REJECTION PARTY
13 September 2026, 16:00 to 21:00
De Bouwput, Amsterdam
You are cordially invited to celebrate a rejection. Or rather, 66 of them!
Earlier this summer, I received a rejection from the Mondriaan Fund for a project about artistic labour, precarity, solidarity and the conditions under which cultural workers sustain their practices. I have since contested the decision, but while the objection makes its way through the appropriate institutional channels, there is another thing to do: throw a party.
For one evening, De Bouwput will host my Rejections CV, a curriculum vitae made not from the exhibitions, grants, residencies, publications, jobs and opportunities that worked out, but from those that didn’t.
Running from 2017 to 2026, the CV makes visible a parallel professional history that usually disappears behind the successful one: applications written and submitted, opportunities not received, positions not offered, funding not granted, proposals not selected, and the considerable amount of unpaid labour spent applying, waiting, hoping, being evaluated, being rejected and trying again. Some rejections are heavy, some light, some forgettable, some life-altering.
The latest Mondriaan Fund rejection joins this growing CV.
There will be balloons.
There will be cake.
There will be snacks.
Come celebrate, and let’s talk about what didn’t happen. Both for yourself and for me!
