Onnomatopee follows a cycle of five years (2024 – 2028), during which three program lines are explored. Our aim is to delve into diverse topics, exploring them through a lens that blends critical inquiry with creative expression.
Accompany us as we navigate through these program lines, guided by the expertise of our associate curators. With a fresh approach, we strive to interconnect our exhibitions, workshops, and publications, amplifying the richness and scope of discussions.
Curated by Marjolein van der Loo
A Tree, with a Bird, by a Woman, on Land, Under a Star, is a recipe or a spell with exit points that become chapters and grow into their own ecology of stories and actors. Together, they form a composition, a picture, or a tarot card that tells about the future and the past or an insight, warning, or recipe for now.
This research series, with exhibitions, workshops, publications, and events, includes folklore and critical research, an apparent contradiction here as a rich encounter. Science and intuition come together, enter into conversation, and question each other, from hard figures to spirituality. Ecofeminism is an angle with which the themes are approached, a critical philosophy that sees connections between the oppression of ecology and women and strives for their joint emancipation. Social and ecological issues are therefore examined in a complex and holistic manner. In addition, the series takes into account the development of partnerships between art and science as an advisor. Thinkers important for the foundation and shaping of this thinking include Donna Haraway, Anna Tsing, Ursula K. le Guin, and Vandana Shiva.
The series continually addresses themes that explore the connection between people and their environment, relationships, and responsibility through empathy, imagination, humor, and senses. Each topic raises questions where the roots of the theme of recurring issues surrounding culture, policy, identity, and faith are addressed between makers and audiences.
Curated by Cecilia Casabona
The Future Commons delves into the definition, manifestation, and proliferation of the Commons, examining the processes that facilitate their preservation and flourishing. Our intention is far from confining the Commons within a universal definition, as exemplified by the United Nations’ concept of “global commons,” which has often been exploited for capitalization and commodification under the guise of protection.
Instead, we aim to explore and address a fundamental question: how do we prevent the objectification of the Commons, particularly within the art world, where they risk being instrumentalized within the same market logic they seek to transcend? To tackle this challenge, it is crucial to articulate the characteristics, conditions, space, time, processes, and goals that define the Commons. These processes are inherently situational and calls for community engagement. The community is urged to establish itself through a qualitative dimension of being-in-common, defined by the quality of their relationships, collaborations, and shared responsibilities.
The five-year program focuses on articulating processes and activities that foster co-creation and coexistence among artists, institutions, and locality where they operate. These activities, marked as -ing, are always ongoing and in the making as they express acts of living: dreaming, working, loving, learning, and healing. Retracing these activities underscores their role in shaping common goods and values and guiding how we care for them and for one another.
Curated by Silvia Franceschini
The significant events of our era highlight both the flaws and merits of geopolitical systems. How do power structures shape our lives, and what insights can we glean from the history of geopolitics? How does geopolitics intersect with themes like decolonization, gender, market forces, labor, and materiality? Are there alternative approaches, and how can we leverage the positive aspects of geopolitics in a localized or compassionate manner?