3 OCT–14 DEC | Rotterdam-based painter Eveline Visser presents a new exhibition at Brutus that explores future alternatives to the city’s petrochemical and industrial landscape. Her work reimagines the Maasvlakte through organic settlements built from fungal structures.

Eveline Visser explores the future of the Maasvlakte

Rotterdam artist Eveline Visser (1949) has opened her latest exhibition, Good over Evil – OVERGROW, at Brutus in Rotterdam-West. Known for her deep connection to the city, Visser focuses in this show on questions around the energy transition and the long-term role of the Maasvlakte.

The works on display propose an imagined future where mycelium — the root network of fungi — plays a central role in transforming industrial environments. In Visser’s vision, mushroom-based “villages” grow over existing petrochemical infrastructure, providing both sustenance and habitable spaces.

Mycelium as an alternative landscape

The exhibition consists of four large-scale dioramas arranged in a circle of fifteen metres in diameter. The dioramas combine objects, set pieces and large painted backdrops depicting fungi spreading across the Maasvlakte.

Through models, books, pamphlets and samples, visitors are introduced to potential uses of mycelium. Beyond food, the installations suggest that fungi could filter air and water, while their underground root systems could stabilise and repurpose industrial land.

Visser describes the work as an invitation to imagine futures beyond conventional energy projects. While Rotterdam explores hydrogen production at the so-called “h2 fifty” plant, the artist’s exhibition points to other ways of thinking about the city’s ecological and social transformation.

Exhibition details

Good over Evil – OVERGROW is open from 3 October until 14 December 2025 at Brutus. Alongside the exhibition, a programme of lectures and guided tours will take place, focusing on biotechnology and sustainable urban development. On 12 December, Jap Sam Books will launch Visser’s accompanying publication, Good over Evil.

Location and directions

Brutus is located at Keileweg 10B, in Rotterdam-West. The venue is housed in a former harbour complex and is known for its large-scale industrial spaces, often used for experimental and immersive art projects. The Keileweg area is part of the Merwe-Vierhavens (M4H) district, which is being developed as a hub for creative industries and urban innovation.

21 NOV 2025–9 AUG 2026 | ROTTERDAM, 21 November 2025 – A new exhibition at Het Nieuwe Instituut examines fungi as designers with agency, disrupting human-centred narratives in science and design. Instead of tools or materials, fungi are portrayed as anarchic collaborators in shaping multi-species futures.

_{Image: FUNGI. Photo credit: Anna Lowenhaupt Tsing}

Fungi take centre stage in Rotterdam design exhibition

From 21 November 2025 to 9 August 2026, Het Nieuwe Instituut in Rotterdam will host FUNGI: anarchistische ontwerpers (fungi: anarchist designers), an exhibition curated by anthropologist Anna Lowenhaupt Tsing and designer Feifei Zhou of studio terriStories. The show departs from conventional approaches in which fungi are considered useful organisms for human benefit, and instead explores how fungi exist independently, shaping ecosystems in ways that are often overlooked.

Rather than treating fungi as trendy materials or biological resources, the exhibition places them at the centre of ecological and political questions. According to the curators, fungi can function as both builders and destroyers, with roles deeply entangled in histories of colonialism and extractive capitalism.

Science, art and design merge in multispecies storytelling

The exhibition features interdisciplinary works that combine scientific research, visual arts, speculative design and ecological imagination. Each piece highlights how fungi operate on their own terms, disrupting dominant systems and proposing alternative futures.

One installation by Ivette Perfecto and Filipp Groubnov maps the spread of coffee rust – a fungus thriving on monoculture plantations in Latin America. Another collaborative piece by Alyssa Paredes and Maia Cruz Palileo focuses on the environmental damage caused by fungicidal chemicals on industrial banana plantations in the Philippines.

A multimedia installation by Bettina Stoetzer, Berkveldt and Åsa Sonjasdotter explores how wild boars consume radioactive mushrooms, thereby facilitating the movement of radioactivity through ecosystems. Additionally, Rob Dunn, along with design duo Baum & Leahy, present an interactive, multisensory work that investigates the role of yeast in shaping human digestion.

Fungi. Photo collection of the Netherlands Heath Society. Date and photographer unknown. Glass slide from the collection of the National Archives.

Address and directions

Het Nieuwe Instituut

The exhibition is being held at Het Nieuwe Instituut, located in the Museumpark area of Rotterdam. The institution is situated near landmarks such as the Kunsthal and Depot Boijmans Van Beuningen, and is accessible via tram, metro and bicycle. The surrounding area includes a large public park and several cultural venues.

