By popular demand, we are bringing 🌈 QUEER OFFLINE CLUB hangout to Mediamatic Art Centre again!

Lock your phone away and enjoy spending time at this awesome location on the water facing Nemo museum.

Swap phone time with real-time, be present and connect with like-minded people - free of digital distractions.

This hangout ensures you have blocked off, screen-free time in your agenda. It allows you to unwind, meet others, and catch up on hobbies you never have the time for.


EVENT OUTLINE:

The Program

14:00 - 14.30 | Walk-in
14:30 - 15:45 | Time to yourself
15:45 - 16:45 | Connect with others
16:45 - 17:15 | Central round-up

Time to yourself

Sit back and recharge by reading a book, drawing, journaling, or engaging in any solo activity you like. You will do your own thing without being disturbed while enjoying relaxing music in the background. Please bring books or creative supplies to keep yourself busy. 

Connect with others

Socialise with friends or strangers, but only if you feel like it. This is the time to meet others, have conversations, discuss books, share ideas, or play games. Of course, you can keep to yourself if you prefer. We can’t wait to swap screen time for real-time with you!

In case you’re not quite ready to let it go, no worries—just turn it off and keep it tucked away, out of sight! However, we found out from our experience that to get the full disconnection experience it's best not to have it on you ;)


Disclaimer: You show serious faith in humanity by trusting us with your beloved phone! But just so you know, if it magically disappears, learns to fly, or mysteriously breaks, The Offline Club can’t be held responsible.

🍿 Chill

🎨 Cultural

🪩 Party

Mediamatic

Queer Offline Club - 3rd Edition

Neem een kijkje in onze zintuigelijke labs, leer meer over de huidige bio art projecten, en bewonder de groeiende installaties rond de Biotoop tijdens onze tour op vrijdag! 

Tijdens de tour krijg je de kans om binnen te kijken in onze labs. Hier onderzoeken we de mogelijkheden van bio-materialen voor ontwerp, science en kunst. We nemen je mee naar het Clean lab, waar we op het moment focussen op het gebruik van afvalstoffen, als bron voor nieuw materiaal. Ook kun je kijken in het Aroma lab, onze open parfum werkplaats en geur-bibliotheek waar geur als artistiek medium wordt onderzocht. En krijg je een introductie in het Plant lab, waar we op duurzame wijze kruiden en eetbare bloemen kweken. 

Tijdens de wandeling vertellen we ook over de huidige tentoonstellingen en groeiende kunstinstallaties die je zowel aan de buitenkant als aan de binnenkant van ons gebouw vindt. Aan het einde van de rondleiding nodigen we je graag uit voor een kopje thee uit onze Aquaponics-kas!

Open Friday Tour

During our second edition of the Aromathèque, we will dive deep into the topic of speculative fiction. What does this word, which you see more and more being used, imply? What does it have to do with feminism, and are there tactile, fragrant, or taste elements to it?

With:
Frank Bloem, Anna Hoetjes

Together with artist Anna Hoetjes, we will learn more about the ins and outs of speculative fiction (formerly known as science fiction) She will tell us about her project:  
‘𝕋𝕙𝕖 𝔸𝕣𝕞𝕡𝕚𝕥 𝕠𝕗 𝕒 𝔾𝕚𝕒𝕟𝕥 - 𝕠𝕣 𝕥𝕙𝕖 𝕁𝕦𝕚𝕔𝕖 𝕠𝕗 𝕒 𝔹𝕖𝕖𝕥𝕝𝕖’. An installation that imagines a future where Orion’s shoulder (aka the star Betelgeuse) has exploded and destroyed all satellites and electronic infrastructures on Earth. How will we reclaim physical and communal knowledge of the stars, to navigate our bodies through this world?

Reading tip: Octavia E. Butler: The Parable of the Sower (Translated in Dutch as: De Zaaier)

We'll discuss a fascinating question: Why did we shoot a golden record into space to get in contact with aliens, with only visual and audio information? What if these beings lack eyesight and ears, but possess a magnificent sense of touch, are covered in scent receptors, or primarily exist as tongue tissue? What would a record look like that also caters to these senses?

Aromathèque #2: Speculative Sensations

The time has come to say goodbye to Silke Riis’ installation Some Breathe Through Their Butts - after all, we all know that sea cucumbers breathe through their anuses by now, right?

To mark a full year of cucumber creatures inhabiting the bathrooms of Mediamatic, we’d like to invite you to the finissage event Others Drink Through Their Mouths where we will celebrate Silke’s work, offer a final insight into the wondrous lives of sea cucumbers, and, well, drink. 

Free entrance // RSVP

An unusual installation about an unusual species calls for an equally unusual experience of “drinking” though, so it only felt fitting to Silke to invite her dear friend and artist\chef Gabriel to create a menu of cucumber-inspired drinks for the evening. As you drink (through your mouth) and the evening progresses, you’ll likely find yourself needing to visit the bathrooms - an invitation to intimately experience the installations, one last time.

Some Breathe Through Their Butts was not only an homage to the importance of sea cucumbers in our oceans, but to all kinds of bottom feeders and decomposers without whom our ecosystems would collapse. Over the past year the installation itself has slowly decomposed and transformed, becoming more ‘yucky’ to some while more ‘yummy’ to others, and whether you are compelled to touch or repelled by their looks, the latex sculptures on the bathroom walls might stick to your fingers or crack as a result of time passing. This playfulness with tactility, disgust and beauty is central in both artists’ practices and therefore also serves as a theme for Others Drink Through Their Mouths: An evening of both sweet and salty, slimy and briney, which perhaps leaves you wondering if sea cucumbers could become pickled in the near future. 

