During Prospects (28–30 March 2025), I’ll be sharing a first glimpse of my project The New Waterworks. After a year of development with the support of the Mondriaan Fund, it remains a work in progress—an evolving exploration rather than a finished piece.

I’d love for you to come and see the work during Art Rotterdam at Ahoy!

About Prospects

From 28–30 March 2025, the Mondriaan Fund presents a new edition of Prospects at its new location, Rotterdam Ahoy, during Art Rotterdam. This year’s exhibition features work by 116 emerging artists, all of whom received a 2023 Artist Start grant from the Mondriaan Fund to kickstart their careers. The 13th edition of Prospects is curated by Johan Gustavsson and *Louise Bjeldbak Henriksen.

Hope to see you there!

Below you can read more about the project.

The New Waterworks

On 2 November 2023, storm Ciarán raged across the coast of North Holland, with
Amsterdam only narrowly escaping from being flooded. Thanks to an observant Waternet
employee who noticed a malfunctioning floodgate, the city had a lucky escape. The resulting
commotion, however, was soon forgotten. This raises the following question: How seriously
must things go wrong before we take action? Bebe Blanco Agterberg (1995) took this as her
point of departure for her new photographic research into visual representation and the
politics of remembrance.

For this project, Agterberg delved into the Dutch relationship with water and the role visual
representation plays in it. The struggle against the water is deeply embedded in Dutch
culture, partly due to widespread images of previous flood disasters. Culminating in the Delta
Works flood protection system, the way in which the country conquered this struggle has
become a source of pride. But is this mentality of struggle and control still relevant today? Or
should we alter our approach so we can stop fighting nature and instead start working with
it, as also advised by the scientific world?

At Prospects, Agterberg is showing a set of five photographic tile tableaus inspired by
traditional Delft Blue tiles. The two scenes on the left contain images of the past, compiled
from both archival material of floods and Agterberg’s own photographs of the culture of
remembrance surrounding these disasters. The two panels on the right represent the future
and focus on new types of water management. In the middle section, the whole swirling
mass comes together. Agterberg thus demonstrates how we might transform the Dutch
mentality towards water in order to be better prepared for rising sea levels.