On the recently launched Art Map You'll find over seventy art initiatives in Rotterdam, from workshops to exhibition spaces and from residencies to studios. One of these places is Het Wilde Weten. We talk with visual artist Moosje M Goosen about Het Wilde Weten's residency program and Rotterdam's art scene.
What is the Wild Know?
Het Wilde Weten was founded in 1992 in the former St. Mary's Monastery in Rotterdam-West and is one of the oldest studio buildings in Rotterdam run by the artists themselves. The building houses fifteen studios and a project space where presentations and other public events regularly take place. One of the studios serves as a guest studio for artists-in-residence from the Netherlands and abroad. The members of Het Wilde Weten each have their own individual artistic practice and also contribute to the collective organization of the foundation.
Work period Neva Luki, Words Fail Me
What makes a residency at Het Wilde Weten so valuable?
Het Wilde Weten's residency program offers artists, curators, and other cultural professionals the time and space to live and work for three months in a studio building with twenty artists, with the opportunity to hold a presentation or other public activity in the project space. Het Wilde Weten is centrally located and an ideal base for exploring Rotterdam's art institutions and artists. Het Wilde Weten collaborates with the Goethe Institute (Dresden) and the Colombian Ministry of Arts and Culture; interested parties can also apply through the annual open call. In this way, Het Wilde Weten offers space to both Dutch and international artists.
Children's Art Auction 2024
What is your perspective on Rotterdam and its artist initiatives?
We increasingly feel like the exception to the rule: most studios in Rotterdam are now managed by SKAR. We value the small-scale and flexible nature of self-governance. Everything is decided democratically, and everyone contributes voluntarily to the activities involved in running a foundation and maintaining the building. This means everyone has a personal responsibility for the whole. We are a diverse group of people with diverse practices, and yet we always manage to find consensus, which remains a remarkable achievement. Our last open call for two vacant studios revealed that there is enormous demand for such spaces. The city would certainly benefit from more of this kind. Self-organizing studio buildings would be ideal. After all, artists know best what they need for a good working environment.
Swan Kurpershoek Choir
What do you think is the importance of artist initiatives in a city like Rotterdam?
Over the past decades, much of the public real estate, including many former schools, has been divested by the municipality or acquired by SKAR. Many Rotterdam artists have thus lost not only their workspaces but also the communities in which they practice their work. Consider, for example, our colleagues from the former Duende in Crooswijk—those artists are now dispersed throughout the city, and some have even left because large spaces are becoming increasingly scarce and affordable in Rotterdam. Rotterdam's art scene has always been characterized by a network of artists who show solidarity and can support each other informally and practically. In the current climate, there seems to be – literally – less and less room for that.
For those who want to know more about Het Wilde Weten: what is the best way to reach you?
Those who want to know more can follow our activities on our website, www.hetwildeweten.nl and on Instagram @hetwildeweten. Feel free to drop by during one of our public events or during the annual open studios in September (The Great Rotterdam Atelier Weekend).
The Wild Knowledge during the Great Rotterdam Atelier Weekend
Photo above: Koen Taselaar