Philippa Driest
Philippa Driest is an artist. In 2018-2019 she was part of the first year of WHW Akademija, Zagreb, and recently finished her MA at the Dutch Art Institute, 2021. She is the initiator of KIOSK Rotterdam, and former janitor of Pension Almonde. For the past year and a halve, her work involved painting interiors, fixing Remeha Avanta heating systems, and setting up printing and distribution systems for printed matter. During the Fellowship program, she will focus on topics of maintenance and community, influenced by her experience of being part of the Poortgebouw community while working in collaboration with City in the Making. Her research asks: how can independent social housing, cultural agencies, and city-making organizations work in the aftermath of lawful squatting-based community models, while maintain agency in a neoliberal city where institutional co-optation and neoliberal planning regimes dictate cultural and living spaces? Through her manifold projects, she has participated or organized the following exhibitions: KIOSK has been part of A Funeral For Street Culture, Framer Framed, 2021; Pension Almonde has been part of Het Ontwerp van het Sociale, Het Nieuwe Instituut, Rotterdam, 2021; Heimweewoning, Pension Almonde, 2020; Open Nova, Galerija Nova, Zagreb, 2019; The Temporary Autonomous Bureau, Tent, Rotterdam, 2018. List of publications include: Pension Almonde Book (2021), Conversations we happen to be part of (2020), Skrenuti Desno, Nakon Dvjesto Metara Skrenuti Lijevo (2019). Philippa lives and works in Rotterdam, and is part of the BAK Cell, Utrecht, in the Fellowship for Situated Practice.