Roos Schneijderberg

The large site-specific installation REMEMBER (MEMENTO), 2026 was on view for four days during the Big Art exhibition in Rotterdam and was designed specifically for the neglected historic Codrico factory hall. All the elements used, were waste materials, sourced from dumpsters at Rotterdam’s recycling center or found on the Codrico factory grounds.

Broken objects that are considered undesirable, were elevated to something beautiful and arranged in such a way that they evoked a sense of tension and raised questions.

The architecture, the irregularities in the given space, the added items, the shadows, the contrasts, and the placement all worked together to form a picture of unusual stillness, composed of artifacts in a given space. It seemed as if the veil of a hidden history had been lifted, revealing an empty scene of dramatic poetry.

At the center stands the mirrored plaster bed, also made from scrap materials: an old mattress placed on a discarded door. What does the bed remind you of? What one sees is determined by one’s own history. Let it remind you of love, or of sorrow. Of nights of pain or romance? The bed is the place where life often begins, yet also ends. It is the place of the unconscious and of healing, but also of suffering.

The minimalist nature of the plaster-covered bed serves as a mirror for one’s own memories and as a memento mori. Just a crumpled sheet and a pillow, unbound by any specific time or standard of living.

The installation stands behind a fence, just as memories are also elusive.

 “Alienation in time and place

Since her participation in Big Art in 2023, Roos Schneijderberg has used a variety of techniques to create a dialogue between reality and its representations, with the aim of disturb, delight, or mesmerize us. She uses installations, performances and combines found or new created materials and objects. All in order to change the perspectives on time, memory and the meaning of words or images.

… In this current installation two beds form the centre of a set in a brutalistic architecture of a former factory building. The contrast with history and softness and an industrial surrounding couldn't be stronger. The beds can refer to (broken) dreams and also to (forgotten) time(s). Certain left-over objects circulate and enforce the feeling of destruction. The fence that unables the public to come nearer creates both a physical and metal barrier.

The shifts in perspective, dislocations and a suggestive interplay makes her work universal, unsettling and reassuring at the same time. Although sentiments seem to be left out, she creates atmospheres of uneasiness where personal experiences can come to the surface.”

Maarten Bertheux - former curator at the Stedelijk Museum Amsterdam, curator and writer on modern and contemporary art