MaMA 

You are reading this text in English, which probably means you expect to read a translated version of the original text, which is written in Dutch. Unfortunately, there is no translated version available. Here’s something else instead:

Versions are an important part of Various Exhibition Titles. The works presented in this exhibition use  daily life on the streets around the showroom as a backdrop. People, cars, birds, and many other things pass by, the weather changes, and the supermarket across the street is kicking off its latest marketing campaign. Continuously evolving real-life situations like these influence the way you, a visitor of this exhibition, experience the story the artists want to share with you. So, when your friends visit this exhibition two hours after you, their version of the show might be rather different from yours.

So, which came first? Just like the chicken and the egg, humanity is still unsure whether fictional stories shape society or if society shapes fiction. Ideally, the two of them would be in a never-ending but engaging conversation, responding to each other thoughtfully. Perhaps they can even change roles every now and then. Let’s hope that if society gets really very drunk one night, fiction will be there to hold its hair back.

Five artists have all been working, thinking, travelling, and – hopefully – relaxing for quite some time to get this show together. Despite not previously knowing each other, they seem to have one  thing in common – the notion of suggestion is key to their artistic practices. What do you think? Is showing the idea of something worth the same as showing the thing itself, or is it worth even more? Maybe it’s the impact of either that really makes the difference.

There are three titles for this exhibition: A Research Against Research, Stunt Doubles, and Various Exhibition Titles. Just like the showroom’s ever-changing surroundings, these titles propose different versions of the same exhibition. Which version would you like it to be? It’s okay, you can pick more than one. Anyway…

A very warm welcome to this highly scripted exhibition full of real-life situations.

In the context of  Various Exhibition Titles the following stories were shared on our Universe.

• Story: The Exhibition by Onerva Heikka
• Feature: Suggestive Audio Performance by Willem de Haan & Jesse Brinkerhof
• Story: Seen at Various Exhibition Titles by Alexandra Phillips