Viewmaster Projects presents PROTEST – an exhibition of 24 media artworks focused on demonstrations and political actions in public space.
Compelling and provocative, this timely exhibition of time-based media art explores how video and media artists work with the visual language and societal impact of protest. Twenty video and media artists from seventeen countries and five continents investigate the layered relationship between online media, media art and contemporary visual culture as shaped by the camera’s ubiquitous presence.
PROTEST is the first exhibition to focus so directly on this subject and to draw connections between the work of video artists, online image researchers, performance artists and filmmakers.
The personal, contemplative and investigative media works in PROTEST cut through the daily news cycle, presenting powerful and in-depth visual narratives driven by insight and imagination. The works’ creators make appeals to ‘witness this!’, ‘witness us!’ and ‘witness me!’ as they take on subjects such as the struggle for racial and gender equality, the defence of freedom and human rights, and action against war, corruption and climate change.
Twenty darkened exhibition spaces resonate with the sound of thousands of demonstrators, sirens, soundtracks, megaphones and chanting in many languages, expressing a palpable sense of urgency, despair, anger and solidarity. The powerful images lay bare confronting acts of violence and injustice.
Conceived as a temporary collective of images, PROTEST aims to be a multi-voiced, compelling and impactful exhibition that, respecting the many sensitive subjects at stake, demonstrates how video art and new media can be vital tools for understanding our rapidly changing society.
Curator
Bart van den Boom (NL)
Artists
Tasha Arlova (BY), Pierre Chaumont (CA), Sebastián Díaz Morales (AR), Forensic Architecture (UK), Ja’Tovia Gary (US), Lotte Geeven (NL), Karolina Gembara & Rafał Milach (PL), Yuan Goang‑Ming (TW), Dan Halter (ZW), INDECLINE (US), Cristina Lucas (ES), Rehab Nazzal (PA/CA), Juan Obando (CO), Emin Özmen (TR), Eoghan Ryan (IE), Sandra Schäfer (DE), Côme Lart (FR), Studio Lemercier (FR), Wermke / Leinkauf (DE), Kacey Wong (HK).
PROTEST
Grote Gracht 76, Maastricht
13 September to 16 November, 2025
Thu–Sun 12:00 to 16:30
viewmaster-projects.com
Photography: Willemijn Doelman, Bart van den Boom
