08/05/2026
Up next at Garage Rotterdam โ ๐๐ผ๐ ๐ง๐ผ: ๐๐ถ๐๐ถ๐ป๐ด ๐ง๐ต๐ฟ๐ผ๐๐ด๐ต ๐๐ป๐๐๐ฟ๐๐ฐ๐๐ถ๐ผ๐ป๐, curated by Marijn Bril, winner of the 2026 Garage Rotterdam Prize for Young Curators.
Join us for the festive exhibition opening on Friday 22 May 2026 - 7 PM. Free entry!
Participating artists: Effi & Amir, Tingyi Jiang, Eva & Franco Mattes, Lana Mesiฤ, Yoko Ono, Josรฉ Quintanar, Coralie Vogelaar, and Erwin Wurm.
To proceed, please follow the instructions carefully.
Instructions are everywhere. From fitness routines and makeup tutorials to algorithms, official procedures, and implicit codes of conduct, they shape how we move through everyday life. At first glance, they appear as neutral tools โ simply as ways to get things done. They help us operate a device, follow a workout, or complete a form correctly. At the same time, instructions translate complex realities into manageable steps, defining what counts as logical, desirable, or successful. As such, they encode cultural norms, institutional priorities, and power dynamics.
๐๐ผ๐ ๐ง๐ผ: ๐๐ถ๐๐ถ๐ป๐ด ๐ง๐ต๐ฟ๐ผ๐๐ด๐ต ๐๐ป๐๐๐ฟ๐๐ฐ๐๐ถ๐ผ๐ป๐ approaches instructions both as a method and as a subject of critical inquiry. Through performative strategies, illustrations, and video installations, the artists examine how instructions shape behaviour, identities, and perception. They dissect manuals, rewrite tutorials, and develop new instructions that โ echoing the spirit of Fluxus โ range from poetic to absurd.
What happens when an instruction is decontextualised, parodied, or deliberately distorted? The artists in this exhibition render visible the assumptions embedded in these systems, shifting instructions from fixed directives into sites of negotiation.
Effi & Amir
๐ธ Eva & Franco Mattes, The Bots, 2020, installation view Frankfurter Kunstverein 2023, photo: Melania Dalle Grave, DSL Studio, courtesy: the artists & Apalazzo Gallery.