Roel Weerdenburg - Don’t Mass With My Head
Don’t Mass With My Head is the installation resulting from Roel’s Wunderplatz X Skillz residency at the WORM in Rotterdam. After the initial invitation by Henrietta Muller, they met online and talked about how the corona pandemic affected him personally, his work, his experiences, the people around him, and more. For Roel personally, the biggest impact on him was the complete overload and dependency on mass-media and virtual communication because of the pandemic. The isolation he experiences only worsens and strengthens with the continuous stream of news (both negative and positive), lack of real-life contact, and the abscence of physical contact.
This experience seemed like a good foundation to start creating an installation. It had to be overwhelming, constantly firing out information to be processed by the viewer.
The final physical result is a movable installation containing approximately 25 CRT screens, and is completely built out of recycled and secondhand materials. The screens display a diverse collection of video works made by an international and multidisciplinary selection of artists. The videos are all different approaches to video creation - it could be personal, societal, abstract or essayistic. The content is either soothing, violent, harsh or funny.
Don’t Mass With My Head is currently exhibited at WORM. Since the concept is very adaptable to other places, situations and displayed content, it’s scheduled to be placed in other locations with other selections of collaborating artists.
More with Roel Weerdenburg
In this Private Kitchen series our host Alexa Rodrigues visits Roel Weerdenburg “in the studio”. For a month, we bring you weekly a new short story from the studio in Amsterdam. Follow instagram for upcoming releases!
Director - João Rodrigues
Host - Alexa Rodrigues
Video & bio photography - Maja Silver
Editing - Nathalie de Jong & Maja Silver
Audio Mixing - Mass Audio
Producer - Rens Machielse
Producer - Sebastiaan Donders