Rosa Menkman

Join Artwrld and Rhizome this Friday April 24th for a conversation with Artist and Theorist Rosa Menkman!⁠ ⁠ Rosa Menkman is a Dutch artist and researcher of resolutions. Her work focuses on noise artifacts resulting from accidents in both analog and digital media. She investigates video compression, feedback, and glitches, using her exploration to generate art works⁠ ⁠ RSVP through the link in our bio!⁠ ⁠ @_menkman ⁠ @rhizomedotorg ⁠ ⁠ All images courtesy of Rosa Menkman.⁠ ⁠ #RosaMenkman #Rhizome #Artwrld

IMAGE REMAINS Exhibition by Rosa Menkman at Drugo More, Rijeka, Croatia. 15 January - 5 February, 2026. See images for some previews & highlights of the little exhibition essay I wrote for the show! Some images outlive their original meaning. They become myth. As they circulate, they may lose provenance, shift aesthetic, and even speak for someone or something else. What erodes is not just meaning, but the conditions (framing, context, and format) that once defined the image and its legibility. In his 1940 Theses on the Philosophy of History, Walter Benjamin introduces the Angel of History as a figure that refuses historicism: the linear account of events written by those in power. The Angel would like to stay, awaken the dead, and make whole what has been smashed. But the storm we call progress has caught her wings with violence, propelling her into an unseen future. Today, history, truth, and reality are aggressively reframed by those in power, as they write and rewrite memory in real time. rendering the Angel painfully current. What is left of Benjamin’s Angel when her image is redeployed on a museum wall and in catalogue language to narrate continuity and advancement? What remains of her image when she is stripped of her refusal? Image Remains follows the Angel through circulation and computation, as she narrates her attempts to reclaim agency within the realms of contemporary image processing. Across a triptych, she is classified, scheduled, and transcoded by protocols that decide how, where, when, and in what form she can appear. The exhibition asks what refusal can look like when her image becomes a governed, only partially visible multimodal object that moves through networks, across cycles of updates, and into systems that privilege machine readability.

Last week, @nxtmuseum in Amsterdam opened Still Processing, a group exhibition curated by @bogomirdoringer and inspired by my research on resolutions (Destitute Vision), proposing that images are non-static objects, which keep transforming—throughout both technical processes and via (human) perception. Alongside my work, the show includes large-scale installations by six other artists (e.g., Children of the Light and Gabey Tjon a Tham). My part consists of seven artworks (new or remastered) displayed across four rooms, each introducing a phase of contemporary image processing. Although my works are presented in a modular, non-linear fashion, visitors will find a framework in room 0000, where a sigil (compass) placed on a map (of the Ecologies of Compression Complexities), introduces four phases of contemporary image processing (each represented in a separate room). The Angel of History and her sigil (compass) appear throughout—sometimes as a protagonist and sometimes in a more peripheral role. My four Rooms of Destitute Vision elaborate on these phases: 0000 - The Transition from Analog to Digital 0001 - Digital Image Processing (and compression) 0010 - The Platformed Image 0011 - The Synthetic Image

Really enjoyed last weeks DESTITUTE VISION lecture performance at @nxtmuseum - ❤️💚💙 thank you @bogomirdoringer for moderation and @merelvanh and @sophiabulgakova for the 📸

One week to go. Mark your calendars 🗓️ On April 2, the artists behind Still Processing take the floor for an evening of talks, reflections and live performance. Rosa Menkman (@_menkman ) has spent decades tearing open the hidden compromises inside every pixel and compression. What is the cost of technological progress — and what do we lose along the way? She arrives with the questions the industry doesn't want answered. Children of the Light (@wearechildrenofthelight ) unpack how the cosmic becomes physical — their methodology, their practice, and what it takes to bring the infinite into a room. Geoffrey Lillemon (@geoffreylillemon_ ) goes deep on the driving force behind his AI characters. Does AI manifest genuine human properties? Is it gullible? Expect chaos, beauty and no easy answers. Boris Acket (@boris.acket ) closes the night with a live premiere — a new audio-visual composition recomposing his exhibited work in real time. The battle between the clock and felt experience, played out live. Moderated by Bogomir Doringer (@bogomirdoringer ). Bar open all night. Your ticket also includes free access to the exhibition from 18:00–19:00 before the programme and again from 21:30–22:30 after. 🎟️ €15 — tickets via link in bio. April 2, 19:00–21:30

