INDEBT warmly invites you to the Opening of the Garden on Saturday June 13th, 3pm at the upcoming Broedplaats at Govert Flinckstraat 286.
While the Broedplaats itself is still a work-in-progress, the garden is ready to be shared. So, please note that this invitation is for the garden only; the indoor spaces are still under construction.
The garden, developed by INDEBT co-initiator @reinkooyman is conceived as a living artwork and a place for rest, observation, research and gathering within the city.
This project has been made possible with the support of @afk020 , @gemeenteamsterdam , and @waterschapagv , with drinks for the opening generously provided by @heineken
2026 Venice Art Biennale highlights
1: Chris Levin “High Power” made us collectively look up during the nights, just hope the birds are ok with this?
2: “Grass Babies, Moon Babies” by Ei Arakawa-Nash for the Japanese Pavilion. The babies where everywhere, some where even hanging out at the Korean Pavilion next door.
3: Arthur Jafa in conversation with Rein Wolfs for the Artur Jafa and Richard Prince exhibition “Helter Skelter” at Fondazione Prada.
4: Arthur Jafa ‘’Mickey Mouse Was A Scorpio”.
5: “Los Restos” by Oriol Vilanova for the Spanish Pavilion.
6: Janis Rafa at Fondazione In Between Art Film.
7: Ceal Floyer “Unfinished” at Palazzo Diedo.
8: Florentina Holzinger’s viral performance’s for the Austrian Pavilion.
9: Warsan Shire’s poem for the first ever Somalian Pavillion.
10: Lorna Simpson “Polka Dot & Bullet Holes 2” at Palazzo Grassi.
11: Controversial Russian Pavilion surrounded by Carabinieri.
12: Joshua Citarella & New Models “Online Marketplace of Ideas”.
13: Benjamin Orlow “Ritual City” for the Nordic Pavilion.
14: Moving speech and song by Patti Smith.
15: Paulo Nazareth “Algebra” At Palazzo Grassi. The superyacht Sea Force One docked outside gave this exhibition an extra confronting layer. The room was filled with miniature sailing boats made out of trash.
SPOTLIGHT - William Grob
@williamgrob (UK/CH) is a Berlin-based painter. He took part in our exhibition 2012 Never Happened (2023), where a selection of his works from his series Lost Millenials was presented.
Developed during the global outbreak of coronavirus, the series portrays a generation that is collectively present yet fundamentally isolated, navigating conditions shaped by consumer society and emotional dislocation.
Unable to express himself verbally until the age of seven, Grob developed an early reliance on visual language. The use of colour and form as a means of articulating emotional states remains central to his practice. His work often borders between reality and absurdity within everyday scenes, often depicting the loneliness of the human condition, at times underscored by a subtle sense of satire.
Working primarily in oil, his practice moves between figuration and dreamlike abstraction, shaped by an intuitive process where memory, imagination, and atmosphere converge.
Grob graduated with a BA in Photography from Falmouth University in 2014 and has since exhibited internationally, with shows in Berlin, London, Brussels, and Luxembourg, including presentations at @luisacatucci_contemporary , @frieze.london and @nosbaum.reding
We spoke with him over email and Instagram to reflect on his recent work and artistic process.
Looking back at PLAZA (2022)
“If the spirit of INDEBT would be a city and if there was a plaza, what could be on it and what should it do for its users?”
Multidisciplinary artist Santino Santillana (DK/PE, 1991) placed this question at the heart of the two-day solo exhibition PLAZA. Referencing the plaza as a public square - a space for exchange, rest, economy and encounter - the project imagines a shared “living room”, shaped by those who enter it.
Building on relational aesthetics, a concept coined by curator and critic Bourriaud, PLAZA shifts focus from objects to relationships, where meaning emerges through how people inhabit a space together. In this sense, the ecosystem created at INDEBT, where community and marketplace coexist, becomes part of the artwork itself.
PLAZA offered a shared experience that allowed visitors to slow down together, while quietly acknowledging the social, cultural and economic pressures that make such slowing down feel radical. In this sense, relational escapism took shape; not as withdrawal from reality, but as a collective pause shaped by lived tensions.
Slide 2: Wasting Time, Oil on 400gr paper, 2022
Slide 4: FullSizeRender.HEIC
Slide 6: Calma, Glazed Stoneware, 2022
Slide 7: Tiles in progress
Slide 8: Counting Squares, Oil on 400 canvas, 2022
Slide 10: Plaza, Glazed Stoneware, 2022
The first signs of spring are beginning to appear in the garden. Between the young plants and newly formed borders, the first bulbs are already coming up.
From now on, at the beginning of each new season, we will light a small fire in the garden. A simple moment to pause, gather, and acknowledge the transformation together: the upcoming spring solstice, as well as the official opening of the garden during the summer solstice weekend of June 20.
More information will follow soon.
Looking back on 2012 NEVER HAPPENED (2023)
The year 2012 was marked by a heavily mediated event: the anticipated apocalypse. The exhibition draws on this cultural moment of collective anticipation, referencing Jean Baudrillard’s ‘The Gulf War Did Not Take Place’ (1991) as well as the Mayan apocalypse said to have taken place on December 21, 2012. Baudrillard’s concept of ‘hyperreality’, the blurring of lines between the real and the simulated, serves as the lens through which we question how we experience events in a media-saturated world.
Through the lens of these millennial artists, the exhibition reflects on this deeply pessimistic vision of the future: how do we navigate a world where reality is so deeply intertwined with its fictional representations?
Works highlighted in this post:
Slide 1 : Exhibition overview
Slide 2: Baratto & Mouravas, Trajan / Iterations, Laser cut MDF, 2017
Slide 3: William Grob, “Where are we, who are you, does it really matter”, Oil on linen, 2021
Slide 4: Exhibition overview
Slide 5: William Grob, The Qualifier of Hope, Oil on linen, 2021
Slide 6: Exhibition overview
Slide 7: Baratto & Mouravas , One Fathom, Two Phantoms, Self shot on 16mm, 2023
Slide 8: Tasio Bidegain, And the Eye Caught On Fire, Graphite on paper, 2021
Slide 9: William Grob, Delaying Time, Oil on linen, 2021
Slide 10: Baratto & Mouravas, L’ancien Regime, Ceramic, 2023
Looking back on THIS TOO SHALL PASS (2022)
‘This Too Shall Pass’ is a deeply personal project developed by artist @reinkooyman , our current in-house gardener at Govert Flinckstraat. The series reflects a journey of self-discovery, pursuit of peace and acceptance, and the quiet dialogue between human and landscape.
Kooyman (1992, NL) visually explores our relationship with nature through themes of temporality and impermanence. For this installation, his photographic series was expanded into a physical environment: moss, stone and over 3000kg of Ardennes Grey form a carefully composed space filled with light and stillness.
The photographs taking the French Alps document the slow, intuitive process of painting monumental boulders with natural pigments. Each session - lasting up to ten hours and spread across different seasons - marked a specific period in Kooyman’s personal life. As the colors fade, so do the moments they represent. The rocks return to their natural state, and so do we.
All photographs are 47 x 58 cm incl. frame, 2021.
