Road to Nowhere

January - May 2024, Rotterdam

Where?

‘Road to nowhere’ is a video project that addresses the recent gentrification and building urge at Katendrecht (Rotterdam) and goes against this development. With the use of a billboard and a painted copy of the neighbourhood, the project captured the pulling away of the identity of the neighbourhood and the forced transformation to ‘nowhere’. 

Gentrification is a process in which the existing neighbourhood, with its complex social and cultural identity, is cleared out and is replaced by monotonous architectural language and an anonymous copy of many. Research for this project with the use of generative AI made clear that the neighbourhood becomes a ‘simulacrum’. In the theory of philosopher and sociologist Jean Baudrillard, a ‘simulacrum’ is copy of things that have no original anymore, a fake reality or hyperreality. This is the road to nowhere.