New Publications 📚𝐓𝐑𝐀𝐍𝐒𝐅𝐄𝐑 𝐃𝐚𝐭𝐚 𝐓𝐫𝐮𝐬𝐭 𝐑𝐞𝐩𝐨𝐫𝐭𝐬 What happens when the apps and platforms that host our culture disappear? These two foundational research publications from the TRANSFER Data Trust that tackle that very question. ​​𝐓𝐑𝐀𝐍𝐒𝐅𝐄𝐑 𝐃𝐚𝐭𝐚 𝐓𝐫𝐮𝐬𝐭 is a cooperative led by artists who are taking preservation into their own hands—building the tools and knowledge to ensure that the last decade of digital art survives the next century. By leveraging decentralized storage and encryption, TRANSFER’s model offers a new approach to media art valuation, conservation, and governance. Gray Area is incubating this initiative, which is making great strides in the preservation of virtual worlds and generative art. 𝐑𝐞𝐩𝐨𝐫𝐭 #𝟏: 𝐔𝐩𝐬𝐭𝐫𝐞𝐚𝐦 𝐨𝐟 𝐎𝐛𝐬𝐨𝐥𝐞𝐬𝐜𝐞𝐧𝐜𝐞 This essay by Eddy Colloton documents the strategy and outcomes of TRANSFER’s conservation Care Team. It introduces the concept of conservation “upstream” from the museum—working directly with artists in their studios before works enter institutional collections—and presents 5 detailed case studies showing why this approach is urgently needed. The essay traces how platforms disappear, companies restructure, and works that are only a few years old face insurmountable technical barriers. 𝐑𝐞𝐩𝐨𝐫𝐭 #𝟐: 𝐋𝐢𝐧𝐤𝐞𝐝 𝐀𝐫𝐭 𝐚𝐧𝐝 𝐑𝐞𝐥𝐚𝐭𝐞𝐝 𝐒𝐭𝐚𝐧𝐝𝐚𝐫𝐝𝐬 𝐟𝐨𝐫 𝐓𝐢𝐦𝐞-𝐁𝐚𝐬𝐞𝐝 𝐌𝐞𝐝𝐢𝐚 𝐃𝐞𝐬𝐜𝐫𝐢𝐩𝐭𝐢𝐯𝐞 𝐌𝐞𝐭𝐚𝐝𝐚𝐭𝐚 A 38-page technical report, produced by ontology and data modelling specialist Rae Egan, that examines the alignment between the Linked.art Data Model and the descriptive metadata requirements for documenting time-based media artworks within TRANSFER’s decentralized archive. It is a rigorous analysis of how existing cultural heritage metadata standards fall short for time-based media, and proposes a vocabulary to address those gaps. These two reports cumulate the second year of fieldwork conducted by the TRANSFER Data Trust, supported by Filecoin Foundation for the Decentralized Web (FFDW), Filecoin Foundation, GSR Foundation, and Gray Area. Read them online now at (link in bio).

Finally had the chance to see my work Horology installed at @amaredenhaag in the public, where it’s standing 8 meter tall, silently shouting at the passers by. Public art :) Thank you @m____v____b and Amare ❤️💚💙

During my time in Croatia I visited a few of its Spomeniks. In a time of rampant fascism, let’s remember what they stand for. Petrova Gora Spomenik: (a modernist Yugoslav World War II memorial on a hill in the Petrova Gora range of Croatia. Designed by Vojin Bakić, for commemorating the rebellion efforts of the communist Yugoslav Partisan rebels and Serbs from the Croatian regions of Kordun and Banija against the Ustaše (Ustashe) fascist regime during World War II, which had orchestrated a genocide against ethnic Serbs (1941–1945) (death estimated between: 217,000 - 500,000) The monument also commemorates the establishment of a Partisan hospital in Petrova Gora in 1941. Construction began in 1980. It was Unveiled on 4 October 1981 by Jure Bilić who stated: “The entire Petrova Gora is actually a large tomb. Within its bosom, there are around 1,700 partisan graves and 2,500 graves of victims of fascist terror. Every meadow, every tree, and every stream is bathed in the blood of people who belonged to an exhausted, I would not say unhappy, but fearless generation.” after the Croatian War of Independence began in 1991, the monument was repurposed for military use along with the surrounding park by the Yugoslav People’s Army leading to substantial interior damage and vandalism. Jasenovac Spomenik: (the flower) for the Jasenovac Ustaše concentration camp which grew into the third largest camp in Europe. Killed 83,000–100,000, (Of which Serbs 45,000–52,000, Roma 15,000–27,000, Jews 12,000–20,000, Croats and Bosnian Muslims 5,000–12,000) Jasenovac lacked the infrastructure for mass murder on an industrial scale, such as gas chambers. Instead, it “specialized in one-on-one violence of a particularly brutal kind”, and prisoners were primarily murdered with the use of knives, hammers, and axes, or shot. The Jasenovac Memorial Site was established in 1960 Spomenik for the Revolution of the people of Moslavina By Dušan Džamonja, located in Podgarić, Berek municipality, Croatia dedicated to the people of Moslavina during World War II. The monument is inspired by the Greek mythological goddess of victory Nike.

