Melted for Love – W139 Exhibition Tour

Join our in-depth public tour of the exhibition Melted for Love at W139 – open to anyone who wishes to spend more time with the works, ask questions, and experience the exhibition through shared discussion rather than solitary viewing. Writers, researchers, students, press, and curious visitors are all welcome. This is an opportunity to move through the exhibition slowly with others, guided by the curator.

At W139, the exhibition includes works by Diana Policarpo and Bernardo Gaeiras, who speculate on future uses of the former Bugio Lighthouse through radiophonic transmissions. Alina Schmuch – a participant in ALTERLIFE, Sonic Acts’ major international research and residency programme with Rupert, Vilnius – examines manipulated water systems shaped by drought and rising sea levels. You will also find new work by Lower Levant Company together with Olga Micińska, who combine bat calls, broadcasting, and encrypted messages to reflect the ecological catastrophes wrought by colonial warfare in the Eastern Mediterranean. Adelita Husni-Bey restages Italian fascist archives, exposing damaged infrastructures and extractivist legacies in Libya. Maeve Brennan explores the depths of a salt mine to question the violent writing and preservation of Western imperial power.

The tours across W139, Arti et Amicitiae, and Rozenstraat are led by Angeliki Tzortzakaki – curator of the three-venue exhibition of Sonic Acts Biennial 2026. It will expand the Biennial theme Melted for Love – examining how belonging, care, and home are negotiated under climate catastrophe, colonial violence, and forced displacement.

Programme
Wednesday 4 March
18:30-19:30 (W139)
Language: English

More information: 2026.sonicacts.com

Melted for Love – Comprehensive Exhibition Tour

Join our guided tour across all three of the core exhibition venues of Sonic Acts Biennial 2026, beginning at W139 and continuing to Arti et Amicitiae, and Rozenstraat – each only a short walk apart. Taking place during the Festival Weekend, this is the best way to experience the full exhibition constellation in a single flow. Open to all audiences, the tour is for those who wish to spend time with the works in depth: visitors seeking context, conversation, and the pleasure of thinking together rather than alone. Students, artists, researchers, press, neighbours and curious participants are all welcome.

Led by Angeliki Tzortzakaki, curator of the Biennial’s three-venue exhibition, the tour unfolds the central concerns of the Biennale’s theme Melted for Love: how belonging, care, and relation endure amidst climate catastrophe, colonial violence, and displacement. As the tour moves between venues, visitors encounter installations, films, sound works, and performance-based pieces that venerate the pressures placed on bodies, lands, and more-than-human worlds. 

Along the way, visitors come across radiophonic experiments speculating on future uses of a lighthouse; reactivated colonial archives; underwater and underground stories of extraction; trembling river systems marked by forced displacement; textile lineages shaped by resistance; and collaborations with bats, mangroves, and ancient forests. These works ground the tour’s guiding questions: How do ecosystems absorb the weight of extractive histories? What forms of solidarity surface in moments of rupture? And where, amid grief and ongoing struggle, do gestures of love continue to take shape?

Programme
Friday 27 February 2026
14:00–17:15 (3 locations)
Language: English

More information: 2026.sonicacts.com

Guided tour of Temper Tantrum Bonehouse

Mette Sterre will host an exclusive guided tour through Temper Tantrum Bonehouse (Chilling Incisions Calling Things That Have No Name), the exhibition she initiated at W139.

Temper Tantrum Bonehouse explores the limitless potential of the body—turning W139 into a possessed, grotesque, more-than-human organism. The immersive group show features new and existing works by artists that similarly distort the body beyond limitations and familiarity—creating chimeric apparitions that defy categorization and offer counter-narratives against oppressive systems.

With works by Lolly Adams, Özgür Atlagan, Monster Chetwynd, Diane Mahín, Aimée Phillips & Nina Läuger, and Mette Sterre, and sound design by BJ Nilsen.

Admission fee: €3
Tickets available at the door.

Mette Sterre is a visual artist who investigates the limits and transformative potential of the body. Her work resists categorization, fusing performance, sculpture, body masks, and digital technology into immersive, otherworldly environments that explore the threshold between the organic and the artificial. By entering her work we are cast into the materialisation of her mind processes: a sensorial and embodied experience.

