Excavation Art Hunt Rotterdam

Excavation was a participatory art hunt meets urban art project by SellFable, where the public was challenged to participate in the ‘Excavation‘ of hidden artworks in the streets of the city of Rotterdam. Using clues shared by The Archivist on SellFable’s social media and newsletter, art lovers and collectors were be able to find these exclusive artworks and take them home. Besides bringing this imaginary universe to a broad audience, Excavation also enables anyone to own a real work of art from SellFable, valued at about €350 in a gallery setting.

The artworks

Excavation consists of a total of 30 limited edition prints and original sculptures from SellFable’s Universe. The artworks are all printed on Japanese paper and compose a series of 9 original handmade engravings. As part of SellFable’s universe, they depict creatures such as Wire Heads, Lost Mechanic Orphans and System Bugs. Each of these prints could be found inside small handmade sculptures, the so-called ‘SellFable Relic Boxes’. Made out of wood and stained with spray paint and water based ink, these unique boxes look like ancient artefacts. The Archivist asked for the help of the audience to find the interconnected stories between these gifts from another universe.

Finders, keepers

From November 5th to December 10th 2021, the SellFable Relic Boxes were hidden in multiple outdoor locations of Rotterdam for adventurous art lovers to find them. Whenever a new artwork was hidden, hints about its location was shared via SellFable’s social media and newsletter. These hints will consist of challenging photos’ fragments or cryptic text. The lucky finders could keep the lost artwork for themselves, contributing to SellFable’s universe to expand even further into our mundane world. To help The Archivist with the exploration of this phenomenon, the finders were asked to post a photo of Excavation artworks on social media and tag @SellFable and #SellFableExcavation. 

The SellFable Universe

SellFable is a Machine Noir Art Universe, inhabited by soul searching electric creatures. Like an ink stain, it slowly creeps into our increasingly detached world. Lost Mechanic Orphans, System Bugs or fragments of machine language poetry leave evidence of this universe’s existence. A solitary person called The Archivist collects and arranges these items, so called ‘SellFable Relics’. SellFable’s artworks have been on display at Tetem (Enschede), Urban Nation (Berlin), STRAAT Museum (Amsterdam) and Street Art Museum (St. Petersburg). SellFable is a project by artist Daniël van Nes.

Stay tuned

To stay up to date about Excavation and more from SellFable’s multidisciplinary universe, make sure to follow its Instagram, Facebook, subscribe to the Newsletter and become part of the story via Patreon. Additional editions of Excavation’s prints were available for €120, for a limited time at SellFable’s webshop. 

Excavation is a project made possible by Stichting Droom en Daad.