BAS PRINCEN, CHRISTOPHE VAN GERREWEY: ROTTERDAM

"Rotterdam" arose out of a unique commission that Witte de With extended to Bas Princen to develop a photographic concept for the invitations and brochures that would be published in the 2006 – 07 season. As Princen’s underlying ambition was to redefine the notion of the ‘non-place’, the photo series challenges the audience to view Rotterdam from a new angle, in terms of what it is now and what it could be. Throughout the past two years Bas Princen’s photographs have presented the peripheral areas and border zones of the city. The images focus on places and locations that – though they form part of our daily surroundings – have no place in our collective memory. Bas Princen invited Christophe Van Gerrewey to create a text that acts in parallel to his photographic series, which has been expanded to a total of 44 pictures. In the resulting narrative, Peripheral Pilgrimages, the contemporary city emerges as a new kind of protagonist that greatly affects our relations with the world.