a.k.a. MAMA
an intimate look into our unconventional artistic practices
a.k.a. MAMA is Team MAMA’s showcase—a platform for all current and former Team MAMA members to share their artistic practices. The aim of the project is to show Rotterdam what MAMA is and highlight the people who make MAMA possible by giving them the opportunity to take over the showroom on the Witte de Withstraat for ten days. Peer-to-peer learning is at the heart of the showcase: all parts of the program are developed by and featuring Team MAMA members.
A space for emerging makers, MAMA is a joint effort of a diverse team of 6 board members, 7 build-up crew members, 1 cleaning person, 8 staff members, 43 volunteers, and a large number of friends and collaborators that continues to grow. Under the umbrella term “Team MAMA,” these people form a community that nourishes experimental, non-hierarchical, and non-conformist creative practices. Driven by these values, the showcase puts a spotlight on those who are often working behind the scenes.
The practices present in a.k.a MAMA are connected by a thread of intimacy—sharing what is deeply important for each participant in this moment. Some of them allow you to take with you a small physical piece of their work, and some give you a new knowledge or perspective to return home with. The many components of the program are made for you to connect, to think, and to feel. a.k.a. MAMA is a gathering space, a bike ride, a corner store, a meal, a siren, a time capsule, a song.
Friday, July 22
15:00–17:00
MAMA x 100% Hedendaags: Motherly Advice, a workshop with Naomi Jansen and Maud Berden
Advice is based on the acts of giving and receiving. Quite often, advice can have a negative connotation to it. Sometimes you get it from somebody without asking for it. Other times, it can say more about the person who gives it, than about who receives it. The way advice is given can have a big influence on how it is received.
In this workshop, based on the installation Motherly Advice, we will collectively explore the notion of advice. What if you ask for so-called unwanted advice? Is it still unwanted, or does it bring you something that you couldn’t think of before? And how can we play with the ways in which advice can be given? At the end of the workshop, you will go home with some wanted or unwanted advice.
Tickets available here for only €3.50
17:00–21:00
Exhibition opening
Saturday, July 23
19:00–21:00
Álvaro Talavera DJ set
As part of the showcase’s program of live events, our fellow Team MAMA member Álvaro will bring us a DJ set featuring the music that moves him the most: a mix of techno, downtempo, shoegaze, and ambient records. Álvaro understands a DJ set not only as a simple mix of music, but as a means to tell a story. Join us at the party on July 23 and be part of it!
Sunday, July 24
14:30–16:30
Bike ride to the Tower of Love with Charli Herrington
Join a collective bike ride and discussion on careful ways of working (ways of working based in relation and shared labor). The bike ride will start from MAMA’s showroom, with a screening of conditions of togetherness (our work on care), and will conclude at the Tower of Love in the north of Rotterdam. During the 30-minute bike ride and at the Tower of Love, over tea, coffee, and snacks, we will explore what working together with care looks like and how we can realize these ways of working in our day to day lives and practices.
Friday, July 29
11:00–14:00
Public Speaking, a workshop with Süheyla Yalçın
In this interactive workshop, Süheyla will speak about ways to use your voice in the public space. Together, the group will dive into the different ways of storytelling and opinion sharing. Topics that will be covered are: the myth of a single story, voice and sound, presentation, code-switching, engagement, and knowing your public.
15:00–18:00
Classism in Cultural Institutions, a workshop with Süheyla Yalçın
This workshop explores the meaning of classism in the cultural field. In various countries and in literature, classism is something that goes unquestioned. In the Netherlands, the consequences of this form of discrimination are often denied—why is that? Süheyla will share experiences related to classism within cultural work and their aftermath. The second part of the workshop will focus on hypothetical scenarios that provide a more inclusive culture within our institutions.
Saturday, July 30
14:00–17:00
MAMA x 100% Hedendaags: I Am, a workshop with Ilidia Medina
(Re)claim your identity: that’s what this masterclass is about. We will dive into your own world, your own story, and therefore create a path for your authentic self to shine. Here, you will create, meditate, write, talk with others, and move your body. Which path are you walking? What might you have hidden out of shame? What makes you unique?
Bring comfortable clothes you can move in, your phone, and a pen and paper.
Tickets available here for only €3.50
19:00–21:00
The Third Wave: Delicacies of Turkish Popular Culture, a film screening with Dicle Gülsahin
The Third Wave: Delicacies of Turkish Popular Culture is designed as a series of events that focuses on discovering and understanding attention-worthy popular cultural elements from the last 30 years of Turkey. For its first edition, The Third Wave screens Vizontele, a 2001 film that changed the direction of popular cinema in Turkey. This event is an immersive experience that transforms the space into the true atmosphere of the film accompanied by food, drinks, and music.
