Re-Viewing Sites of Preservation – Notes on Hapticity

In the exhibition, the artists draw on stories contained in distinct spaces: a defunct nuclear bunker, an archive, a garden, one’s body, a new country. Paradoxically enough, each of these structures can be understood as both a place of safety and hostility. For example, the dynamics of inclusion and exclusion in society, the harsh response of the body’s immune system, or the strange calm found in a bunker deep underground. 

Through their research on these structures, the artists came into contact with forms, stories and images that provoke feelings of both estrangement and hyper-awareness. In each of the artworks, the process of preserving and sharing the experience of these structures is explored, often touching on cultural and political legacies, vulnerability and resilience, and the role of abstraction as a way of coming to terms with challenging circumstances.

The artists seek to ‘re-view’ these sites — re-staging them within the perimeter of the Nieuwe Vide’s exhibition space. In all of the works, the gesture of mediating the viewer’s gaze is key – concealment, exposure, enlargement, de-figuration and (dis)orientation are revisited and revised so as to create a greater awareness of the implications of one’s spectatorship.

(1) Anthropology: A social science about humanity and the creation of culture. In the past, these studies have often been done from a colonial context. A new generation of researchers that have brought these methodologies into question.

DOC4: Artist-in-Residence & Public Programme

DOC4 is a residency location on the Scheepmakersdijk in Haarlem, where (inter)national artists can temporarily live and work. The program is coordinated by 37PK in collaboration with Nieuwe Vide. During a residency period at DOC4, the collective Notes on Hapticity will work on the upcoming exhibition Re-Viewing Sites of Preservation in Haarlem.

During their residency artist collective Notes on Hapticity (N.O.H — Hannah Dawn Henderson, Kees van Leeuwen, Elena Kostenko) will develop a public programme. This programme will feature different forms of conversational gatherings, both cradling and emerging from their forthcoming exhibition, Re-Viewing Sites of Preservation. These gatherings will explore themes that are prominent in the artists’ works, such as spatiality, archives, and community. You can find the full programme here.