We are excited to launch the first of two Exchanges residency rounds in Amsterdam Nieuw-West, bringing three artists from Morocco — 2025 Seed Awardee Sophia Alami, 2024 Seed Awardee Driss Ouaamar and 2021 Seed Awardee Mehdi Ouahmane — together with three partners rooted in the neighbourhood: Van Eesteren Museum, the Bookstore Foundation and Buurtwerkplaats Noorderhof.
Running from 29th June – 30th July, the artists are hosted together at Maqam, each developing a residency in close dialogue with their host and the surrounding neighbourhood.
Public event
Nieuw-West is a district shaped by bicultural communities, many with roots in Morocco and journeys that move between here and there. With this round, Exchanges extends its presence into the west of the city, working beyond the institutional circuit and placing local audiences at the heart of the exchange. Each residency is content-driven and context-specific, shaped by the artist's practice and the life of the organisation hosting them.
At Buurtwerkplaats Noorderhof, a participatory neighbourhood workshop, Mehdi Ouahmane embeds in the daily rhythm of the worksite and its community. A visual artist whose work engages the climate emergency, he is paired with a young researcher working with walking as a method, opening up his process so that making, reflecting and sharing happen in full view.
At the Van Eesteren Museum, Sophia Alami's residency unfolds alongside the summer exhibition "On the Road, Traveling Home", which begins from the journeys Nieuw-West families make "home" to countries such as Morocco. An architect and artist working with family archives, henna, food and writing, Sophia takes belonging, memory and the question of what we carry with us and bring back as her point of departure.
At the Bookstore Foundation, Driss Ouaamar joins the community-rooted programme at the John Locke Hof studios in the Rousseau neighbourhood. A multidisciplinary artist and filmmaker, he brings his work with mythology, migration, ritual and oral traditions into the neighbourhood, developing his project alongside local artists and residents.
Each residency culminates in a public moment, with a format as open as the work itself — from presentations and exhibitions to gatherings within the neighbourhood.
Exchanges is made possible through the generous support from the City of Amsterdam.
Featured participants
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.