The Third Wave takes its name from the recent migration movement of the past ten years from Turkey to Europe, mostly consisting of educated young professionals. Giving full credit to the first and second wave of immigration for creating a society in which the culture is known, The Third Wave aims to strengthen ties between generations, to bridge different communities, and to generate appreciation for a culture that is growing into a new form.
The film will be shown in the original audio in Turkish with subtitles in English. Context for the film will be provided prior to the screening. Maximum capacity for the screening is limited to 20 people.
Sunday, July 31
16:00–19:00
Finissage18:00–19:00
Music performance by Gordon H. Williams and Koen Boeijinga
Gordon H. Williams and Koen Boeijinga will perform a spontaneous celebration of improvised music during the closing of a.k.a. MAMA. Koen works with MOA and BUI and Gordon with Hache and Fire Is Scary, both exploring different facets of experimental music. Their set will play on the energy of the room, picking out frequencies and rhythms from the air to weave a musical moment, unpremeditated and unexpected.
a.k.a. MAMA Corner Store
Shop at the a.k.a. MAMA Corner Store—a very tiny store in the corner of the showroom where you can find artworks and objects related to the artists and the program! There are a variety of items for sale such as publications, time capsules, vinyl records, and a.k.a MAMA merch.
Tuesday–Sunday: 14:00–19:00
Friday: 14:00–21:00
Admission to the exhibition and most of the live events is free. Tickets for the workshops and the film screening with Dicle Gülsahin are available here for only €3.50. All-event tickets are available for €10. If you are not able to pay, but would like to join any of the events, email us at hello@thisismama.nl and we can work something out.
Álvaro Talavera
Álvaro Talavera graduated in fine arts from the Universidad Complutense in Madrid and earned a Master’s Degree in Research and Creativity in Art from the Universidad del País Vasco. In recent years he has received various grants for specialized training in cultural management, allowing him to broaden his experience in cities such as Manila, Lisbon, and Limerick. Alongside his academic and professional activity, he has taken part in numerous exhibitions, artist residencies, workshops, and symposia at several institutions, including the Centro Cultural Montehermoso and the Fundación Bilbao Arte. He has been editor-in-chief of the cultural magazine Perro Berde since 2017, and currently works at MAMA as a producer.
Charli Herrington
In her practice, Charli Herrington experiments with how to care in and as artistic practice, focusing on anti-capitalistic ideals. Through propositions on how we could better live and care for one another, she attempts to reconfigure the values around community, accessibility, and invisible and reproductive labor. Her work in the care labor field has a great influence on her practice, which consists mainly of experiments with video, writing, cooking, and performance through collaboration. Charli is currently based in Rotterdam.
Dicle Gülsahin
Dicle Gülsahin is a cultural manager and creative producer based in Rotterdam. Following her educational background in public administration and arts management, she currently works in the field of cultural diplomacy and communications. Moving recently to the Netherlands led her to rediscover and embrace her identity as a third-wave Turkish immigrant. Her creative processes revolve around the last thirty years of popular culture in Turkey, which in her opinion functions as a reflector to understand social progressions in the country. She is part of MAMA’s editorial team. On the side, she produces music and performs as a DJ.
Gordon H. Williams and Fire Is Scary
Gordon H. Williams is an artist and musician creating work to study human conditions, with a focus on affect, perception, and relation. He works in collaborative projects consisting of scores, performances, texts, and videos that attempt to realize ways of being together based in intimacy, hope, and generosity.
Fire Is Scary is a collective from artists Sol Enae Lee and Gordon himself and musicians Agustín Faúndez Rojas and Ariel Sin Yu Lee. The themes of their work are translation, the borderlands—from Gloria E. Anzaldúa, the experience of living between/across cultures—and learning to live in a damaged world.
Illidia Medina
Ilidia Medina teaches dance and movement classes with a holistic approach. You are even moving while reading this text. During her training, the focus is on listening to your desires and giving a voice to your own unique way of expressing yourself. Identity is therefore central with the aim of consciousness and self-love, from body rejection, pain, and fear to self-acceptance, trust, and love.
Lotte van Dooremalen
Lotte van Dooremalen graduated in 2021 from the Willem de Kooning Academy with a Bachelor’s in Education. She graduated in the midst of the COVID-19 pandemic and decided to channel her feelings and frustrations about this into her final project, Dear Reader, Lockdown Rotterdam. Since graduating, Lotte has been working as an educator and mediator for a multitude of organizations in and around Rotterdam while developing her personal practice. She’s currently working on bringing her passion for pop culture into her practice as an artist and educator.
Maria Mombers
Maria Mombers (b. 1998) is a visual artist from Rotterdam. Her paintings, illustrations, video-works, and performances are mostly strongly inspired by the internet and pop and youth culture. While discovering virtual worlds, digital environments, and chatrooms, she collects masterpieces that raise the question of what can be seen as art in a digital age. Her passion is to find beauty in situations that were not intended to be seen in that way. Maria describes herself as a post-internet artist who is interested in the humane part of the internet in which people seek for affection and self-validation.
