Schiedam – 30 July 2021
All good things come to a good end
Project space De Ketelfactory in Schiedam will close its doors for the last time after 12.5 years with sensational exhibition ‘The Journey’
The end of project space De Ketelfactory in Schiedam will not arrive without a grand final exhibition. This exhibition, entitled ‘The Journey’, will open on the 16th of October and last until mid-January 2022.
It has been like a pilgrimage for artistic director and artist Winnie Teschmacher (1958). In the space of twelve-and-a-half years she put together 43 exhibitions at De Ketelfactory in Schiedam. Three to five each year. Aside from an immaculately executed exhibition, she offered every artist a publication, an in-depth programme and a video portrait. There is no other institution in the Netherlands that is comparable to De Ketelfactory. Nowhere was the leadership this generous, helpful and facilitating to the contemporary artist.
International greats such as Marina Abramović and herman de vries found refuge in the characteristic, monumental white building by the Hoofdbrug. But Dutch mid-career artists, too, were given free rein: Olphaert den Otter, Robert Zandvliet and Marjolijn van den Assem, amongst many others. Young artists were not forgotten: Femmy Otten created her first solo exhibition at De Ketelfactory as a new mother; Wineke Gartz and Emma van der Put were to be seen in meticulously curated group exhibitions.
De Ketelfactory has been enabled all these years through the generous patronage of Nolet Distillery, a family business that has been in Schiedam for centuries. This is now coming to an end. Nolet has other plans for the building. De Ketelfactory’s artistic director, too, sees that the time is ripe to turn the wheel in a new direction. This is a pity, but also a good thing. For this has always been De Ketelfactory’s running theme: we are constantly underway and beyond the next corner lies a grand perspective.
The end of De Ketelfactory will be marked by a very special final exhibition. This exhibition, entitled ‘The Journey’, will open on the 16th of October and last until mid-January 2022. ‘The Voyage’ will take the visitor on a pilgrimage that begins in the Plantage, the nearby and oldest city park in the Netherlands, and lead them to De Ketelfactory. Here, under the care of the Hindu God of wisdom, the visitor will experience facets of the journey De Ketelfactory’s team has undertaken over the past 12.5 years.
Prepare to see, amongst other things, a Wunderkammer filled with memories and images of the future, the stillness of a cocoon by Ton van der Laaken, four gigantic new charcoal drawings by Elsa Hartjesveld and a new hypnotising wall painting by Roland Schimmel. Sit down in a specially created archive space where every exhibition of the past 12.5 years will pass by. Or submerge yourself in the series of Exaltations, the intense and personal films Kim Everdine Zeegers created over the years of each of the exhibiting artists, as well as her new film, which she will show in the lecture space. And don’t forget: a purifying amethyst has accompanied you, perhaps unnoticed, on your journey through De Ketelfactory’s history and future.
Note to the press:
Final exhibition ‘The Journey’ and closing of De Ketelfactory, Hoogstraat 44, Schiedam.
For interviews with Winnie Teschmacher and other information: +31(0)6 51811453, info@deketelfactory.nl.
For more information regarding the upcoming final exhibition and the distillation: see the next press release, the website and the newsletter.