Studio 2 | de Doelen Art (i.s.m. CBK Rotterdam)

An exhibition with work by: Maria Kulikovska, Anastasiia Podervianska, Tyson Goudsmits, Asja Shkolna, Malou Busser, Daria Pugachova, Annebel Bruschinski, Madalena Dimas. Do Not Cross is an exhibition featuring eight artists, four of whom are from Ukraine, who consciously seek out, explore the safe boundaries and fixed rules in their lives and work transforming them into powerful statements. They cross forbidden lines, each demonstrating in their own way the steps needed to draw attention to personal or societal dilemmas. Do Not Cross is an exhibition in which moral crossroads and questions about life and death, loss and renewal, freedom versus limitation, and the impact of a devastating war are transformed into confrontational images. These dilemmas often require courage and can have profound consequences.

In a chaotic world, humanity strives for control and understanding, yet time and again finds itself mistaken. The exhibition Turning Towards reveals this fundamental human paradox: control feels reassuring, until it lacks the generative force of chaos.

Control offers structure in a world that is unpredictable and exceeds our capacity for comprehension. Through systems, rules and narratives, we attempt to organise our experiences and assign meaning to what surrounds us and what unfolds within us. Yet control is never absolute. There are forces that evade prediction and mastery. Moments of loss and transformation expose the transience of order.

In Turning Towards, the artists explore different ways of relating to this vulnerability. The works express surrender, disruption and disorientation, revealing the tension between intention and unpredictability, structure and chaos. Rather than approaching chaos as destruction, it is presented as a generative condition from which new forms can emerge.

Within this space, the unknown is not framed as something to be solved, but as something to be lived through. Turning Towards does not offer answers, but draws attention to the awareness that being human encompasses more than language can capture. It gestures toward the intuition that we are part of something larger, something that may be cosmic, relational or even spiritual in nature.

Turning Towards embraces the paradox that control is not redemptive; in fact, uncertainty itself can be a creative force. As a visitor, you move through works that examine the tension between control and uncertainty. You encounter moments of surrender, disruption, and acceptance, and leave with the insight that releasing the need to understand everything can create space for new forms of meaning, connection, and becoming. The visitor-participant is invited to reflect: What forms of control can I relinquish to make space for the unknown?