Motormond, the gallery in subversion, is a project that developed as a reaction to the consequences of the BLM movement for BIPOC artists on the Amsterdam cultural scene. Within the Amsterdam setting, galleries that had never paid attention to BIPOC artists were opening up doors to multiple BIPOC artists in a rush. At first there was excitement among friends that were getting signed. But then the ruthlessness of the gallery contracts started to set in. Artists were getting charged over 50% on sales. The meaning and stories that their work was about were being left behind and the focus was on selling. Within these galleries the prices of their artworks were so high that people from their communities couldn’t buy them.
We decided to open Motormond, as a gallery in subversion, a gallery that took 0% of the sales of our artists. We also decided to actively foster environments and exhibition settings where the autonomy of the stories, research, and artist’s work were being preserved. We focused our attention on an audience that was composed of our artists communities. We were not looking for easy sales by reaching buyers with a lot of money. One of our main goals was to keep the prices reasonably low and to encourage buyers from within the BIPOC communities.
Motormond has put on exhibitions that brought forth big talents. These are successes that we don't take lightly. We have managed to activate an ecosystem where artists with first and second generation migrations backgrounds can also have a network that they can lean on.
What: Open Photoshoot session
When: 20 August (19:00 — 21:00)
Where: Kinkerstraat 96
How: Dress in your Sunday best!
What: public program
Date: 01-August-2023
Time: 19:00 - 21:30
Location: Kinkerstraat 96
Brave Beauties in Communion defines queerness as of transformation, of shapeshifting, of fluency, of form to deform; of code to switch, of mimicry, of flamboyance, of grace, of fluidity, and of bravery.
Thank you for coming to the opening of our new exhibition — Brave Beauties in Communion: Imaging Black Queer Liberation!
To be punctured with meaning is a method, it puts forward a way of watching filming in translation. To pause between scenes and to puncture a film with poetry, to puncture a scene with a painting, to puncture a scene with a performative sculpture, to puncture a scene with a performance.
Conversation & book launch: Motormond will be hosting a conversation for the launch of the book Imagining a Queer and Black Institution, which came together as a collection of five essays that all conjured up a black and queer institution. Guests include Siv Greyson, Christie van Zyl, Lebo Diverse Mashifane, Jasmin Sharif, Kenza Badi, Musoke Nalwoga
The A Durable Swagger-scape exhibition is coming to its end. A Durable Swagger-scape pulledfrom multiple strings to tell a story that very much requires building upon, we briefly exploredmusic videos, thinking with the glam and glitter of musical performances and the sonic implications of sustainability. With this Finissage, we have invited prominent photographers, stylists, and writers on the Amsterdam scene to further ground and deepen the topics explored in the exhibition.
2020
Musoke Nalwoga
Aida Ra Mana
Brave Beauties in Communion defines queerness as of transformation, of shapeshifting, of fluency, of form to deform; of code to switch, of mimicry, of flamboyance, of grace, of fluidity, and of bravery.
July 27
18:30-21:00
Kinkerstraat 96
This exhibition brings together works by contemporary photographers @iamdanielobasi, @aconstantbecoming, @angnm__, @nellaroz, and @stephen.tayo in an effort to understand the image of black queer liberation through a self directed and self sustained lens.
Brave Beauties in Communion critically brings major political geographies in fellowship around the issue of black queer liberation. Pitching from Abidjan, Lagos, Kampala, New York City and Amsterdam. We set the stage for a nuanced conversation on liberative imaging of black queer communities across Africa and its diasporas.
Curator: Musoke Nalwoga @cyborgtruffel
Team @motormond: Aida Ra Mana, Mengli Lu, Basil Barrett, Musoke Nalwoga
This exhibition is generously supported by @princeclausfund through collaborations with Dilara Kanik, Laura Urdo, Val Dechev, and Olga Muhwati
Graphic designer: @c3n_g1z
