Centrum Beeldende Kunst Zuidoost, Amsterdam presents ‘(t)huis – the shifting concept of home’, curated by Sasha Dees. The exhibition features work by Sophie Ernst, Marijke Everts, Antonio Jose Guzman, Anne Verhoijsen, Ruud Lanfermeijer, Myriam Mihindou, Astrid Nobel, Akiko Sato and Studio Maky: Kwannie Tang & Man-Yee Mok. ‘(t)huis’ opens on Thursday, August 27 from 5-7pm and will run until October 24, 2015.
RSVP to the event on Facebook here, and read a statement about the show’s theme by Sasha Dees below:
Marijke Everts, To Build a Home, installation.
Everyone knows the feeling “I’m home.” Home is often synonymous with house; if you open the door of your house, you are at home. Where your house is, is where your home is.
In the global world of today the definition of home is no longer as clear as it used to be. Home is a geographical location. Home is the country of your citizenship status. Home is where you were born. Home is where you live and work. Home is where your family and friends are. Home is also a feeling. Home is where you are safe and comfortable. Home is the smell and taste of food. Home is colours and shapes. Home is music, theatre, art. Home is what you know. Home is where you can be yourself. Home is where you belong.
Myriam Mihindou, Terre cicatricée / wounded soil (ongoing), moving boxes, earth, clay, cotton, seeds.
As long as I can remember, I wanted to travel, I wanted to discover the world, make the unknown known. For me, home is always a cursory understanding and a feeling that is difficult to interpret. My home is everywhere and nowhere. I am always happy to come home whilst I’m always homesick for where I came from and I long for where I’m going. That feeling is always there and is completely independent of any geographic location or where I come from or where I’m going.
There are also those people who have remained in the same place all their lives and it’s only there they feel completely at home and others have never felt at home living in the same place.
Antonio Guzman, Gravity #71, video, 35 sec.
For years, I got the question “if you really had to choose a place to live, where would your home be?” The real answer is that I do not want to choose; to choose would actually make me feel homeless. But the realitiy is – even as a holder of a European passport – I can not just decide to live and work anywhere. Citizenship, borders, visas, language, bank accounts, education, work experience, war, human rights… Realistically we can’t always choose to be home.
This comes to my mind often when I hear somebody say or read the quote in an article: “if you do not like it here, go home.” What definition of home do we use here? Do we know where home is for that person? Is the person that is quoted even at home? Is the person in question perhaps already home? Is home even a location where the person can go to even if he chooses to?
For more on (t)huis – the shifting concept of home, visit the Centrum Beeldende Kunst Zuidoost website and Facebook page.
Akiko Sato, Shelter for the feeling, installation, lace, fiberglass, foam, canvas (3m x 3m x 1.50m), 2009.