The Waiting City was developed during Merel Smitt’s artist residency at the Rotterdam Library, the project grew out of extensive conversations about waiting with people she encountered during the residency. Merel asked them what they were waiting for, where this waiting took place, and how they spent that time.
The collected stories formed the basis of a city map highlighting a wide range of waiting locations in Rotterdam such as the metro, a hospice, the library, the city forest, private homes, hospitals, and transit routes. The project presents waiting not as something passive, but as an active, emotional, and spatial experience shared by many and embedded in everyday urban life.
Participants begin by purchasing a ticket for a collective introduction event. During this event, they receive their physical map, take part in a workshop that invites them to reflect on their own experiences with waiting, and get practical guidance from Merel to help them design their personal exploration.
Over the next two weeks, participants use the map to independently navigate the city. At each marked location, Merel has hidden QR codes that activate immersive audio stories and invitations to engage with the space—whether by riding the metro, sitting in a waiting room, walking through the forest, or talking to strangers.
The project concludes with a second collective moment: a gathering where participants return to share and reflect on their experiences. This group exchange is an essential part of Merel’s methodology, creating space for participants to process their journey, hear other perspectives, and connect with one another around a shared experience of the city.
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“The Waiting City is a project that has impacted me deeply. I created encounters and visited places in the city that I would normally never see.”
“Joining The Waiting City gave me the possibility to step out of the rat race of society for two weeks.”
“As a social worker I can tell that all the stories brought forward by the Waiting City are stories that I come across on a daily basis. It is a representation of the city and the people living, and struggling, in it.”