Art Office

Artist Sandro Setola presents The (Rotterdam) Root, a virtual three-dimensional root system that proliferates and floats between existing buildings – thanks to augmented reality (AR) becomes visible to everyone in Rotterdam. On Thursday 12 May at 18:00 PM, Setola will demonstrate the app and a guided tour will take place in Het Nieuwe Instituut.

Scan the QR code at the entrance of Het Nieuwe Instituut to discover the building at the interface of reality and imagination. Until May 3, related chalk and charcoal works from the series of drawings are in Gallery 29 in the New Institute Loose Ends and the animation film Junction in which Setola has previously intertwined dream worlds, architecture and the contact between people.

The (Rotterdam) Root stems from a crisis period. New construction plans from the municipality meant that Setola had to tear down its studio building in 2020. He was left without workspace at a time of an increasing lack of creative space. On top of that came the restrictions of covid-19 that kept many presentation places closed. Of The (Rotterdam) Root Setola claims space in the city in an almost megalomaniac way, without needing even a cubic meter of land. This inverted root system hangs above and between the buildings, thus connecting brick reality with the unstoppable urge for imagination.

The (Rotterdam) ROOT was partly realized thanks to financial contributions from CBK Rotterdam, Stichting Droom en Daad and MondriaanFonds.