Art in our tunnel

Everything is possible

Team Publieke Werken is happy to select four photographers who make an everyday reality special in their work from the more than 670 makers of Public Works. Which show the beauty of the everyday. Everything is possible – the theme of Public Works this year – does not always have to be grand and compelling. But it can also be about hope, about youth, about abandoned places where everything might once have seemed possible. While Rotterdammers move through the tunnel from North to South and from South to North in their everyday rhythm, they are given an escalator moment as a gift that takes them away from the here and now to another atmosphere or moment. Can they wonder who or what they see and when they come out of the tunnel they may look at their surroundings and the people with a different view - namely with the view of a photographer.

Video made by Marieke van der Lippe

Khalid Amakran ('91) saw the city turn into a film or music video when he walked from home in Spangen to school with his earplugs in. Neighborhoods on the outskirts of the city were often referred to as problem neighbourhoods, but he never experienced it that way himself. He wants to nuance the image of his neighborhood and neighborhoods like his with a genuine interest in people.

The images from this series are an overview of the past ten years that he has been active as a photographer, commissioned for, among others, the weekly column 'Jong!' which he made for three years for the NRC Handelsblad, the HipHopHuis or free work.

Sylvana Ansu visualises places in a conceptual way and questions the usual image of them. Colors and shapes become a new visual language with an eye for detail and sharp representation of architecture.

Utopia – The term Utopia suggests an ideal, vibrant community, where everyone would like to come home or stay to clear their heads. I was really looking forward to experiencing 'Utopia' and its inhabitants. But when I got there, I felt like I was entering an abandoned movie set that would never be produced.

Utopia turned out to be a lonely place where no strangers were invited for a cup of coffee. In Utopia people looked suspiciously at a traveler. Utopian properties were private and shops listed the sale of weapons. Utopia was isolated. Utopia was serene and terrifying at the same time. Although I felt unsafe and restless during my stay, the photos I took felt genuine.

Frank Hanswijk is a Rotterdam photographer. He developed widely with work in journalism, advertising, theater and architecture. In recent years, his work has increasingly focused on architecture and landscape. He does not approach architecture as an object but as a place in which people, whether or not they are present in the photo, play a crucial role. In addition to commissioned work and other free work, Frank Hanswijk is currently devoting himself to a multi-year project about the Rotterdam living culture 'Where do you live?'.

ONE HIT WONDERS – The photos in this series seem to have nothing to do with each other. Yet there is something that connects them. They show that reality is stranger and more mystical than we sometimes realize.

A pool without water makes us feel the sweltering heat of Cordoba. The gray facade of a bowling alley brings us into contact with the cosmos from a messy Roubaix. The Spanish polder business park takes on a mysterious second life at night. A deceased naturalist lives on as a cut-out, immortalizing nature with his camera forever.

Florin van Rees is an intuitive image maker, constantly looking for a play of colors in everyday life in different places and the human touch that entails. Her first fascination is colours, but immediately after that she also goes in search of the story behind the people she encounters while traveling, but just as sweetly in Rotterdam itself.

Marseille '21 – A few years ago, Rees Marseille stole her heart, where she returned two months ago and was able to complete this photo series. A series that fits so well in the Maastunnel, because the connection with Rotterdam cannot be missed. Character, immersiveness, spontaneity, a raw edge and a unique appearance. The warmth that comes from these images takes us to the southern French port and invites us for more.”