CBK Rotterdam, the City Archives and the Kunsthal are looking for the City Artists of 2025. This year we ask the question: what does freedom mean to you? We challenge artists to capture their personal vision and experience of freedom in Rotterdam. How can we make freedom visible in all its forms? How do we give voice to stories that are not yet heard? The City Artists of 2025 will be given the opportunity to explore and visualize these questions in a notebook that we will give them. The resulting drawings will be presented in an exhibition at the Kunsthal Rotterdam at the end of the year. They will then be included in the collection of the City Archives and will become part of the Rotterdam Collection.
What is Freedom?
Freedom is a word with many meanings and is experienced in different ways. In 2025, we will commemorate 80 years of liberation of the Netherlands and other European countries after the Second World War. But freedom is more than the absence of war and oppression. Freedom is something that people around the world fight for every day, in many ways and from different perspectives. 2025 is not only the year in which we commemorate 80 years of liberation, but also Women's Year, in which we pay extra attention to the position and freedom of women worldwide.
In Rotterdam, a city with a long history of migration and innovation, freedom means something different to everyone. For some, it means the ability to live safely and without fear. For others, it means the chance to express their identity, have economic security, or access basic services such as housing and healthcare. Freedom can mean that you, as a woman, queer person, or someone with a disability, can move through the city without barriers. Or it can mean the ability to demonstrate, express your opinion, and develop yourself. What does freedom mean in Rotterdam in 2025? And how does your freedom relate to the freedom of others? Freedom can be visible in the city in many ways. Perhaps you think of a person, a place, a moment, or a movement that has a certain meaning for you. This can be something big or small, something from the past or something from the present.
Freedom is also a global issue. While we in Europe commemorate and celebrate freedom, there are countless places around the world where people fight against oppression and occupation on a daily basis. From Palestine and Sudan to Iran, Congo and Ukraine – and many other places around the world – freedom is not something to be taken for granted. How do we relate to this reality, from a city that is itself shaped by migration and international connections?
In addition, freedoms are not always distributed equally. In the Netherlands, people experience structural obstacles based on gender, origin, income or physical and mental capabilities. How free do you feel when you live in poverty? When you cannot walk the streets safely? When your home is insecure? But also: how free are you when your freedom is at the expense of that of someone else? Freedom is not only a historical concept, but a daily reality that we must look at critically. But it is also something to celebrate, something we can be proud of when it is shared and when it gives us all space to be who we want to be.
Registration
Do you want to become City Artist of 2025 and do you have ideas on how you would shape this theme? Send us your motivation and portfolio. Documentation can be submitted up to Sunday 2 March 2025 be sent to artoffice@cbkrotterdam.nl with the subject City artist 2025.
This consists of:
- A motivation (max. half an A4)
- A concise CV (max. 1 A4)
- Imagery in the form of a link to your page on artoffice.info or a digital portfolio (max. 20 MB)
Fee & Conditions
The fee is €3.500 per artist/city illustrator.
The selected City Artists will be notified and listed on our websites within four weeks of the registration deadline. Read here the general terms and conditions.