Vincent van Velsen

Vincent van Velsen (1987) is a photography curator at the Stedelijk Museum Amsterdam with a background in art and architectural history. Previously he worked as an art critic, writer, and curator. Van Velsen focuses on art, politics, philosophy, and architecture while he writes for publications such as MetropolisM. In 2014, he won the VBCN Curators’ Prize. He was a resident at the Jan van Eyck Academy and the Rijksakademie and is a board member of Frontier Imaginaries and De Appel. Currently, Vincent van Velsen is working on exhibitions at Kunstfort Vijfhuizen and Het HEM, Amsterdam.


Over the course of three exhibitions at Garage Rotterdam, the curators Reza Afisina and reinaart vanhoe revisit the term underdeveloped – exploring diverse forms of art­-practice and working methods. The term underdeveloped is among others inspired by the film development process – in which images come out over­-or­underdeveloped. The word refers as well to overdeveloped notions of education, quality and value.

Reza Afisina and vanhoe’s under­standing of an art-practice is one of building together instead of a focus on personal excellence. Through gather­ings, re­-modeling and collective working methods taking place live at Garage Rotterdam, Afisina and vanhoe aim to create a space where artists can connect their ideas and experiences with the input of visitors.

The first Underdeveloped exhibition addresses social and cultural urgencies in Rotterdam, using the space of Garage Rotterdam and the online platform lumbung.space as a digital living room and publishing tool for visitors to share both processes and outcomes with. Underdeveloped aims to build a connected chain of events, emphasizing community and development over definitions or conclusions.

Artists: Autonomy Lab (WdKA), Bellina Erby & Yen-Ting Kuan, Cooperativa Cráter Invertido, De uitpluizers, Hassan Omar Ahmad, Marishka Soekarna, ook_anders, Patrick Mudekereza, Reading Sideways Press, Spoiler (TBA), Tomi Hilsee, Vincent van Velsen, Zoë Cochia / Niffo Galerie

By Reza Afisina en reinaart vanhoe