#43 (Where and for Whom?) Listening to the Absences

Space has meaning beyond the physical. One that is alive, and ever-evolving. An exhibition space, among many things, allows a maker and a work to develop and exist within a particular context. But how can “space” be understood at a project space–particularly when strategies of being on show are part of its core investigation?

In the group show Manifestation #43: (Where and for Whom?) Listening to the Absences, three artists grapple with what it means to be visible, and what visibility entails. They ask what can be learned from reframing our understanding of a “gaze”, and to whom we are visible and to whom are we not? How do we ensure that the world sees us as we see ourselves? Can we ever control the gaze? Va-Bene Elikem Fiatsi, Martin Toloku and Simomo Bouj all reflect in their way on these questions. Together, we explore how we can take care of the object(s) and their maker(s) by establishing, shaping, and designing a space that is able to hold what we need to exist and to be seen.

Working towards a world where we are intimately responsible for one another, the strategies we choose to do this becomes an intentional intervention. In a sense, resistance may not always mean avoiding the gaze but reshaping it, turning it into something that empowers rather than diminishes. Examining the paradoxes of opening up and fencing off, of exclusion and enclosure.

Buro Stedelijk Central Space
28 November 2024 – 23 January 2025

Opening
28 November, 18:30 – 20:30

Open daily with Stedelijk Museum Amsterdam ticket / Dagelijks geopend met Stedelijk Museum Amsterdam ticket (Museumplein 10), 10:00 – 18:00