The exhibition, which consists of a site-specific installation and two rarely shown works from the early 1990s, is the outcome of research conducted by the artist during his participation in the Maumaus Residency Programme.

In this show, De Rooij continues his exploration of exhibitionary systems, museological practices and politics of representation, in this case building on his detailed study of two shepherds’ shelters, one in the collections of the National Museum of Ethnology in Lisbon and one at the Museo del Pastor in Villaralto, Spain. His practice critically engages global art histories, visual anthropology and ethnography, relating objects and considering the relation between institutional contexts and contemporary forms of mediation.

Since the fragile shelters cannot be removed from their places of preservation, the artist opted for ‘digital loans’, presenting them at Lumiar Cité by way of live streams from the two museums. Using security cameras, De Rooij establishes a real-time dialogue between the objects and their museum contexts, the modern architecture of the Lumiar Cité exhibition space and the urban environment of Alta de Lisboa, where the gallery is situated. While drawing parallels with contemporary notions of surveillance and protection – the latter being the original function of these vernacular structures – here the work specifically zooms in on tensions between urban planning, mobility, artisanal construction and the institutionalisation of cultural memory.

Willem de Rooij lives and works in Berlin. His work develops through the use of multiple media, including film, photography, sculpture, text and installation, and explores processes of production, contextualisation and interpretation of images and objects. Together with Jeroen de Rijke he represented The Netherlands at the 2005 Venice Biennale. His solo exhibitions include presentations at the Centraal Museum (Utrecht, 2025), Akademie der bildenden Künste (Vienna, 2023), Portikus (Frankfurt, 2021), IMA Brisbane (2017), MMK Museum für Moderne Kunst (Frankfurt/Main, 2016) and Le Consortium (Dijon, 2015). He has also participated in group exhibitions at institutions such as the Museum of Contemporary Art (Busan), the Hammer Museum (Los Angeles), the 17th Jakarta Biennale and the 10th Shanghai Biennale.

In collaboration with Museu Nacional de Etnologia (Lisbon) and Museo del Pastor (Villaralto, Spain).