Photo by Pieter Kers

Despite Scarcity

Plants often live quite unnoticed around us, especially in the winter months. How can we open up more to plants? In this winter foraging workshop, cook and nature guide Rens Spanjaard will take us into the lives of plants through a number of observation exercises to make contact with plants and their environments—seeing, smelling, tasting, and experiencing the plants ourselves. Everyone will discover different qualities of plants in this process, making the collective walk a rich and instructive way to share knowledge. We’ll be discovering, tasting, and smelling the plants to engage with the hidden lives of plants around us, especially in urban environments and cities. Both edible and medicinal plants will be explored, in an effort to think together about how to sustain ourselves, and our communities, in the face of scarcity. 

This walk is part of the community programme for Taking Root Among the Stars, where we want to make visible the possibilities of making connections with speculative literature beyond imagination and theory. By gathering to learn new skills and be in community with one another, we reinforce that the speculative is grounded in gaining tools for the future.

The walk will begin at the pond in Westerpark, near the big oak tree, where we will start our experience with a warm acorn drink together. Find the starting location here.

Capacity: 10 people maximum
Tickets: €17,50
Student price: €15,00

Buy your ticket on the Eventbrite-page of the event.

* You don’t need to bring anything with you for the workshop. Just be sure to check the weather beforehand and dress appropriately for the weather conditions and the two-hour walk through the park. 

** We offer community tickets for visitors who do not have the financial means to visit W139’s exhibitions or context programming. If you want to join the foraging walk but do not have the means, please contact us at info@w139.nl.

Rens Spanjaard is a cook and a nature guide. Rens studies herbal medicine and was the initiator of the food forest in Almere and Amsterdam.

Culturele Wallen Route

Do you want to experience the cultural gems of De Wallen in a day? On Saturday 7 September cultural institutions in the historic city centre will open their doors for free to everyone in Amsterdam. From 11:00 till 16:00 hrs, you are welcome at the participating organisations for a tour, performance, exhibition, workshop, concert, or lecture. Join the Culturele Wallen Route and (re)discover the creative heart of the city!

On presentation of the programme booklet of the Cultural Wallen Route, entry to W139 is free of charge. The programme booklets are available at the starting point of the Cultural Wallen Route, Waag Futurelab, the entrance of the Oude Kerk, and other locations.

From Waag Futurelab as starting point, the route will lead you to the other partners of Culturele Wallen: Huis De Pinto, Museum Ons’ Lieve Heer Op Solder, Oude Kerk, Frascati, Vlaams Cultuurhuis de Brakke Grond, Museum Rembrandthuis, and W139, where you can visit the exhibition Remarkable Meetings with Disgusting Men.

About Culturele Wallen

The Culturele Wallen Route on Saturday 7 September marks the launch of Culturele Wallen, a new collective that unites the cultural gems of Amsterdam’s historic city heart. Through enhanced visibility, collaborative energy, and inventive partnerships, the neighbourhood regains its creative identity and artistic soul. Once again, locals are drawn to this vibrant and creative part of the city. 

You can find more information on the website of Culturele Wallen.

Visit Marnix’s Mind

Do you wonder what happens behind the scenes of producing a group exhibition? How did the artist’s ideas emerge from thought to canvas to beyond?

Visit Each Other’s Mind invites visitors to meet the artists of Outside the Soup. During these encounters, you will discover the work and inner thoughts of these makers, and the behind-the-scenes process of Outside the Soup. Sometimes in the form of a guided tour, other times with a short reading or artist discussion. In each of the six Visit Each Other’s Mind events, different works will be highlighted by various artists. 

By drawing, Marnix van Uum (living and working in The Hague—he/him) tries to understand how the narrative qualities of emotions and memories shape his identity. Some drawings focus on daily experiences whereas others try to relive and reshape certain moments from the past.

In the spirit of the collaborative nature of Outside the Soup, we invite you to become part of the soup. Visit Each Other’s Mind is a space for dialogue between makers and the audience, creating opportunities to weave together new meanings and affective dimensions surrounding the works.