𝙏𝙍𝘼𝙉𝙎𝙁𝙀𝙍 𝘿𝙤𝙬𝙣𝙡𝙤𝙖𝙙: 𝘼𝙡𝙞𝙫𝙚𝙉𝙀𝙏 opens on January 16th from 5-8PM at @nguyenwahedart featuring ‘Refractions’ (2026) from Rosa Menkman @_menkman debuting simultaneously in Croatia @drugomore in ‘Image Remains’ Menkman’s solo exhibition. Drawing on Paul Klee’s iconic 1920 painting ‘Angelus Novus’ and Walter Benjamin’s philosophical interpretation of the work as the “Angel of History,” Rosa Menkman explores what happens to images in today’s digital environment as they are continuously copied, processed, fragmented, and circulated across platforms and algorithms. In ‘Refractions’ the Angel is on a mission to learn from a Cyclops vision (a vision of future demise). But once she enters its timeline, optical vision fails and orientation collapses. What she captures are vectors, render objects, and machine-to-machine standards that appear as ruin. A glitch that is not an error in her dataset, but her lack of protocol. Rosa Menkman is a Dutch artist and theorist who focuses on visual artifacts created by accidents in both analogue and digital media. In 2011 Menkman released The Glitch Moment/um with the Institute of Network Cultures. Her work appears in the collection of the Stedelijk Museum, MOTI and numerous private collections. In 2019, Rosa won the Collide Arts at CERN Barcelona award. Her recent exhibitions include Still Processing at NXT Museum (Amsterdam, NL), Digital Witness at LACMA ( Los Angeles, CA), and Electric Op at Buffalo AKG Museum (Buffalo, NY). This work is showing for the first time in NYC, and is available for acquisition through the gallery, send inquiries to [email protected]. Opening Reception January 16 5-8PM at Nguyen Wahed Gallery RSVP 🔗 link in bio.

Yesterday we opened Image Remains at @drugomore .. I am so happy and proud. Thank you to everyone that came out To the Drugo more team (Davor, Ivana, Dubi and Barbara) do all the hard work and support. Here some photos :)) Photos by Tanja Kanazir / Drugo More

Join us tomorrow (Thursday, 15 January) at 7 PM for an artist talk with ROSA MENKMAN @_menkman at Filodrammatica (Korzo 28/1, Rijeka) After the presentation, at 8 PM we'll continue with the opening of Menkman's exhibition IMAGE REMAINS at Filodramamtica Gallery (more in the link in bio 📲) #rosamenkman #artisttalk #imageremains

IMAGE REMAINS @drugomore , Rijeka, Croatia. exhibition 15 January - 5 February, 2026 Artist talk / exhibition opening Thursday, 15 January, 2026, at 7 pm / 8 pm Some images outlive their original meaning. They become a myth.  As they circulate, they may lose provenance, shift aesthetic, and even speak for someone or something else. What erodes is not just meaning, but the conditions (framing, context, and format) that once defined the images’ legibility.  In his 1940 Theses on the Philosophy of History, Walter Benjamin introduces the Angel of History as a figure that refuses historicism: the linear account of events written by those in power. The Angel would like to stay, awaken the dead, and make whole what has been smashed. But the storm we call progress has caught her wings with violence, propelling her into an unseen future.  Today, history, truth, and reality are aggressively reframed by those in power, rendering the Angel painfully current. What remains of Benjamin’s Angel when her image is redeployed on museum walls and in catalogue language to narrate continuity and advancement? What remains of her image when she is stripped of refusal? Image Remains tells the story of the Angel, as she maps her attempts to reclaim agency within the realms of contemporary image processing. Across a triptych, she is classified, scheduled, and transcoded by protocols that decide what can appear, when, and in what form. The exhibition asks what refusal can look like when her image becomes a governed, only partially visible multimodal object that moves through networks, across cycles of updates, and into systems that privilege machine readability.