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At the heart of SOMNIA lies the convergence of dream, nature, and body; three forces that shape how we experience both the world around us and the world within. The dream represents the subconscious, a realm where logic dissolves and imagination takes form. Nature grounds us in cycles, materials, and organic rhythms, while the body serves as both vessel and boundary, sensory, emotional, and ever-changing.

 

This exhibition explores how these elements interweave: how the fluid logic of dreams mirrors the flow of natural forms; how the body remembers, transforms, and connects to the land; and how we enter a state of heightened sensitivity where the internal and external become one.

 

Bringing together the work of five artists: Eva Krause, Shirley van de Wiel, Mia van der Burg, and the dynamic artist duo V&B (Alex Jacobs and Ellemieke Schoenmaker), this exhibition unfolds as a lucid dream where time, space, and matter shift and merge.

 

Each artist approaches the enduring dialogue between humanity and the environment through a distinct lens. 

 

Eva Krause’s paintings hover between realism and surrealism, inviting the viewer into a world that is at once familiar and otherworldly. Her dreamlike landscapes resist fixed narratives, offering instead a visual terrain in which to wander, reflect, and dissolve.

 

Shirley van de Wiel crafts soft, textile-based sculptures that explore the intimacy of the body and its unspoken language. Her works, with their gentle curves and muted hues, articulate vulnerability and fluidity, echoing themes of gender, sensuality, and quiet strength.

 

Mia van der Burg turns to the natural world as both material and her muse. Her warm sculptural forms, always crafted from wool, exude an organic presence. These works speak to the transience of existence and the quiet persistence of life cycles—decay and renewal held in delicate balance.

 

With their multifaceted practice, V&B bring an edge of unpredictability to the exhibition. Their work shifts seamlessly between abstraction and figuration, image and object, inviting a playful yet critical reflection on perception, form, and meaning.

 

Together, these artists create a shared yet pluralistic dreamspace, a realm where the body meets the earth, where inner landscapes unfold, and where nature becomes not just subject but collaborator.

SOMNIA is an invitation to slow down, to drift, and to feel.

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List of participating artists:

Eva Krause

Shirley van de Wiel

Mia van der Burg

V&B

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Art direction: 

Vladimir Radujkov

 

 

Counterbodies were made possible by:

Gemeente Rotterdam, Gebiedskomissie Kralingen Crooswijk

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Huge thank you to our partners:

De Achtertuin 

 

 

Special thanks to:

Melanie Tissen

 

 

Photo credits:

Jan Arsenovic

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