Melkweg Expo is an exhibition space for contemporary photography and a platform for emerging artists, located in the heart of Amsterdam. With a focus on photography that explores identity, society and pop culture. Characterized by a distinctly playful and accessible approach, Melkweg Expo seeks to unveil high quality art – art that is innovative, engaging and inclusive.
Melkweg Expo’s main goal is to nurture and promote emerging talent and present them to a broad audience – from admirers of art, photography addicts, art students and self-taught artists, to the casual passers-by of the venue’s central location and music lovers surfacing from the crowd of a Melkweg concert. Melkweg Expo is part of Melkweg.
Melkweg stands for pop culture in the most broad of senses. Each year, hundreds of concerts, club nights, films and music films, theatre performances, expositions and multidisciplinary events together attract almost 540,000 visitors.
The venue is located in the only surviving factory building on the Amsterdam canal ring, a former sugar and, later, milk factory.
In the Melkweg, established names can be seen alongside new talent and emerging styles get the chance to reach a broader audience. The diversity of its programming and visitors have for years made the Melkweg a unique place.
Marjolein Busstra followed the lives of minors entangled in complex networks of sexual violence. Can the old, unprocessed memory be overwritten and processed by going back to to the locations where they felt extremely unsafe, by the collaborative act of photographing?
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Dear Mr. Welles investigates the impact of the radio broadcast: ‘The War of the worlds’ by Orson Welles by visualizing letters written to Orson Welles the days after the broadcast was aired.
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A new beginning is part of the transmedia project Shadow Game by Eefje Blankevoort and Els van Driel, produced in close collaboration with journalist and translator Zuhoor al Qaisi.
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Gangsterism in Schauderville was constructed during the apartheid era. Although apartheid is abolished, the trauma that emerged from years of oppression is still alive. This work exemplifies a humane representation of a community, trying not to let the past, nor the stereotypes, define them.
The Last Season I & II by Harmen Meinsma focuses on the cultural diversity of Rotterdam-West (NL) and the inhabitants of the campsite Hoek van Holland (NL) by selecting extraordinary personalities that he meets on the streets and photographing them using exaggerated styling and glamorous lighting. It’s a celebration of being older, different, and of not being afraid to stand out in a crowd.
Meet Mad Max Driver, Machette, Vibze, Ghost Rider, Red Devil, Lion and The Rasta Driver! These motor drivers proudly cruise through Nairobi wearing dazzling outfits on their matching bikes. The outfits are designed by Ugandan-Kenyan fashion designer Bobbin Case in the context of the collaborative project, “Boda Boda Madness” by Bobbin and Dutch artist Jan Hoek.
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