The new artistic environment by Dirrix, Van Esch, Taselaar, and Trum is the first commission for MELLY since the summer of 2020. It also replaces the core furniture used in the space since 2018, which was made by graphic designer Manuel Raeder.

Kunstinstituut Melly opens a new artistic environment in its ground floor space MELLY by temporary collective of Rotterdam based artist Koen Taselaar, architect Tomas Dirrix and graphic designers Team Thursday.

Working collaboratively, Loes van Esch and Simone Trum from the graphic-design studio known as Team Thursday, architect Tomas Dirrix, and artist Koen Taselaar, reflected on MELLY as not just a place to experience art; it is often a space used to rehearse ideas and to perform publicly.

Considering this, they envisioned that the various elements they would create for MELLY could be conceived of as a dance troupe. The flexible interior slides on wheels, allowing the room to shift, hop, flutter, from bookshop to small café, host of lectures, performances or all of that together. In this sense, the environment can host different scores and perform various kinds of functions. 

With a ludic approach all these furniture’s are equipped with wheels and some topped with lamps or plants. A stacked table performs as central gathering spot, reminiscent of a stepped fountain on a typical Italian piazza. Aside, a tryptic and nearly circular bench, named ‘Dry Jacuzzi’ creates a more intimate space for small groups. And while not all their chairs for the space include a set of wheels, their lightness, and slanted shapes do inspire movement. Or play? Or drunkenness?

A distinctive element in the new environment created by the Rotterdam makers is a trio of cone-shaped bookshelves, a design that could well refer to pompous crinolines, a Bauhaus stage costume, or the architectural centerpiece in Pieter Bruegel’s Tower of Babel. These bookshelves made from folded stainless-steel are, co-designed with Phil Proctor.

These pieces also recall archival photography showing the uses of Kunstinstituut Melly during the late nineteenth and early-twentieth centuries. Those images picture a group of women in different modalities, from studying to dancing to posing with geometric models (including a prominent cone) in what appears to be a drawing class. Built in the 1870s, Kunstinstituut Melly’s building was originally designed as a school; at present, this institution devoted to the art and theory of our present insists it is a site of learning.

The new artistic environment by Dirrix, Van Esch, Taselaar, and Trum is the first commission for MELLY since the summer of 2020. It also replaces the core furniture used in the space since 2018, which was made by graphic designer Manuel Raeder.

Type: Event and art space, cafe, bookshop
Location: Kunstinstituut Melly, Witte de Withstraat, Rotterdam
Surface: 300m²
For: Kunstinstituut Melly
When: Opened July 2023
Photos: Titia Hahne