Imagine that during SAIL 2025, the doors of the NDSM-loods open and a ship sails out. Not a ship built out of delusions of grandeur. Nor does it have a firm prow to sail against high seas. No name of a ruthless conqueror from the past. It is not even seaworthy, because it has nowhere to go. It is the ship of the encounter of maritime history, the NSDM and the inspiration of makers and artists.

In the run-up to SAIL 2025, NDSM FUSE is inviting artists and makers from all disciplines to create a special fleet together in and around the WUNDERKAMMER: the WUNDERSHIPS. So no traditional ships that defy the elements, but unique works of art that together form a fleet that moves and inspires. These ships symbolise an imaginary journey to a new world.

For curator Esther Kin, this is a softer world, one that looks around with care before it acts. Aware of everything that lives and is interconnected. A world that does not strive for expansion, driven by ego and the need to perform, but listens to doubts and questions. To prevent even more to break down because we do not see the connection.

Today we go into battle

We leave behind our fortress of blankets

Our shelters of down

As soon as we come outside doubt strikes

But we won’t chase it away

Let doubt lead the way

From the poem A SOFT DAY by Eva Gouda

This way, the WUNDERKAMMER at NDSM FUSE transforms into a kind of bottle ship. Formerly made by sailors during the months-long voyages at sea, nowadays a hobby of many a landlubber. Want to hoist something into the mast? Something that you let travel ahead of you in the wind, in order to one day arrive in a new world that offers you safety, confidence, pleasure or love. Or do you want to drop anchor? Something that offers stability when the current chases you forward? Any form, from painting, spatial work and installations to music and performance, can be part of the ship.

Would you like to join Esther Kin on this journey? Send an idea/plan by February 14 to esther@ndsm-fuse.eu

The exhibition will take place in and around the WUNDERKAMMER of NDSM FUSE and will be on view from mid-May to early October 2025.

Curator Esther Kin