AbsurdBeings on lines – a multidisciplinary journey in search of lines and their meaning.

We are bound to the bodies we inhabit, to our history and names. And where we stop – our name, our body, our home, our land – there is room for something else to begin. We set out on a journey in search of new territories, where boundaries cross over or merge and spiral back to what is familiar. We encounter lines between which we move, ones that surround us, pass through us and those that connect us.

Intrigued by the notions and effects of these lines, we invite the viewer to contemplate what it is which contains us, excludes us and invites us.

Lines can be seen as a tool of categorisation, a tool which helps us make sense of ourselves and what surrounds us. At the same time, those categorisations create structures which force boundaries upon us. In the Entanglements of Life in an Open World (2008), academic Timothy Ingold argues that categorisation in truth works against our attempts to meet our surroundings and prevents us from living in an inclusive world. The categorisation of ourselves and other beings can result in exclusion or isolation. By claiming we should un-categorise however, we fail to see the functional elements of boundaries.

Ingold’s nuanced look upon this multifaceted theme inspired us to address this topic within the context of an art exhibition. What defines processes of becoming and belonging and how do they shape our understanding of boundaries? What boxes us in and confronts us with the singularity of our being? Where do we need to categorise to understand the other and where can we be radically open?

16-10-2021 – 22-10-2021

Phelim Hoey, Asefeh Tayebani, Suzanne Bernhardt, Ganesh Nepal, Manju Sharma, Dasha Golova, Franca Ullrich, Eva Spierenburg, Anton and Maxim Polyakov, Hanna Steenbergen-Cockerton, Kelly Van Looveren, Alice Heron, Boris Vermeersch, Ies Kaczmarek & Qiqi van Boheemen, Erika Roux & Anni Puolakka, Ángela Jiménez, Leendert Vooijce, Ylja Band