Current project
150 Years on the Road to a Clean City;
A new circular exhibition by V Female Photo Agency & The Roffa Roll
Fall 2026
Rotterdam becomes the stage for 150 Years on the Road to a Clean City: a travelling exhibition exploring 150 years of urban cleaning, photography, materials and the people who make the city.
Commissioned by the City of Rotterdam (Gemeente Rotterdam), The V Female Photo Agency and The Roffa Roll bring together historical archives, contemporary photography, circular materials and craftsmanship to create a new way of telling the story of Rotterdam.
The exhibition looks beyond waste and cleanliness. Through historical images from Stadsarchief Rotterdam , objects from the collection of Museum Rotterdam, and a new photographic series portraying the people of Rotterdam City Management, it explores how a city changes, grows and transforms from mono in a community shaped by many voices, cultures and generations.
- Wim Pijbes, Directeur Stichting Droom & Daad
A city as material
The exhibition itself is built from the city. Existing materials are borrowed, reused and transformed. Iconic ROTEB elements return as part of the exhibition, while reclaimed televisions sourced through De HER (Milieupark) are transformed by artist Roel Weerdenburg into a monumental TV Tower. The tower brings together historical photography, archival material and moving image, creating a living archive of Rotterdam’s cleaning history.
After the exhibition, the TV Tower will be dismantled and the televisions will return to the circular network from which they came.
The photographic works are printed on Roffa Papers, handmade photographic paper developed by The Roffa Roll from Rotterdam paper streams. Together with paper specialists Marieke de Hoop and Ted Stemmers, the papers will be made at de Middelste Molen, where traditional craftsmanship and circular innovation meet.
Photography as a living archiveCurated by The V Female Photo Agency (Janey Roanna & Nynke Schaaf), the exhibition connects photography, heritage and contemporary image-making.
Historical archives meet new perspectives. The photographic series by Janey Roanna and Sandra Zegarra Patow portrays the people behind Rotterdam’s daily cleaning work, bringing visibility to the hands and stories that keep the city moving.
The exhibition follows Rotterdam’s transformation from a more mono-oriented city into a multi-oriented city. A place shaped by many cultures, languages, generations and experiences.
Seeing waste differently
The exhibition invites visitors to look again at what is usually overlooked. Waste is not presented as an ending, but as part of a larger ecosystem of materials, resources, and possibilities. By following the journey of discarded materials, the exhibition reveals the hidden systems that keep a city in motion and encourages a more conscious relationship with what we throw away. It reminds us that sustainability is not only shaped by infrastructure, but by the everyday choices people make.
Through photography, heritage, craft and circular innovation, 150 Years on the Road to a Clean City asks:
What if waste is not something we lose, but something we can learn to transform differently?
What if waste is not something we lose, but something we can learn to transform differently?
A travelling exhibition
From September 2026, the exhibition will travel through Rotterdam, appearing at locations including Timmerhuis, Kleinpolderplein and the Maastunnel.
During the development of the project, V-agency works from Het Steiger – Museum Rotterdam, where research, photography, paper production and exhibition building come together.
It is cleaned, repaired, rebuilt and reimagined every day.
Partners & collaborators
150 Years on the Road to a Clean City is created through a collective effort of Rotterdam makers, artists, cultural institutions and craftspeople.
Commissioned by
Gemeente Rotterdam
Artistic direction & curation
The V Female Photo Agency
Janey Roanna & Nynke Schaaf
