We are excited to launch the second of two Exchanges residency rounds in Amsterdam Nieuw-West, bringing three Seed Awardees— OLDY BLAQ from Ghana, Soft Circuit Babe from Mexico & Marcus Deusdedit from Brazil — together with three partners rooted in the neighbourhood: Van Eesteren Museum, the Bookstore Foundation and Buurtwerkplaats Noorderhof.
Cover image courtesy of Soft Circuit Babe.
Featured participants
At The Bookstore Foundation, Ghanaian sustainable fashion artist and designer OLDY BLAQ works with PleinMode, the clothing swap-shop at PleinKamer. Known for his minimalist, deconstructive and anti-fashion practice, he transforms donated and discarded garments into zero-waste pieces, exploring circular design, upcycling and cultural expression. His residency unfolds at the Blue Gallery, where his studio becomes an open space for encounters, workshops and conversations with the neighbourhood.
At Buurtwerkplaats Noorderhof, Mexican electronics artist and sonic researcher Soft Circuit Babe immerses herself in the workshop’s community of makers. Working at the intersection of handmade instruments, collective learning and electromagnetic phenomena, she leads DIY electronic music-making workshops while developing a personal project: an automated instrument that can play itself.
At the Van Eesteren Museum, Brazilian artist and architect Marcus Deusdedit explores how bodies move through public space and the histories embedded within it. Looking at Amsterdam Nieuw-West through the traces of the city’s colonial past, particularly the legacy of the VOC, he combines research, observation and encounters to consider how history continues to shape the city and how it is experienced today.
Each residency culminates in a public moment, with the outcomes presented through Museumnacht and exhibitions or presentations at the host organisations.
Past Exchanges in Nieuw-West
The first of two Exchanges residency rounds took place in Amsterdam Nieuw-West, bringing together three artists from Morocco — 2025 Seed Awardee Sophia Alami, 2024 Seed Awardee Driss Ouaamar and 2021 Seed Awardee Mehdi Ouahmane — with three partners rooted in the neighbourhood: Van Eesteren Museum, the Bookstore Foundation and Buurtwerkplaats Noorderhof.
Running from 29 June–30 July, the artists were hosted together at Maqam, each developing a residency in close dialogue with their host and the surrounding neighbourhood.
Exchanges is made possible through the generous support from the City of Amsterdam.
About Van Eesteren Museum
The Van Eesteren Museum tells the story of Amsterdam's garden cities and the modernist vision behind Nieuw-West, focusing on voices and perspectives often underrepresented within cultural institutions, through exhibitions, talks and presentations, workshops, and cycling and walking tours.
About The Bookstore Foundation
The Bookstore Foundation is an artistic initiative in Amsterdam Nieuw-West, a district where much of the population has a migration background. Together with a group of artists across disciplines, it organises cultural and social activities for and with the local community, from exhibitions and concerts to communal meals, gardening projects and textile and recycling workshops.
About Buurtwerkplaats Noorderhof
Buurtwerkplaats Noorderhof, run by the Head, Hands, Heart and Hammer foundation, is an ongoing social design project in the shape of a neighbourhood workshop: a participatory, collaborative worksite and meeting place where society is shaped in a humble and organic way, with the tools that art, design, craft and making have to offer.
