Charis Way-Way wanders through the city with her analog camera, searching for moments of presence. In Echoes of Presence, she focuses her lens on the people who inhabit the Vaartkom or happen to pass by. Their faces, postures, and gazes together form an archive of everyday life—a collection of small stories that are rarely recorded but tell us a lot about who we are and how we live together.

The artist uses photography as a means of preserving lost or forgotten stories. She fills in what is missing in official archives with human presence, warmth, and attention. Her images function as silent testimonies, but also as mirrors in which others can recognize themselves.

By displaying the photos in public spaces under plexiglass, they become part of everyday life and the environment reflects the work: light, weather conditions, and movement join the images. With ‘Echoes of Presence’, she invites visitors to wander, look, and listen to what would otherwise pass them by. Each image is an encounter, and none is definitive.

Anyone who has ever made kombucha knows that this is a scoby: the slimy layer that forms when making the drink. It consists of bacteria and yeasts: living organisms that need care. And that is exactly what German artist Anna Franzen does.

Anna has been cultivating her own scobies for two years. She enjoys working with natural materials and believes that they carry traces of memories. Each scoby grows slowly, requiring attention, care, and time. This process has created a special bond between her and the material. One day, she even decided to go swimming with her largest scoby, an encounter between human and organism.

With this work, Anna explores what happens when the scobies leave the safe environment of the jar. Do they change color, smell, or shape? Here you can follow their transformation as they react to their new environment.

With Botanica from the Gardens and Peripheries of Future, Rotterdam-based artist Vanda Vlašičová explores how plants might evolve in the future to survive in a world affected by humans. Inspired by science fiction and her own imagination, Vanda designs new plant species that learn to cope with pollution and climate change. She imagines plants that develop thicker skin, form sturdier leaves, or learn to protect themselves in other ways. These ideas come to life in her sculptures: they appear both vulnerable and strong, real and imagined.

Vanda's work invites visitors to wander through an imaginary botanical garden, where art and science merge. The sculptures are in direct contact with their environment: they are weatherproof, but change with rain, sun, or touch. In this way, they literally remain in motion, just like nature itself.

In addition to her sculptural work, Vanda also creates "scientific" captions, as if her fictional plants really exist. In this way, she invites us to look differently at what lives and to imagine a world in which humans and plants coexist in balance.

Bauke is a true wanderer and enjoys observing the small things that often go unnoticed. They transform these into shadow objects, which play a major role in their work. They show traces of people, moments, and everyday life. Bauke is always searching for the boundary between what seems to be present and what is about to disappear.

Bauke wandered around the Vaartkom and noticed that old and new coexist here. There are still many old industrial buildings, such as grain silos, alongside new residential areas. This contrast inspired them to stretch a soft, new canvas in a hard metal frame.

Just as the environment is constantly changing, so is the artwork. As soon as the sun shifts, the shadow objects can fall differently, or they move with the wind. So you can see it as an archive of objects from the Vaartkom, which is also constantly changing and adapting to its surroundings.

Fiona Guillemant introduces you to an almost forgotten piece of history of the Vaartkom. Long ago, various types of hops were grown here, a plant that brewers use to flavor beer. Many of those old hop varieties disappeared, and some were only recently rediscovered when researchers, brewers, and plant experts started looking through old documents and plant collections again.

In Unlockers, Fiona tells this story with a series of old, reused lockers. In each locker, you will discover a piece of the past: drawings of hop plants, old archive images, and the scent of dried hops that Fiona collected from people who work with the plant. In this installation, you will discover, step by step, the forgotten plants that once grew here.

One locker remains closed. It represents the hop varieties that are still missing, but also the gaps in our knowledge of plants and biodiversity. The keys that are ready and waiting invite you to try to open the locker, which is also a reference to how research and curiosity can reveal hidden stories.