FROM 27 SEP 2025 to 1 MARCH 2026 | Photographer Martin Roemers’ exhibition Homo Mobilis opens at Kunsthal Rotterdam, presenting portraits that explore identity through mobility. The series positions people with their vehicles in a neutral setting to highlight subtle personal and cultural distinctions.

Homo Mobilis at Kunsthal Rotterdam

From 27 September 2025 until 1 March 2026, Kunsthal Rotterdam will present Homo Mobilis, a photographic series by Martin Roemers. Over thirty large-format portraits pair individuals with their everyday vehicles, each image shedding light on cultural, social, and personal dimensions beyond mere means of transport.

In a mobile studio set up in public squares—using a twelve-metre-long white backdrop—distractions are removed, drawing attention to posture, gaze, and the material details of person and vehicle.

Portraits of global mobility

Roemers travelled through the Netherlands, Germany, China, Ukraine, India, Senegal, and the United States to create these images. In Dakar, he photographed car sales employees Aïcha, Yvonne, Fatimata, and Becaya alongside a red Mini Cooper. In Shanghai, Zu’en and her young son were captured on a motor scooter. In Bengaluru, ice-cream vendors Hariom and Vinoth appear beside their truck. Each portrait is accompanied only by their name, occupation, vehicle brand, and location, offering minimal context and inviting reflection on the human-machine relationship.

About the artist

Martin Roemers (b. 1962, Oldehove) studied at AKI Academy of Arts & Design in Enschede. His long-term projects—including Kabul, Relics of the Cold War, The Eyes of War, and Metropolis—have been shown across the world and are held in institutions such as the Rijksmuseum, Museum of Fine Arts Houston, and the Getty Research Institute. Roemers has received multiple honours, including two World Press Photo Awards.

Publication

A photo book edition of Homo Mobilis will be released on 7 October 2025 by Lannoo Publishers. The 208-page volume will be available at the Kunsthal Shop and online.

More information

For full details about the exhibition—including ticketing, opening hours, and related programming—please visit the official Kunsthal website. Visit the exhibition details on the Kunsthal website.

Directions

Kunsthal Rotterdam is situated in Museumpark, close to Erasmus MC and Het Nieuwe Instituut. Easily reachable by tram or metro from Rotterdam Central Station, the area is known for its green spaces and cultural institutions.

FROM 1 NOV 2025 | An immersive installation by artist Mandy El-Sayegh will open this November in the Depot Boijmans Van Beuningen. The presentation marks the start of a new multi-year exhibition series showcasing experimental contemporary art.

Mandy El-Sayegh brings layered installation to Depot

From Saturday 1 November 2025, the Depot Boijmans Van Beuningen in Rotterdam will host a large-scale installation by the London-based artist Mandy El-Sayegh. The exhibition marks the artist’s first solo project in the Netherlands and inaugurates the institution’s new Depot Solo series.

El-Sayegh, born in Malaysia in 1985, is known for a multidisciplinary approach that spans painting, collage, installation, video and performance. Her work is often structured around the deconstruction and reconstruction of language, material and meaning. For this commission, El-Sayegh has transformed one of the Depot’s halls into a fragmented and immersive installation that exposes her creative process.

Deconstructing meaning through material

The installation includes newly created work in which El-Sayegh dissects the anatomy of her paintings. Visitors can expect collages composed of silkscreens and hand-painted elements that reference both art history and contemporary culture. Notably, the exhibition incorporates reproductions of old master drawings from the collection of Museum Boijmans Van Beuningen.

The space functions simultaneously as a laboratory and exhibition: an environment where the development of the work remains visible and active. Layers of newspaper clippings, scientific diagrams, anatomy books, grids, latex sheets and Arabic calligraphy—drawn from her father’s handwriting—are fused into intricate compositions. Through this layered process, the artist examines how information is structured and how meaning can shift depending on context.

Performance during Museumnacht 2026

As part of Rotterdam’s Museumnacht on 7 March 2026, a performance will take place within the installation. This live event will reinterpret the exhibition in a new format, emphasising the fluid relationship between body, text and space in El-Sayegh’s practice.

A platform for contemporary experimentation

The Depot Solo initiative aims to offer contemporary artists, who have not yet held a solo show in the Netherlands, the opportunity to develop site-specific immersive installations. The series, made possible in part by Ammodo Art, positions itself as an analogue alternative to the trend of digital immersive experiences, providing space for physical and material experimentation.

Directions to the Depot

Depot Boijmans Van Beuningen is located in the Museumpark, a central cultural hub in Rotterdam near the Kunsthal and Het Nieuwe Instituut. The area is accessible by public transport and offers nearby parking for bicycles and cars. The building’s iconic mirrored facade is within walking distance from Rotterdam Central Station.