more than words, threads, bodies and corpses, lines/boundaries, kurá, gifts..
Graduation Presentation 2026 – Master Education in Arts, Piet Zwart Institute / Willem de Kooning Academy Rotterdam University of Applied Sciences
With:
Axel Coumans, Mariz Cortez, Alice Degelow, Heidi van Gorp, Femke van Heijningen, Ana Rita Leitão, Paulina Martina, Marie Panken, Carlo Pareti, lisa peake (lotus), Mariana Jorge Dos Santos, Maite Vanhellemont.
Curated by: Angela Serino, guest tutor.
Piet Zwart Institute - Master Education in Arts
Date: 4 July 2026, Kunstinstituut Melly, Rotterdam
Title:
more than
words, threads, bodies and corpses, lines / boundaries, kurá, gifts, baumschule, emergenc(y), conflicts, … hormones, soil, ใจ, fetish, zichtbaarheid, subjectificatie, towers, pflegschaft, attrito, tension, nieuwsgierigheid, línguagem, رسائل, bomen, papel, twists, zorg, keepsakes, comma, property, seeds, eggs
here
Glossary: kurá (PAP) to heal, to care for · baumschule (DE) tree nursery · ใจ (TH, jai) heart, mind, spirit · zichtbaarheid (NL) visibility · subjectificatie (NL) subjectification · pflegschaft (DE) guardianship, custodianship · attrito (IT) friction · nieuwsgierigheid (NL) curiosity · línguagem (PT) language · رسائل (AR, rasā’il) letters, messages · bomen (NL) trees · papel (PT) paper, role · zorg (NL) care
At Melly, the students bring their graduate research together, asking how spaces of belonging for others can be woven into institutional structures and shared community life. Works and public activities create room for conversations, encounters, and situated and embodied learning, open to all.
This year’s title is a sequence of words in flux, coming from various languages: English, Dutch, Italian, German, Portuguese, Arabic, Thai and Papiamento. Reading almost as a poem, it is the result of the students’ desire to avoid any single, easy definition, and to accept complexity and nuance in return. Each voice, each practice, refuses to be a pinpoint on a map, or to reproduce a definition, theoretical or otherwise, that leaves no room for change and transformation. Words in this case are not just carriers of meaning. Held together by stitches and threads, they become a sort of protective spell, like a fabric that can be stretched, folded and carried around, born from the multiple, overlapping needs and desires of the people who made it.
Read it aloud, all of it, and see where the words take you.
Design of the identity/poster: lisa peake (lotus), Alice Degelow, lisa, Maite Vanhellemont.
All photos by Öncü H Gültekin, studio falan.