Reserve your spot via the Eventbrite page here.
Ticket: € 5

Sunday 28 April, 15:00-16:00 — Visit Esraa’s Mind

Friday 10 May, 17:00-18:00 — Visit Kenneth’s Mind

Sunday 2 June, 15:00-16:00 — Visit Afra’s and Hend’s Mind

Friday 7 June, 17:00-18:00  — Visit Karin’s Mind 

Saturday 22 June, 17:00-18:00 — Visit Marnix’s Mind 

Friday 5 July, 17:00-18:00 — Visit Dagmar’s Mind 

Visual identity by Sheona Turnbull.

Visit Dagmar’s Mind

Do you wonder what happens behind the scenes of producing a group exhibition? How did the artist’s ideas emerge from thought to canvas to beyond?

Visit Each Other’s Mind invites visitors to meet the artists of Outside the Soup. During these encounters, you will discover the work and inner thoughts of these makers, and the behind-the-scenes process of Outside the Soup. Sometimes in the form of a guided tour, other times with a short reading or artist discussion. In each of the six Visit Each Other’s Mind events, different works will be highlighted by various artists. 

Dagmar Bosma (living and working in Rotterdam—they/he) is an artist, writer, and gleaner currently working around trans*ing movements of ruination. Whenever they have the chance, they like to glean scrap metal at post-industrial sites.

In the spirit of the collaborative nature of Outside the Soup, we invite you to become part of the soup. Visit Each Other’s Mind is a space for dialogue between makers and the audience, creating opportunities to weave together new meanings and affective dimensions surrounding the works.

Reserve your spot via the Eventbrite page here.
Ticket: € 5

Sunday 28 April, 15:00-16:00 — Visit Esraa’s Mind

Friday 10 May, 17:00-18:00 — Visit Kenneth’s Mind

Sunday 2 June, 15:00-16:00 — Visit Afra’s and Hend’s Mind

Friday 7 June, 17:00-18:00  — Visit Karin’s Mind 

Saturday 22 June, 17:00-18:00 — Visit Marnix’s Mind 

Friday 5 July, 17:00-18:00 — Visit Dagmar’s Mind 

Visual identity by Sheona Turnbull.

Visit Karin’s Mind

Do you wonder what happens behind the scenes of producing a group exhibition? How did the artist’s ideas emerge from thought to canvas to beyond?

Visit Each Other’s Mind invites visitors to meet the artists of Outside the Soup. During these encounters, you will discover the work and inner thoughts of these makers, and the behind-the-scenes process of Outside the Soup. Sometimes in the form of a guided tour, other times with a short reading or artist discussion. In each of the six Visit Each Other’s Mind events, different works will be highlighted by various artists. 

The work of Karin Iturralde Nurnberg (living and working in Amsterdam—she/her) sprouts edible out of solid environments, pleading for the possibility to resist the concrete air conditioning in the room of her first therapist, who mocked her because she was eighteen and mentioned she wanted to be free. /oops Her practice comes to soothe her and provides means to read herself, re-dream herself, find a community of worldbuilders to exchange with and create or maintain a space in to accommodate expressions that are otherwise unfitting. She has a multidisciplinary approach where walking, encounter and direct experience are ways to start creative processes.

In the spirit of the collaborative nature of Outside the Soup, we invite you to become part of the soup. Visit Each Other’s Mind is a space for dialogue between makers and the audience, creating opportunities to weave together new meanings and affective dimensions surrounding the works.

Reserve your spot via the Eventbrite page here.
Ticket: € 5

Sunday 28 April, 15:00-16:00 — Visit Esraa’s Mind

Friday 10 May, 17:00-18:00 — Visit Kenneth’s Mind

Sunday 2 June, 15:00-16:00 — Visit Afra’s and Hend’s Mind

Friday 7 June, 17:00-18:00  — Visit Karin’s Mind 

Saturday 22 June, 17:00-18:00 — Visit Marnix’s Mind 

Friday 5 July, 17:00-18:00 — Visit Dagmar’s Mind 

Visual identity by Sheona Turnbull.

