Rabo Art Lab is a free space within the bank where we see art as knowledge, invite artists for a residency and explore societal transitions together. While the Rabo Art Collection's aim was for art to serve as a source of critical reflection and fundamental renewal, that strenght was not used to full potential in day-to-day business. Rabo Art Lab connects those two worlds.
We are faced with complex issues that require major shifts. Climate change, loss of biodiversity, poverty and exclusion call for uncharted solutions. Old ways of working are no longer viable and new ones are still in development. With Rabo Art Lab, we give art an active voice and invite people inside and outside the bank to seek new approaches together.
In the Art Lab, we explore what we can learn from artists and vice versa. And in the process, we start to discover what an artist's work and methods can mean for society. In this way, hidden knowledge becomes visible and our patterns, emotions and dreams become tangible.
All the artists in residence from the start in 2017 until 2022 have their say in this book. They talk about what they have done and made and how they experienced working with our colleagues at the bank. For it was not only the bank that embarked on a new adventure, but also the artist who stepped into a new world. Sometimes they were asked why they got involved in the corporate world, just as there were sometimes questions from within the bank about the role of the artist.
Rabo Art Lab is not only an imaginative, creative space but also a medium te experience discomfort. Because daring to stay with the trouble is perhaps the deepest role of art.
Artists in this publication: Lucas De Man and his artists' collective Company New Heroes - Arne Hendriks - Daan Roosegaarde - Koert van Mensvoort - Carlijn Kingma
ISBN: 978-90-71858-16-1