Merry-go-Round

During the annual art festival Wereld van de Witte de With in 2005, Michiel Reessink presented his work Merry-go-Round. On the corner of Witte de Withstraat and Schiedamse Vest, he installed a striking sculpture: a carousel constructed from an enlarged, recycled cylinder of a “Magnum .44” revolver. The iconic childhood symbol of the carousel was thus transformed into a charged object that balanced between innocence and menace. By combining playfulness with a reference to violence, Merry-go-Round provoked questions about the normalization of aggression, the whirlpool of media imagery, and the recurring cycles of social themes.

The installation was part of the festival’s theme “Antwerp, the mirror of Rotterdam,” which positioned the two port cities as cultural reflections of one another. Within this context, Reessink’s work highlighted the complexity of urban experience: what appears innocent often carries multiple layers of meaning. Merry-go-Round was curated and coordinated by Mothership and realized as part of September in Rotterdam, an initiative by Rotterdam Festivals.