Alex Adriaansens was simply one of the best persons I’ve ever met among thousands.
Trough the foundation and development of V2_ he put Rotterdam on the map as one of the leading cities in new media art since the early stages. He has enabled an important part of the whole European media art scene, directly or indirectly, including countless international initiatives.
With a tireless, highly skilled and joyful attitude he has masterly lead V2_ as a perennially evolving system, adapting to the radical changes happened through more than three decades.
He has been an enlightened, generous, amusing and strategic person, still showing incredible energies, focus and commitment even in the last hard years, always supported by the equally tirelessly brave Angelica.

I had the lucky chance to spend a bit of time with him in various events and places, and easily noticed how he was always interested to listen to other people, allowing himself to “feel the pulse” of the scene, in order to conceive his next steps. He was so committed to progress and always “go on” that he was paying less attention to the past and its preservation, as once I helped him to retrieve a couple of second-hand copies of his historical “book for the unstable media” (1992), as he was running short of them.

Adriaansens was a true icon, with the very rare quality, in the art world, of proving no need to boost his ego, and, on the contrary, sharing the mission to support countless artists, ideas, and projects, using the institution as a tool.
He was articulating himself through V2_ as a whole working system, never stopping producing and discussing the cleverly defined “unstable media”.
A master in involving talented people, primarily through and at V2_, he has been a model for many, to be inspired from and admire for his qualities.
Media art and its community have lost one of the most important protagonists, a key, brilliant, and delightful person.

Alessandro Ludovico