If Paradise Is Half As Nice (IPIHAN) # 10

Opening weekend / exhibition 21 - 23 August 2020

If Paradise Is Half As Nice (IPIHAN), a self-initiated art project, focuses on creating art in abandoned buildings. The intention is to leave the comfort of the studio to experiment with new ways of conceiving concepts, artworks and ultimately an exhibition. In fact, the artists of IPIHAN take over a building and / or site for a few weeks and create art with what the building has to offer (materials, space, history, the dynamics of decay). These conditions create a 'pressure cooker' effect: the rapid exchange of ideas, the limited time to implement them, finding ways to make them a reality without being noticed by the authorities, and the camaraderie to make all of this possible.

This year IPIHAN (the tenth edition already) arrives in Rotterdam.

The location is - as always - special. The previous editions of IPIHAN were mostly in the Leipzig region, where this occasional collective used gigantic, dilapidated factory complexes as a living and working place. This year the group has set its eye on a bulky and bare concrete slab in a desolate armpit of Rotterdam. Through mediation by CBK Rotterdam and Development Combination OCNK, the gate to this space of concrete, water and air was opened to the IPIHANners. They moved in in mid-July. With three borrowed sea containers, two old army tents, two construction shacks and collected materials, they made an improvised 'living space', a shower, toilet and kitchen. From this basis they work on their joint exhibition.

IPIHAN is an artist collective and consists of the Rotterdam artists: Pim Palsgraaf, Daan Botlek, Willem Besselink, Ties Ten Bosch, Jordy Walker, Michiel Jansen, Toine Klaassen and Esther Kokmeijer, the German artist: Regina Kelaita and a guest artist Leslie Nagel. In addition, affiliated art and architectural historian Guus Vreeburg, filmmaker Marieke van der Lippe and photographer Aad Hoogendoorn.

Made possible by: CBK Rotterdam, Development Combination Nieuw Kralingen (OCNK), Goethe Institut, Municipality of Rotterdam, all Crowdfunders and Aad Hoogendoorn Photography. Special thanks to: Heijmans, ProRail, Christian Weissenfels Foundation, Metaalhandel W. Ketting and sons, Lion Metals, Het Stoomdepot

Practical Information

Opening weekend / exhibition 21 - 23 August 2020
Rolf Hartkoornweg at number 48, Rotterdam

Friday 21/8 15 - 21 pm, Saturday 22 and Sunday 23 August 12 - 18 pm.

Check www.ipihan.com for event start times and any changes by COVID-19

read more

See also the item that TV Rijnmond made of the article that Volkskrant wrote about it.