The Hartwig Art Production | Collection Fund announces the Commissioning Committee and first commissions for the period 2021/23 The Hartwig Art Production | Collection Fund Commissioning Committee 2021/23 builds upon the achievements and ambitions of the inaugural Special Project 2020/21 , for which the alumni of post academic programmes and residency organisations for artists and curators in the Netherlands were invited to define its parameters. The Commissioning Committee 2021/23 comprise s a group of highly renowned institution directors and curators who will remain in place for a three - year period: Myriam Ben Salah (Director and Chief Curator, the Renaissance Society, Chicago) Carolyn Christov Bakargiev (Director, Castello di Rivoli Muse o d'Arte Contemporanea, Rivoli - Turin) Charl Landvreugd (Artist and Educator, Head of Research & Curatorial Practice Stedelijk Museum Amsterdam) Sohrab Mohebbi (Curator - at - Large, SculptureCenter, New York and Curator of the 58th Carnegie International, Pitt sburgh) Gabi Ngcobo (Curatorial Director, Javett Art Centre, University of Pretoria) Emily Pethick (Director, Rijksakademie van beeldende kunsten, Amsterdam) Philip Tinari (Director and CEO, UCCA Center for Contemporary Art, Beijing) Portraits: Carolyn Christov - Bakargiev, photo by Andrea Guermani. Gabi Ngcobo, photo by Javett - UP. Myriam Ben Salah, photo by Saskia Lawaks. Emily Pethick, photo by Christa Holka. Charl Landvreugd, photo by Rene Bosch. Sohrab Mohebbi, photo by Sabrina Santiago. Philip Tinari, image courtesy UCCA Center for Contemporary Art, photo by Stefen Chow. The first artists selected by the Commissioning Committee 2021/23 are Meriem Bennani , Grada Kilomba , Nolan Oswald Dennis and Monira Al Qadiri . The selected works, currently in various phases of production, will be acquired through the Hartwig Art Production | Collection Fund. All the acquired works will be donated to the collection of the Dutch state (the ‘Rijkscollectie’) and will be ava ilable for institutional loans in the Netherlands and abroad. Further selected artists will be announced soon. Myriam Ben Salah about Meriem Bennani, Life on the CAPS (2018 – 2022): “Meriem Bennani's trilogy Life on the CAPS is situated in a near speculat ive future where teleportation has replaced air travel and changed the grounds for legal and illegal immigration. Life on the CAPS is a magnum opus of Bennani's genre - bending practice, taking to the next stage her ability to integrate dual - purpose story li nes that carry both entertainment and analogy. I am pleased to have facilitated together with the Commissioning Committee the acquisition of a new version of Bennani's most ambitious project to date.” Carolyn Christov - Bakargiev , on Grada Kilomba, 18 verse s [of a boat] (2021 – 2022): “I am thrilled that Grada Kilomba’s new installation is being acquired by the Hartwig Art Foundation. Based on a poem written by Grada, this piece conflates into one constellation past, present and future and refers to the repe tition of systemic racism through a reference to the boats used in the slave trade and more recently in migration over the Mediterranean. In an era of melancholy post - humanism such as our own, her work suggests the need for art to imagine a new non - digital climate: to explore the human condition while also creating cosmogonies based on continuities between the human and the non - human natural world.” Gabi Ngcobo , on Nolan Oswald Dennis, Specifications for a Reverse Archaeology (2022): “The work of artist No lan Oswald Dennis engages with current discussions around remediating the contentious colonial heritage of technical and science museums – asking whether a non - imperial and de - colonial approach to these types of museum collections unearth other disposition s, lines of possibility and potential histories. For the acquisition Dennis further complicates these concerns by posing questions around the discipline of archaeology and its techno - political bonds with other histories of extraction as conventions of colo nial practices. These questions are being actively posed in the context of the Netherlands, placing Dennis’ research enquiries right in the middle of historical museum practices that need to be rethought and reimagined.” Philip Tinari , on Monira Al Qadiri , Future Past 3 (2022): “Monira Al Qadiri examines urgent contemporary phenomena, particularly resource extraction, in narratives laced with mystical wonder. The Commissioning Committee has decided to acquire Future Past 3 , a vast rotating sculpture that d epicts a shimmering drill - bit used to extract crude oil from underneath the ground. The tool symbolises the growth (and potential death) of nations, cultures and economies, which Al Qadiri presents as a possible machine from the future or an extra - terrestr ial creature from a sci - fi film. I strongly believe that the acquired work, the artist’s global perspective and her formal sensitivity will contribute uniquely to the ‘Rijkscollectie’.” Beatrix Ruf, Director, Hartwig Art Foundation: “I am excited about the range and the breadth of interests and specialities demonstrated by the Commissioning Committee 2021/23 and am looking forwards to see what kind of projects will be donated to the Dutch state over the course of the next three years. It is an honour for the Hartwig Art Foundation to be able to bring these highly respected professionals together to continue our collecting project.” Editors’ Notes The Hartwig Art Production | Collection Fund Encouraging experimentation and creativity at the highest lev el, the Hartwig Art Production | Collection Fund enables artists to realise ambitious production ideas. Each year, the series of newly produced artworks will be acquired by the Hartwig Art Foundation and then donated to the Dutch national art collection (t he 'Rijkscollectie’). The Hartwig Art Production | Collection Fund is managed and overseen by the Hartwig Art Foundation For further information please visit www.hartwigartfoundation.nl For press requests please contact: Rhiannon Pickles at Pickles PR rhiannon@picklespr.com | +31 (0)615 821 202