INTERNATIONAL FILM FESTIVAL ROTTERDAM (IFFR)
31 January – 8 February, 2025
Art Directions Programme
International Film Festival Rotterdam (IFFR) is partnering with Katoenhuis on the 2025 edition of its Art Directions programme - a space dedicated to immersive media where the festival steps out of the screening room and pushes the limits of what cinema can be, with immersive works from multidisciplinary creators.
The Immersive Media programme at IFFR 2025 invites audiences to step into transformative experiences that merge tradition, technology, and storytelling in groundbreaking ways. Together, these works redefine immersive art as a medium for cultural reflection and personal transformation.
Katoenhuis will feature four installations, including world premieres, alongside all of the IFFR’s immersive works.
This collaboration represents the start of a long-term partnership, establishing the venue as the new home for Art Directions and further expanding the festival's vision of storytelling beyond the screening room.
Vanja Kaludjercic, Festival Director at IFFR, said: “Art Directions is a distinctive programme within IFFR which allows audiences to explore the possibilities of cinema and the moving image outside the bounds of a film theatre – creating an accessible interaction between artist, artwork, and audience. Katoenhuis shares our excitement about the future of storytelling and the potential of new media as a tool for creators – and partnering with them both brings IFFR physically into a new neighbourhood and widens the possibilities for this programme both in the upcoming edition and years to come.”
For Art Directions: installations tickets click here.
For Art Directions: immersive media tickets click here.
Opening times Katoenhuis:
Friday and Saturday from 12:00 until 21:00
Sunday to Thursday from 12:00 until 20:00
Immersive media:
Revival Roadshow by Luke Conroy and Anne Fehres
The Revival Roadshow takes viewers on an absurd and playful exploration of colonial history and its modern and speculative legacies. Taking the legacy of 17th century Dutch explorer Abel Tasman as its point of departure and blending cinema, theatre and visual art, this absurd, humorous and speculative roadshow allows each viewer to experience their own unique journey.
Show Me the Light – VR Silent Disco by Studio VRij
We humans may have created the digital revolution, but we’re ignoring if this unstoppable progress now reigns over us. Studio VRij proposes a virtual path of light and sound through this crossroad. Based on Brass Rave Unit’s latest single, this is an immersive journey of energising techno-instrumental wind and percussion music, accelerating towards the future, looking for lightning in the midst of this darkness.
Rave by Patrick Muroni
Shy, but excited, you hang out with your older sister and her friends before joining them for what will be your first-ever rave. Right as you leave, the water bottle from which you’ve been sipping generously turns out to have been spiked with LSD. Heartbeat racing, and anticipation building, all that’s between you and the acid techno playing somewhere deep in the woods is finding your way there.
Lacuna by Maartje Wegdam and Nienke Huitenga Broeren
Step into a reconstruction of 84 year-old Sonja’s early childhood and the story of her parents. During World War II, as a three-year-old child, Sonja was separated from them and subsequently grew up with her aunt and uncle in Paramaribo, Suriname. Based on fragments of memories and handed down stories, a subjective history emerges, one that feels both elusive and true to life.
OTHERWORLDS by Sophia Bulgakova
Otherworlds is a VR work and participatory performance blending virtual and physical realities. A reflection on Ukrainian traditions and pre-Christian pagan rituals Otherworlds fuses ancient symbols, soundscapes of traditional instruments and ritual songs with modern XR technologies. While retracing her roots and cultural heritage, Bulgakova invites you to join her on a sensory and transformative journey that rekindles your connection with nature’s cycles and the passage of time.
Installations:
La quema (del Planeta “B”) by Francisco Baquerizo Racines
Francisco Baquerizo Racines’ La quema (del Planeta “B”) is a two-channel video installation that explores South American colonial history by depicting contemporary cultural traditions. Focussing on the mestizo tradition of burning año viejo dolls during New Year’s Eve, these dolls, often made of cardboard and rags, are ceremonially set on fire as a symbol of ending the old year and making a new, hopeful start. At the same time, Baquerizo Racines criticises the colonial fantasy of a planet “B” – the idea that colonisation or technological progress offers a way out of man-made problems such as exploitation and destruction.
The installation shows how an año viejo doll, based on a replica of the cargo ship The Amsterdam, is made. This doll was displayed at a market in Guayaquil-a port city in Ecuador on the Guayas River-and ceremonially burned at a ship breaking yard, 400 years after the Spanish attack on the city.
In this work, Francisco Baquerizo Racines connects colonial history, contemporary capitalist structures and cultural rituals, inviting us to reflect on the past and the future.