South Forward in DHB Art Space

Artists and Rotterdam residents shaping a sustainable city together

DHB Bank is once again the main sponsor of Art Rotterdam. This year, DHB Art Space presents South Forward, a continuation of the 2025 presentation Echoes of Us.

The project starts from a simple but powerful idea. Rotterdam South holds a wealth of knowledge, creativity and imagination that actively contributes to shaping the city’s future.

DHB Art Space functions as a place where art allows for other ways of seeing. Not by offering explanations or solutions, but by creating space for stories, imagination and everyday realities. It is within this space that dialogue can emerge. Encounters and exchanges that do not happen naturally, yet are essential for understanding one another, are made possible here.

Jeanthalou Haynes, curator at Unity in Diversity Rotterdam, reflects:
“Through our work at Unity in Diversity, we see Rotterdam South as a living source of stories. In many ways, it is the garden of Art Rotterdam: the neighbourhood surrounding Ahoy, where people work every day on coexistence, care and thinking ahead. With South Forward, we invite visitors to engage with the stories of the place they are in, and with the people who shape it.”

South Forward is developed in close collaboration with residents, artists and local initiatives from Rotterdam South. The project explores themes such as sustainability, community strength and everyday life, drawing from stories and practices that exist within the neighbourhoods themselves. This way of working together forms the core of the project.

During Art Rotterdam 2026, DHB Art Space presents newly developed work by Karla King, Melissa Moria and Urvee Kulkarni. Each artist works from their own artistic practice, connecting artistic research, sustainable materials and local narratives. Their work opens up ways of imagining how care, community and living together can take form, now and in the future.

South Forward invites visitors not only to look, but to listen, to reflect and to enter into conversation with the stories that continue to shape life in Rotterdam South.