The city of Rotterdam hosts one of the most finest public art festivals you’ll be able to find in the Netherlands: POW! WOW! Rotterdam. Although the worldwide COVID-19 pandemic influences the festivities (such as: no live music, work by Dutch artists only) the 2020 edition is still able to put public art in the heart of the festival. We’ll take the time to dig deeper into the worldwide festival concept, and highlight our 2020 favourites with you!
POW! WOW! Was originally founded by artist Jasper Wong in 2010 in Hong Kong. In 2011, the first edition of POW! WOW! was organised in his native state Hawaii. The mural festival has since grown into a leader of the street art movement: thousands of internationally renowned contemporary, street, and graffiti artists have contributed, creating large scale works of public art in 17 cities around the world. The festival concept can be found in countries such as Japan, Korea, Israel, Guam and Taiwan.
In 2018 the first POW! WOW! Rotterdam took place in the M4H area, also know as Merwe-Vierhaven. The old docks of Rotterdam became host to the very fist European edition of the worldwide festival. The festival is organised by Rewriters010, a street art platform, curator and production house from Rotterdam founded by Hiphop in je Smoel. With the first edition, they were able to presented a wide variety of mural art, pop-up exhibitions, sports events and musical performances. As the festival expanded quickly, the organisation decided to host it at the Afrikaanderwijk neighborhood. It has become a fixture of POW! WOW! Rotterdam ever since. We’ll proudly introduce you our favourites:
- Joram Roukes
Born in 1983 the small city of Lelystad, The Netherlands, Joram Roukes earned his BFA in fine arts at the Minerva Academy of Arts in Groningen in 2006. Since 2015 Roukes is actively painting large scale murals across the globe, applying his old love of painting graffiti on a larger and more mature scale.Roukes’ work is a dark, humorous play on topics that range from popular culture, global affairs and personal experience. Creating juxtapositions of imagery to create abstract narratives and figures that evoke introspection and contemplation. He has shown his work in Copenhagen, Paris, Berlin, San Francisco, New York, Los Angeles and London to name a few.
2. Ard Doko
From illegal graffiti to contemporary museums, Ard Doko has been taking the international art scene by storm since the age of 19. His works combine melancholy as well as his need to devour the beauty of life. Doko’s images and stories often depict romance, his rough childhood, and the journey of finding his own identity. Heavy brush strokes, splatters and shapes carved in the canvas are distinctive for his art and often described as expressive and “straight in your face”.
3. Tymon de Laat
Tymon de Laat is a visual artist and muralist working and living in Rotterdam. His work is heavily influenced by his deep love and appreciation for Latin-American, and particularly Mexican culture. After graduating from the Willem de Kooning Academy de Laat decided to travel. When he eventually came back to Rotterdam, de Laat started painting murals and canvases, often based on his own photographs of the people he met during his travels to Latin America. He exaggerates the natural lines in their faces, and fills the spaces that appear between those swirling lines with swaths of vivid color. The linework and color palette he applies in that way, are a means of translating his memories of Latin America to visual imagery.
4. Iris van der Heijden
Iris van der Heijden is born and raised in Maastricht At the age of 19, van der Heijden started studying at the Media, Arts and Design Faculty in Hasselt, Belgium, where she graduated with a Master of Arts Degree in 2016. Van der Heijden currently works freelance between Amsterdam, Hasselt and Maastricht. Her disciplines differ from logos, graphics and branding, (analogs) photography, videography, collage, lettering, calligraffiti and illustration.
For more info: Rewriters 010 | POW! WOW! Rotterdam | Hiphop In Je Smoel
Text: Mike Warrink / Capturing Creativity
Photo: Henk Warrink / NCO Photography
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