The opening was performed with Michelle van Tongerloo. She’s a general praticioner in Rotterdam South and street doctor in the centre of Rotterdam, closely connected to De Pauluskerk, where people on the run, addicts and homeless people find shelter and care.

Michelle van Tongerloo about the show:

“This coming Sunday, I’ll be speaking at Lenny Oosterwijk’s Gallery Untitled in Rotterdam.
In this space, three forms of disappearance intersect.
In the exhibition “Verzwinden,” Nicole Driessens and Ivo van den Baar work with wool felt and UV light. Contact negatives lie in the sun for weeks, until the light bleaches the image in the material. The result appears soft and comforting, but is the result of a profound process of exposure and degradation.

Previously, they worked with washed-up materials from boat refugees: clothing, tents, and other remnants of the crossings, objects that testify to an attempt to build a life elsewhere. Material as a carrier of history, rather than illustration. It brings the reality of migration into the exhibition space.
The landscapes, people, and events they depict are under pressure. They appear not as spectacle, but as a silent observation: this is vulnerable. This can disappear.

In “The Machinery of Public Housing,” Carlijn Kingma exposes a different process. She illustrates how financial flows, mortgage creation, land politics, and policy combine to form a system that increasingly detaches housing from the idea of ​​a basic right. Her maps reveal what remains abstract: that the housing crisis is not simply a housing shortage, but a consequence of political and financial choices.

In my work, I see what all these processes mean at the street level. People who once reached Europe by boat often live here in a permanent state of in-between. No permanent residence, no residency status, no access to regular healthcare. Their existence doesn’t fade in sunlight, but in procedures, waiting lists, and administrative silence. They don’t disappear suddenly; they slowly fade from view.

What connects our work is the attention to that slow process. Deterioration that becomes image. System logic that becomes reality. Policy that becomes a body.
Until the moment when it abruptly becomes tangible.

On stage, we want to explore what lies beneath. When does disappearance become a political choice? Who decides what is visible? What does it mean to exhibit refugee material? Who has a right to space in our society? How do healthcare and art relate to systems that produce inequality rather than resolve it? … ” end of quote.

The opening took place on March 1st, 15.00 hours. the show will be open until April 24th, Friday – Saturday – Sunday 11.00 – 17.00 hours
A part of “Verzwinden” collection will be presented in a solo show on Art Rotterdam, 26 – 29 th March, Rotterdam AHOY.
This project has been made possible with the financial support of Mondriaan Fonds, Cultuur Fonds, Amarte Fonds