Spatial Encounters #3: Culture Walk
- Date
- 5 December 2025
- Time
- 16:00 -19:00
- Location
- W139
Moving from one site to another, participants will hear directly from cultural practitioners about their approaches: how exhibition design, curatorial strategies, and programming connect art to real life, engage audiences with social issues, and open space for public dialogue.
We begin at W139 at 16:00, where Margarita Osipian, part of the space’s Artistic Team, will introduce the space—a historic experimental, collective art venue and cultural haven in an increasingly gentrified area of the city center.
At 17:00 we head to Oude Kerk, Amsterdam’s oldest building hosting contemporary art exclusively made for its space. There, curator Marianna van der Zwaag will guide us through the exhibition and expand on the space’s curatorial approach.
We end the afternoon at VOX-POP for a communal soup dinner by Toko Nani and a slow conversation about what we see and think about art and culture in De Wallen and beyond.
Please note: you will need an admission ticket to visit the Oude Kerk. You must purchase this ticket yourself (on site). Admission is free with a Museum Card or ICOM card.
Programme
16.00 - 16.45 — W139 with Margarita Osipian
16.55 - 17.40 — Oude Kerk with Marianna van der Zwaag
17.50 - 19.00 — Soup & slow art talk at VOX-POP
Speakers
Margarita Osipian is an independent curator, researcher, and cultural organiser who is part of W139's artistic team. Together with Tomas Adolfs and Claudio Ritfeld, she sets the artistic and curatorial program for W139, working closely together with the artists who have been invited to initiate exhibitions there.
Marianna van der Zwaag has been the curator of the Oude Kerk since 2017, aiming to merge contemporary art and heritage in a modern, compelling way. She curated the current installation on display at the Oude Kerk: There's Always Another Twist by Minne Kersten—an audiovisual piece that weaves together spiritual imagination with the magic of early film techniques. The church's twenty-five-metre-high spiral staircases serve as the central motif. There's Always Another Twist exposes the forces and mechanisms that shape what we notice and what escapes us.
About W139
W139 is an artist-driven production and presentation space for contemporary art in central Amsterdam. Founded in 1979, when artists squatted the building, it has remained embedded in an engaged, intergenerational community of makers. W139 prioritises experimentation, offering artists room to take risks and develop urgent, ambitious projects. Located in an increasingly gentrified area, it provides a rare, accessible stage for experimental art in the city centre. W139's programmes feature large-scale exhibitions, public events, and projects developed with a diverse group of artists, including through open calls.
About Zoi Psimmenou
Zoi Psimmenou is an interdisciplinary researcher, content developer, public programmer, and exhibition designer with a background in architecture and an MA in Museum Studies from the University of Amsterdam. She bridges research, curation, and spatial design to create embodied and activating encounters with art, design, and architectural heritage. Her work draws on critical museology and decolonial theory to explore how space, exhibition design, and curatorial practice can unsettle authoritative power structures and foster critical, socially engaged exhibition experiences. She continues this inquiry through the public programme Spatial Encounters as Resident Programme Curator at VOX-POP.