes with skeletal structures of animals. The viewer is left to guess at what has taken place. The painted objects present a possible story full of suspense, anticipating a lugubrious twist. You suspect the existence of characters without anyone being present. Clazing’s work for Kunsthal Light #10 showed an oppressive loneliness and made viewers feel what they could not see.