City Artist 2020

How are the Rotterdam residents coping with the new reality of the ‘intelligent lockdown’? From Saturday 12 September, three Rotterdam city artists will each present their own perspective on the impact of the coronavirus on the city in the exhibition ‘Drawn: Rotterdam!’, a commission of the Rotterdam City Archives and CBK Rotterdam given to the artists Frank Stoks, Pris Roos, and Erico Smit. Wearing face masks at the market, having awkward conversations at a social distance of 1.5 metres, and the first day on the reopened outdoor terraces; everyday scenes in the new normal as seen through the eyes of three artists.

 

From Saturday 12 September up to and including Sunday 1 November 2020, Frank Stoks (1971) will be the first artist whose work is shown and recorded in the City Archives.

With a camping chair and an iPad under his arm, he roams the city in search of places where Rotterdammers are still able to come together despite the measures. The narrative drawings – chronologically presented and framed in sturdy, black lines – offer an insight into the process of carefully slackening the measures. Stoks for instance draws amateur athletes running through, by that time, green and blossoming parks, the elated visitors of the reopened market, and the café terraces where Rotterdammers were finally allowed to sit down again on Whit Monday.