The city designers of 2019 are known!

After a successful pilot project in 2018 in which ten Rotterdam artists recorded ten different buildings by the Rotterdam architect Hugh Maaskant, the City Archives and CBK Rotterdam, in collaboration with the Kunsthal, decided to restore an old tradition and to commission a number of artists each year. capture the city. At the beginning of February 2019, they called on Rotterdam artists to send in documentation, on the basis of which a jury can choose a maximum of three artists who are asked to make drawings based on a theme. The new Rotterdam City Designers 2019 are Cox Janssens, Kay Hessels and Isra Páez.

The themes for this year are:

• Urban - youth culture

• Urban agriculture - pioneers in the city

• Sports clubs and activities

The call was answered with 72 submissions that together nicely reflect the idiosyncratic character of Rotterdam's culture. The jury was very pleased with the quality of the entries. Initially, 23 names remained from the original list, which were reviewed by the full jury on the basis of the predetermined criteria. From that list followed 10 names with which the jury spent several hours. These are all artists who fully deserve the designation Stadstekenaar 2019. In the last part of the jury deliberation, therefore, a lot was shifted to see if a good division could be made in the defined subjects and the style of the artists. That was not an easy task and the formation of artists and portfolios was changed more than once.

Cox Janssens convinced the jury with its quirky drawn buildings (in Berlin and Rotterdam) to which the concept of 'talking architecture' is very applicable. In her motivation, she set herself the challenge of creating a somewhat different cityscape in which people will also play a role. We invite Cox Janssens for the topic 'sports clubs and activities'.

Kay Hessels' drawings are complex, chaotic, labyrinthine: the city as a delirium, the artist as a whirlwind. He shows the city as a total jungle in which everything is overgrown and the city man has to find a new connection. This vision of the future is frightening and hopeful at the same time. Kay Hessels is invited for the topic 'urban agriculture - pioneering in the city'.

Isra Páez shows that Rotterdam really still has those 'raw' sides that people used to find it scary to go to Rotterdam (yes really). In his beautiful series 'The wild routes of Rotterdam', the city shines in all its desolation. The way of working and his beautiful style give the jury the conviction that a special series will also be created now. Isra Páez is invited to take on the subject of 'urban - youth culture'.

Read the entire jury report here