How To: Living Through Instructions

Curator: Marijn Bril

Artists: Effi & Amir, Tingyi Jiang, Eva & Franco Mattes, Lana Mesić, Yoko Ono, José Quintanar, Coralie Vogelaar, Erwin Wurm

To proceed, please follow the instructions carefully.

Instructions are everywhere. From fitness routines and makeup tutorials to algorithms, official procedures, and implicit codes of conduct, they shape how we move through everyday life. At first glance, they appear as neutral tools — simply as ways to get things done. They help us operate a device, follow a workout, or complete a form correctly. At the same time, instructions translate complex realities into manageable steps, defining what counts as logical, desirable, or successful. As such, they encode cultural norms, institutional priorities, and power dynamics.

How To: Living Through Instructions approaches instructions both as a method and as a subject of critical inquiry. Through performative strategies, illustrations, and video installations, the artists examine how instructions shape behaviour, identities, and perception. They dissect manuals, rewrite tutorials, and develop new instructions that — echoing the spirit of Fluxus — range from poetic to absurd.

What happens when an instruction is decontextualised, parodied, or deliberately distorted? The artists in this exhibition render visible the assumptions embedded in these systems, shifting instructions from fixed directives into sites of negotiation.

Garage Rotterdam Prize for Young Curators

Marijn Bril is the 2026 winner of the Garage Rotterdam Prize for Young Curators. One of Garage Rotterdam’s core objectives is talent development, achieved by offering artistic freedom to emerging independent curators. The prize is awarded every two years to a curator under the age of 35 with the most innovative and compelling exhibition proposal. The prize aims for new voices and encourages experimental and forward-thinking curatorial practices. Marijn Bril is an independent curator and researcher, based in Rotterdam. In her practice, she examines the entanglements of art, media, and technologies.

Image: Eva & Franco Mattes, The Bots, 2020, installation view Frankfurter Kunstverein 2023, photo: Melania Dalle Grave, DSL Studio, courtesy: the artists & Apalazzo Gallery.