Tree of Dreams

In the summer of 2025, Kunsthal presented the exhibition CUTE (July 4 – November 23), exploring the aesthetics of cuteness in contemporary art. The show revealed how charm, softness, and playfulness can communicate complex social, cultural, and emotional themes, and how artists use “cute” imagery to challenge expectations, evoke empathy, and engage audiences in unexpected ways.
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Curator
Charlotte Martens, Kunsthal Rotterdam
Photographer
Dana Dijkgraaf, Fred Ernst
Production
Mirjam Sophie Baars, Richard Dijkgraaf, Nikki Gersen, Rosalie van Oorschot, Carolina Marques

Concept
For this exhibition, Dana Dijkgraaf was invited to contribute her own work. In the video piece Wouldn’t they be amazing?, soft, surreal creatures with large glistening eyes and fluffy textures appear in a continuously shifting sequence. Each creature is even more endearing than the last, sparking recognition, curiosity, and wonder. During the creative process, a dreamlike world emerged, separate from reality yet strangely familiar. The creatures were developed in collaboration with artificial intelligence, raising questions about authorship, value, and meaning. Does a being generated by algorithms carry the same significance as something crafted by hand? And where do we draw the line between human imagination and machine creation?

What did we create?
In addition to the video work, Dana was invited by the Kunsthal to design the Christmas Tree for 2025, titled Tree of Dreams. For this project, her digital fantasy creatures were translated into physical form. Over forty figures were printed on fabric and carefully handcrafted into soft, tactile objects. The creatures from the video became part of the ecosystem of a large real pine tree, complemented by newly developed beings. Surrounding them were abstract earthly elements such as corals, tiny stars, mushrooms, and planets, arranged in a flowing rainbow gradient. Together they formed a spatial, dreamlike environment where digital imagination and physical reality meet.

Sparkles
To further blur the boundary between reality and fantasy, Dijkgraaf is developing a naming system for each creature, including a Latin-inspired species name, habitat, and unique ability. What began as digital imagination evolved into a tangible family of new life forms, inviting visitors to reflect on the future of creation, technology, and the power of imagination.

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