Kunstinstituut Melly

Kunstinstituut Melly is a contemporary art gallery located in a former school building on Witte de Withstraat, in Rotterdam, the Netherlands. The center was founded in 1990. It presents curated exhibitions, symposiums, live events, educational programs, and has a separate art literature publishing arm.
On 7 September 2017, the Centre announced it would change its name over a number of years to separate it from the Dutch naval agent, Witte de With and to recognise the negative impacts of colonialism. From 27 June 2020 onwards, the Centre entered a period of "namelessness", removing all branding, forming renaming committees and engaging online surveys and roundtables to decide on a new name to come into effect on 27 January 2021. The new name "Kunstinstituut Melly", was announced in October 2020, in reference to an art piece displayed on an outside wall of the building called "Melly Shum Hates Her Job".
History.
The project formerly known as the Witte de With Center for Contemporary Art was established in 1990 as a center for contemporary art with the mission of curating and exhibiting international art exhibitions. It is based in a former school building, sharing it with the TENT gallery. It presents curated exhibitions, symposiums, live events, educational programs, and has a separate art literature publishing arm.
Witte de With celebrated its 25th anniversary in 2015. Chris Dercon was the first director of Witte de With from 1990 to 1996. He was followed by Bartomeu Marí (1996–2001), Catherine David (2002–2004), Hans Maarten van den Brink (2004–2006) and Nicolaus Schafhausen (2006–2011). Defne Ayas was appointed director in 2012, and was succeeded by Sofía Hernández Chong Cuy in 2018.
Name change.
On 17 September 2017, the center announced it would be changing its title because it was named after Witte de With, a Dutch naval officer who had worked for both the Dutch East India Company and the Dutch West India Company and therefore was associated with colonialism. Then director Defne Ayas commented "We were named after our location in 1990, the street in which we are situated is named after. Naming art institutions after locations in a bid to affirm neutrality was a trend in those days". The problem with the name was highlighted by critic Egbert Alejandro Martina during preparatory meetings for the exhibition Cinema Olanda: Platform, which ran alongside the Dutch pavilion at the Venice Biennale. An open letter from Martina and others then stated that "Witte de With has 'failed' to come to terms with its own internal contradictions, and has yet to reckon with the historical figure it symbolically embodies".
In response, the center titled its next exhibition Witte de With; What’s in a name?. The ongoing debate became a national controversy. By January 2020, questions were being asked in the mainstream media about why the center had not changed its name. In June 2020, as part of the George Floyd protests in the Netherlands, activists vandalized symbols of colonialism in Rotterdam. These included the Piet Hein statue in Delfshaven, the Pim Fortuyn memorial and the Witte de With Center, where they left handprints in red paint. In response, the center immediately took down its name board from the building and director Sofia Hernandez Chong Cuy announced that there would be a consultation period and then a new name would be announced on January 27 2021. The centre produced a timeline to record the process.
Selected exhibitions.
In 2009 a year-long program at Witte de With was structured as a series of group shows, presentations, performances, screenings and debates including participations by Dineo Seshee Bopape, D.O.R., Simon Denny, Yngve Holen, Mark Leckey, Patrizio di Massimo, Lili Reynaud-Dewar, and Jeremy Shaw.
Douglas Coupland held an exhibition called "Bit Rot" at the center in 2016.
In 2019, the center hosted a solo show by Firelei Báez about the Haitian Revolution.