Martina Farrugia
Martina Farrugia (b. 1998) is a creative based between Malta and the Netherlands. She comes from a background in art history and archaeology, and pursued a Bachelor’s in Fine Arts in Digital Arts at the University of Malta. The current focus of Martina’s work is the merging of photographic studies, ceramics, and bookmaking. Her recent body of work is based on the presence of absence, memory, and archiving. Martina uses the archive as a tool in her artwork; the archive looks towards alternative methods of storytelling and creates an extension of the experience that is witnessed by the observer.
Maud Berden and Naomi Jansen
Maud Berden and Naomi Jansen are both artist educators. Naomi records, experiments, and involves her environment while researching her role as maker and human. She likes to play with certain roles that we as humans can take on in different situations and is inspired by the boundary between fiction and reality. Maud also involves her environment while exploring different ways of being together. Her practice involves different acts of care, such as cleaning and cooking, through which she explores the values of the home, family, and friendship.
Michelle Yan
Michelle Yan explores identity + intimacy and creates playful visuals. She translates these ideas with humorous sparks of fun often coated in pink. Seeing softness, and colorfulness as empowering, through textile and ceramic in an illustrative way. Different forms of identity, intimacy, self-love, togetherness, communication, and relationships are important themes in the work of Mich. She finds inspiration in everyday life, stories of others, and personal events. Her work functions as a reflecting mirror making use of personal experiences and the environment.
Süheyla Yalçın
Süheyla Yalçın is the founder of the cross-media platform NederTürk, a collection and archiving of oral history at the intersection of Dutch and Turkish identity. You might also know Süheyla as the producer and editor-in-chief of production house Fufu & Dadels. As a storyteller, she is fascinated by the oral histories that are taken for granted in many diasporic cultures. Süheyla was recently appointed as the new director of MAMA, the Rotterdam-based platform where young talent meets visual culture on the cutting edge of visual arts and popular culture, where she will continue working on making structural changes in the area of undervaluation within the overall art and design world.
Vassilena Petrova
Vassilena Petrova (b. 1996) was born and raised in Sofia, Bulgaria. After graduating from the National School of Fine Arts “Iliya Petrov,” she obtained a professional qualification as a printmaker. Soon after, she moved to the Netherlands and graduated from the Fine Arts department at Minerva Art Academy in Groningen. Since then, she has been working as a visual artist and an art educator in Rotterdam. Her work is an intertwining of traditional artistic craftsmanship with a conceptual outlook. The main theme revolves around the curiosity behind death and how decay brings life to the surrounding organisms.
Zazi Creyghton
Within their work, Zazi Creyghton is trying to bring up questions surrounding, belonging, connecting with others as well as the struggle that may come with this. Through fictive storytelling via audio and installation, they try to create worlds that reflect these struggles and figure out what they might need to find comfort. The stories and questions they bring up and work with are very much part of their own search about being queer and experiencing issues around mental health. And though these themes aren’t necessarily directly seen or heard within the work, they’re the starting point of Zazi’s stories.
Exhibiting artists
Álvaro Talavera
Charli Herrington
Gordon H. Williams and Fire Is Scary
Lotte van Dooremalen
Maria Mombers
Martina Farrugia
Michelle Yan
Vassilena Petrova
Zazi Creyghton
With live events by
Álvaro Talavera
Charli Herrington
Dicle Gülsahin
Gordon H. Williams and Koen Boeijinga
Ilidia Medina
Maud Berden and Naomi Jansen
Süheyla Yalçın
a.k.a. MAMA is
Álvaro Talavera
Anneke Ykema
Antonia Bobik
Charli Herrington
Dicle Gülsahin
Felicitas Lenz
Gordon H. Williams and Fire Is Scary
Ilidia Medina
Ivo Sieben
Kim de Haas
Koen Boeijinga
Lara ter Braak
Lotte van Dooremalen
Maria Mombers
Martina Farrugia
Maud Berden and Naomi Jansen
Michelle Yan
Nadine Rooij
Stefania Macchiafava
Süheyla Yalçın
Vassilena Petrova
Zazi Creyghton
Organized by
Álvaro Talavera
Antonia Bobik
Charli Herrington
Stefania Macchiafava
Designed by
Anneke Ykema
About IRL
Our lives are dominated by the self-produced realities that we encounter on the internet and social media. This tension between fact and fiction touches upon the core of our leitmotiv IN REAL LIFE. The only way to escape the post-truth is to meet each other in real life. We facilitate these meetings in the form of readings, lectures, masterclasses, workshops, excursions and parties that tangibly express the ideas behind HOME | IN REAL LIFE | NETWORKS.
