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.
For the finissage of our current exhibition ; PAST A SURPASSING DISASTER, Devin Allen has been invited to give an artist talk at Motormond. The artist talk will take the format of a show and tell where Devin will go through his extensive oeuvre, and he will tell the stories behind his amazing images.
We extend an invitation for you to immerse yourself in an auditory expedition, as we transmit sonic waves calling for a departure from the enduring shadows that surround us.
Public program:
To Logan
To Dandy
To Precious
To Chimira
Where beauty lies within the ruins, how does one move as a guest in their own skin, in their own country? Language, faithful companion, can be both loyal and wayward. Examining the introverts; hidden wishes, amidst the vibrant chaos of Lagos.
Join us on the 19th of October for the OPENING of the exhibition Past a Surpassing Disaster: From Film Through Performance Towards Photography.
What is the role of your artistic practice in your imagination of social and political change? How do artists / photographers negotiate their practices between the global north and the global south? What is lost and gained in translation?
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
Join us on the 19th of October for the OPENING of the exhibition Past a Surpassing Disaster: From Film Through Performance Towards Photography.
This exhibition will pause to look at the afterlives of three international mass protests. The 2015 Baltimore Uprising will be viewed through the work of renowned Baltimorean photographer Devin Allen. Nigeria’s 2020 #ENDSARS protests will be visualized through the work of Ifebusola Shotunde A black queer perspective of the Dutch iteration of the Black Lives Matter protests will unfold in the work of Rafiki Opti. Lastly a historicized and submerged investigation by Siomara Bochove on the -what if’s- of the mythos of Drexciya will re-situates this exhibition in the belly of the ship. This is an exhibition that looks behind itself. Searching for joy around a multi-fold tragic tipping point. In the world of the surpassing disaster, the dust hasn’t settled. Still, we are waiting to feel what has been made to overflow.
- What: Exhibition Opening
- Date: 19 Oct 2023
- Time: 19:00 - 21:30
- Where: Kinkerstraat 96 (MotorMond)
- How: RSVP
Participanting Artists
@bydvnlln @x_siomara @rafik.opti @ifebusola_s
Poster @ypsil_lon
This exhibition is generously supported by the Amsterdam Fonds voor de Kunst
