Artist: Willem de Rooij
Exhibition title: Whiteout
Venue: KW Institute for Contemporary Art, Berlin, Germany
Date: September 14, 2017 – January 7, 2018
Photography: Frank Sperling, all images copyright and courtesy of the artist and KW Institute for Contemporary Art, Berlin
Willem de Rooij (born 1969 in Beverwijk, NL) investigates the production, contextualization and interpretation of images. His multifaceted practice includes photography, films, videos, sculpture, soundrecordings, and writing. Appropriated materials, such as found images, objects borrowed from art historical or ethnographic collections, or works by other artists play an important role. De Rooij’s works take the form of installations or temporary groupings that reflect on the physical and contextual qualities of the space they occupy. Willem de Rooij has been Professor at the Städelschule in Frankfurt am Main since 2006. In 2015, he founded BPA // Berlin Program for Artists together with Angela Bulloch and Simon Denny, and since 2016 he is a Visiting Advisor at the Rijksakademie in Amsterdam.
This fall, KW Institute for Contemporary Art presents Whiteout—a selection of de Rooij’s production from the last twenty years. The exhibition connects recent work with seminal pieces made together with Jeroen de Rijke (1970–2006), with whom de Rooij collaborated from 1994 to 2006 under the name de Rijke/de Rooij.
Willem de Rooij, Whiteout, installation view at KW Institute for Contemporary Art, 2017, Photo: Frank Sperling
Jeroen de Rijke / Willem de Rooij, Dead Seal, 1996–1999, C-print, framed; installation view, KW Institute for Contemporary Art, 2017, Photo: Frank Sperling
Jeroen de Rijke / Willem de Rooij, I’m Coming Home in Forty Days, 1997, 16 mm film, color, optical sound, Courtesy Galerie Buchholz, Berlin/Cologne/New York; Galerie Chantal Crousel, Paris; Regen Projects, Los Angeles; Friedrich Petzel, New York; installation view KW Institute for Contemporary Art, 2017, Photo: Frank Sperling
Jeroen de Rijke / Willem de Rooij, I’m Coming Home in Forty Days, 1997, 16 mm film, color, optical sound, Courtesy Galerie Buchholz, Berlin/Cologne/New York; Galerie Chantal Crousel, Paris; Regen Projects, Los Angeles; Friedrich Petzel, New York; installation view KW Institute for Contemporary Art, 2017, Photo: Frank Sperling
Jeroen de Rijke / Willem de Rooij, I’m Coming Home in Forty Days, 2001, C-print, framed, installation view KW Institute for Contemporary Art, 2017, Photo: Frank Sperling
Willem de Rooij, Blue to Blue, 2012, Hand woven tapestry on wooden stretcher, warp: ten polyester threads in ten different shades of blue, in ten different mixtures; installation view KW Institute for Contemporary Art, 2017, Photo: Frank Sperling
Willem de Rooij, Ilulissat, 2014, 12 channel digital audio recording, speakers, Courtesy Galerie Buchholz, Berlin/Cologne/New York; Galerie Chantal Crousel, Paris; Regen Projects, Los Angeles; Friedrich Petzel, New York; installation view KW Institute for Contemporary Art, 2017, Photo: Frank Sperling
Willem de Rooij, Ilulissat, 2014, 12 channel digital audio recording, speakers, Courtesy Galerie Buchholz, Berlin/Cologne/New York; Galerie Chantal Crousel, Paris; Regen Projects, Los Angeles; Friedrich Petzel, New York; installation view KW Institute for Contemporary Art, 2017, Photo: Frank Sperling
Willem de Rooij, Ilulissat, 2014, 12 channel digital audio recording, speakers, Courtesy Galerie Buchholz, Berlin/Cologne/New York; Galerie Chantal Crousel, Paris; Regen Projects, Los Angeles; Friedrich Petzel, New York; installation view KW Institute for Contemporary Art, 2017, Photo: Frank Sperling
Willem de Rooij, Ilulissat, 2014, 12 channel digital audio recording, speakers, Courtesy Galerie Buchholz, Berlin/Cologne/New York; Galerie Chantal Crousel, Paris; Regen Projects, Los Angeles; Friedrich Petzel, New York; installation view KW Institute for Contemporary Art, 2017, Photo: Frank Sperling
Willem de Rooij, Ilulissat, 2014, 12 channel digital audio recording, speakers, Courtesy Galerie Buchholz, Berlin/Cologne/New York; Galerie Chantal Crousel, Paris; Regen Projects, Los Angeles; Friedrich Petzel, New York; installation view KW Institute for Contemporary Art, 2017, Photo: Frank Sperling
Willem de Rooij, Ilulissat, 2014, 12 channel digital audio recording, speakers, Courtesy Galerie Buchholz, Berlin/Cologne/New York; Galerie Chantal Crousel, Paris; Regen Projects, Los Angeles; Friedrich Petzel, New York; installation view KW Institute for Contemporary Art, 2017, Photo: Frank Sperling
Foreground: Jeroen de Rijke / Willem de Rooij, Blue Table, 2004, Courtesy of the artist; Background: Willem de Rooij, Blue to Blue, 2012; installation view KW Institute for Contemporary Art, 2017, Photo: Frank Sperling
Foreground: Jeroen de Rijke / Willem de Rooij, Blue Table, 2004, Courtesy of the artist; Background: Willem de Rooij, Blue to Blue, 2012; installation view KW Institute for Contemporary Art, 2017, Photo: Frank Sperling
Jeroen de Rijke / Willem de Rooij, detail, Blue Table, 2004, Courtesy of the artist; installation view KW Institute for Contemporary Art, 2017, Photo: Frank Sperling
Jeroen de Rijke / Willem de Rooij, Dead Seal, 1996–99; Jeroen de Rijke / Willem de Rooij, Blue Table, 2004, Courtesy of the artist; Willem de Rooij, Blue to Blue, 2012; installation view KW Institute for Contemporary Art, 2017, Photo: Frank Sperling
Jeroen de Rijke / Willem de Rooij, detail, Blue Table, 2004, Courtesy of the artist; installation view KW Institute for Contemporary Art, 2017, Photo: Frank Sperling