Come raise a glass with us, drink with your mouth, and breathe it all in - through whatever means you choose.

Others Drink Through Their Mouths

Come to Mediamatic to have a talk with an artist in our little greenhouses by the water! Learn more about their work or talk about your project with the artist who inspired you. Silke Riis is open to creative consultation and discussing ideas.

Meet-a-Maker is a 30-minute session to have a one-on-one talk with artists currently working at Mediamatic. We are lucky to be inspired by the many artists who work and stay with us for exhibitions, residencies and workshops. We welcome you to meet them and be inspired as well!

About the artist:
Silke Riis (she/her) is a Copenhagen-born sculptor and installation artist whose work currently revolves around speculative futures and imagined species.

With her sculptures she hopes to reflect the fragility of ecosystems, while offering alternative ideas for the future. Her aim is not to educate on climate change, since she thinks we are way past the need for that, but instead offer composure in the fantasy of our demise.

Inspired by rainforest plants, marine invertebrates, mould formations, as well as mythologies, paracosms and science fiction, her work has an otherworldly aesthetic.

She is currently based in The Hague, The Netherlands.

Silke's installation 'Some Breathe Through Their Butts' is currently on show in Mediamatic's toilets.

Topics:
The conversations with Silke are meant for anyone with special interests in the topics listed below:
- Ephermeral Art
- Speculative Evolution
- Science Fiction
- Botany
- Marine Invertebrates
- Climate Anxiety
- Utopia, Dystopia and everything in between
- Ceramics and sculpture techniques

Silke speaks Danish and English

Information:
You can choose a 30-minute time slot between 14:00 and 15:00.

Tickets:
Full price €10
Artists/Students discount €7,50*
*We give a discount to students, artists and Stadspas holders. If this applies to you we might ask to see your kvk nr/portfolio or student card for this option.
Read our ticket terms and conditions here: https://www.mediamatic.net/en/page/377775/terms-conditions

For questions please e-mail workshop@mediamatic.nl

Meet-a-Maker: With Silke Riis

As an extension of the exhibition Ghosts in the Foreign Land, this food-related workshop reimagines the cultural memory of the Penghu bîng-kun-toh through a fictional self-ritual. In this contemporary interpretation, each participant simultaneously embodies both the worshipper and the worshipped—you are here to make offerings to your own soul.

In Taoist rituals, "transformation" refers to the process of transition between material and spiritual realms. Our research on the bîng-kun-toh in Fenggui documents how local residents made offerings of "imagined" Western food to foreign spirits, while in traditional Taiwanese ritual culture, the "feng-pian-gao" (cloud slice cake) transforms physical offerings into symbols using glutinous rice and sugar, embodying the Taoist wisdom of "seeking spirit through form."

Continuing this practice of cross-cultural imagination and transformation, this workshop invites participants to consider: when you are both the worshipper and the spirit, what offerings would you prepare to feed your own "ghost"? Through materials such as glutinous rice and red dye, each person will create offerings for their own soul, reconsidering the form of spiritual solace in this cross-temporal self-dialogue.

In traditional ritual culture, the boundary between "us" and "the other" has always been clear: the living worship the dead, this shore makes offerings to the other shore, rituals are built upon such binary opposition. However, when we position ourselves simultaneously as both the worshipper and the worshipped, this established boundary dissolves. In feeding our own "ghost," we become both the provider of offerings and the receiver of spiritual sustenance. This dual identity compels us to re-examine the essence of ritual practices. If worship has always been about pacifying the souls of others, how do we confront our inner hunger when we become our own "ghost"?

Program Components:
- Contemporary interpretation of traditional ritual practices
- Creation of personalized offerings
- Sharing of symbolic comfort food: · Handmade noodles (for longevity) · Sweet glutinous rice balls (for wholeness) · Taiwanese black tea

Feeding your Ghost: a Fictional Self-ritual

Join us for the opening of the exhibition Ghosts in the Foreign Land on Sunday 17th November, an afternoon performances and artists talks

The opening ceremony brings together three pairs of artists from Taiwan and the Netherlands, weaving six works into narratives of "three Dutch ghosts." Through a contemporary lens, they revisit this hidden history, revealing how power structures shape our understanding of "the other," inviting us to listen anew to the silenced spirits of the past.

A ritual theatre unfolds before a monumental red offering table. As visitors enter the space, each carrying a red circular cushion, they circle the table in a ceremonial procession. Upon taking their seats, everyone transforms into both the offerer and receiver of the ritual, engaging in a silent dialogue with the three Dutch ghosts.

In this theatre, each participant will contemplate: in the river of history woven by power structures, whose voices are heard? Whose memories are summoned?

Whispering Ghost: A Dialogue in Ritual

Adam

Maggie

Christie

Eric

Anna

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guestList

Kunst, natuur, biologie en eten in Amsterdam. Exposities, workshops en vegan restaurant, welkom! 

Mediamatic

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28

Queer Offline Club - 3rd Edition

Open Friday Tour

Aromathèque #2: Speculative Sensations

Open Friday Tour

Open Friday Tour

Others Drink Through Their Mouths

Meet-a-Maker: With Silke Riis

Feeding your Ghost: a Fictional Self-ritual

Open Friday Tour

Whispering Ghost: A Dialogue in Ritual

December

Mediamatic

0

28

Queer Offline Club - 3rd Edition

Open Friday Tour

Aromathèque #2: Speculative Sensations

Open Friday Tour

Open Friday Tour

Others Drink Through Their Mouths

Meet-a-Maker: With Silke Riis

Feeding your Ghost: a Fictional Self-ritual

Open Friday Tour

Whispering Ghost: A Dialogue in Ritual

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December