Encountering Absence is a multimedia and multilingual exhibition serving as the second edition of the SPEME Research Exhibition Series ‘Objects & Stories.’ The project aims to investigate how traumatic pasts are preserved, remembered, and transmitted in the present through space, and to promote knowledge exchange through an international and intersectoral research network.

Encountering Absence combines objects of traumatic pasts with personal stories and artistic expressions in order to shed light on the experiences of those who are haunted by the absence of people disappeared, homelands lost, or histories too painful to pass on. This exhibition seeks to create a space that allows the viewer to encounter such intimate traumas in spaces of daily life—huddled around a cafe table in the oldest Dutch artists’ association, Arti et Amicitiae, or as guests in the lived-in historical H401 house. The stories and expressions of those who live in the shadows cast by the presence of absence provide insight into the many ways that traumatic heritage can transcend spatiotemporal and cultural boundaries. This form of remembering—dislocated from space and time—reveals how traumatic heritage can be transformed in the present, even as the events themselves recede further into the annals of history.

Opening: Monday 8 May 2023, 20:30 PM
Location: Arti et Amicitiae, Rokin 112, Amsterdam
Space is limited. If you plan on attending, please register in advance via the button below

The exhibition was made possible in collaboration with the Amsterdam School for Heritage, Memory and Material Culture (AHM) at the University of Amsterdam, Arti et Amicitiae and H401 Herengracht 401.