Visit Afra’s & Hend’s Mind

Do you wonder what happens behind the scenes of producing a group exhibition? How did the artist’s ideas emerge from thought to canvas to beyond?

Visit Each Other’s Mind invites visitors to meet the artists of Outside the Soup. During these encounters, you will discover the work and inner thoughts of these makers, and the behind-the-scenes process of Outside the Soup. Sometimes in the form of a guided tour, other times with a short reading or artist discussion. In each of the six Visit Each Other’s Mind events, different works will be highlighted by various artists.

Afra Eisma (living and working between Amsterdam and The Hague—she/they) creates immersive interactive installations with large-scale tapestries and colorful ceramics. Using bright colors and playful approaches to engage with darker emotions and experiences is a recurring method. Garments veil activist slogans, a stomach becomes a container for rumblings, large scale tapestries invite you to gently engage. Eisma creates room for anger, ambiguity, and reflection. Alongside Eisma’s artistic practice, the artist is involved in various activist initiatives in the Netherlands.

Hend Samir (living and working between Amsterdam and Cairo—she/her) works primarily as a painter but also uses graphic print, mixed media and video. In her work, she layers desire, adventure and fantasy over seemingly mundane situations. Using acrylic paint on canvas, she builds her scenes like a collage, combining elements of personal family photos (or those of strangers), magazines and internet images. The paintings are portals to a disturbing, alchemical world. On her canvases, figures emerge slowly—like geological forms surfacing over thousands of years, brought to life by the fluid pressure of her brushstrokes.

In the spirit of the collaborative nature of Outside the Soup, we invite you to become part of the soup. Visit Each Other’s Mind is a space for dialogue between makers and the audience, creating opportunities to weave together new meanings and affective dimensions surrounding the works.

Reserve your spot via the Eventbrite page here.
Ticket: € 5

Sunday 28 April, 15:00-16:00 — Visit Esraa’s Mind

Friday 10 May, 17:00-18:00 — Visit Kenneth’s Mind

Sunday 2 June, 15:00-16:00 — Visit Afra’s and Hend’s Mind

Friday 7 June, 17:00-18:00  — Visit Karin’s Mind 

Saturday 22 June, 17:00-18:00 — Visit Marnix’s Mind 

Friday 5 July, 17:00-18:00 — Visit Dagmar’s Mind 

Visual identity by Sheona Turnbull.

Visit Kenneth’s Mind

Do you wonder what happens behind the scenes of producing a group exhibition? How did the artist’s ideas emerge from thought to canvas to beyond?

Visit Each Other’s Mind invites visitors to meet the artists of Outside the Soup. During these encounters, you will discover the work and inner thoughts of these makers, and the behind-the-scenes process of Outside the Soup. Sometimes in the form of a guided tour, other times with a short reading or artist discussion. In each of the six Visit Each Other’s Mind events, different works will be highlighted by various artists. 

Kenneth Aidoo (living and working in Amsterdam—he/him) works across multiple disciplines. With his work, he engages in the conversation around the position of people of African descent. By making video-installations on the African diaspora, he speaks about the heritage of a shared history. In his painted portraits, he sheds light on the forgotten narratives of African people and displays their presence throughout history, in a refusal to neglect its erasure.

In the spirit of the collaborative nature of Outside the Soup, we invite you to become part of the soup. Visit Each Other’s Mind is a space for dialogue between makers and the audience, creating opportunities to weave together new meanings and affective dimensions surrounding the works.

Reserve your spot via the Eventbrite page here.
Ticket: € 5

Sunday 28 April, 15:00-16:00 — Visit Esraa’s Mind

Friday 10 May, 17:00-18:00 — Visit Kenneth’s Mind

Sunday 2 June, 15:00-16:00 — Visit Afra’s and Hend’s Mind

Friday 7 June, 17:00-18:00  — Visit Karin’s Mind 

Saturday 22 June, 17:00-18:00 — Visit Marnix’s Mind 

Friday 5 July, 17:00-18:00 — Visit Dagmar’s Mind 

Visual identity by Sheona Turnbull.