Dirk van Weelden - Learning to see possible cities (2022)

The exhibition NOW + HERE at Roof-A Gallery in Rotterdam, the Netherlands was the first gallery presentation after the retrospective-in-disguise solo exhibition NOWHERE, Imagining the Global City at the Nederlands Fotomuseum in Rotterdam, the Netherlands in 2021.

Dirk van Weelden was asked to write a small essay on both the oeuvre of Frank van der Salm and the photoworks in this exhibition.

“Are we stupid, easily satisfied, easily deceived? No, we react in accordance with our lives in urban environments, where concrete, glass, asphalt, traffic are just as powerful as the images that this world produces about itself in order to continue to exist and grow. Just look, they are in our brains. Where do these images come from? Aren't they advertising images for a world that we actually don't want? How do we recognize images that are authentic in what they reveal? How do we learn to perceive more freely?”

Date: march 2022
Essay by Dirk van Weelden (Dutch)
Download the complete interview in PDF HERE