As MAPA’s first exhibition in its home base, the Netherlands, this show deals with one of the most urgent problems that the country faces today: growing urbanisation, leading to a significant shortage of homes and soaring housing prices (and incidentally making up one of the reasons for MAPA’s nomadic model). As the scholar Henry Lefebvre argues, the concept of space is not a passive container, but an active substrate that is socially produced. The phenomenon of growing urbanisation therefore encompasses a wide range of sociopolitical issues, and concerns matters of capital, class and gender, and how they fit into established systems of power.
Artists are some of the most progressive and socially conscious members of society, and as such are often given voice to propose creative solutions to global challenges. In many cases, they are also the ones responsible for repurposing and revitalising derelict areas of cities, while adapting their modes of production to spaces that were never built to house creatives. Rectangle Roots & Paved Tongues will delve into how several Netherlands-based artists explore the implications of growing urban worlds for their individual identities and practices.
