We are letting go of the traditional idea of an exhibition with a fixed beginning and end. Instead, we organize rotating shifts of artists, writers, and collectives. Each season culminates in a ‘Samenscholingsweek’ (Gathering Week), where activities come together in a vibrant mix of artistic and social experimentation. We collaborate on this program with curator Lenn Cox and the art collective Sunflower Soup, with the Samenscholing taking place at the end of each season.

Time Out / Tune In by Lenn Cox

The Time Out / Tune In programme emerged from the compost heap from which Plaatsmaken has grown, mixed with Lenn Cox’s nomadic practice and her ongoing research project Collective Wandering. This research explores self-organised socio-ecological communities and collectives - often with an (eco)feminist and queer core - and stems from a desire for greater collectivity in the working and living conditions of artists and cultural workers. In recent years, there has been a growing interest in and urgency for collectivity within the precarious cultural field.

The programme engages with the cyclical nature of time and calls for a slowing down. The value of time and slowness for artists and collectives is fundamental, yet constantly under pressure. At times, it seems almost impossible to slow down, given the demands of productivity required to survive in the precarious cultural field.

Time Out / Tune In places time at the centre as both a creator and currency. It embraces the cyclical rhythm of the seasons, creating space to move beyond the accelerated pace of clock time. Through seasonal working periods, this approach is given further room to unfold. Within intensive seasonal programmes, residents at Plaatsmaken are brought together with other makers. Time Out / Tune In centres the “household” of Plaatsmaken, examines it closely, and creates intersections with the “households” of other makers and organisations. Seemingly everyday activities become part of the working and making process: they are the conditions and rhythms that make art possible. During recurring moments, participants explore how to organise collectively, what can be learned from one another, and what is at stake. Making art is about setting things in motion and moves beyond established frameworks of what art is, can be, or should look like.

Curator Lenn Cox

Lenn Cox is a community organizer, artist, educator and program maker. She graduated in 2020 from the ArtEZ Master Practice Held in Common, where she developed the handbook Collective Wandering: Hanging Out with Our Everyday Ecology. Lenn explores solidaristic economies by immersing herself in self-organised learning-working-living environments, including those beyond the arts. She uses clothing as a method of correspondence to carry the exchanges and stories she gathers into conversation. Together with the Navigation Cards she has developed, which are used as a conversational tool in exchange with artists, makers, cultural workers, and educators.

Time Out / Tune In runs parallel to the programme H0ha by the art collective Sunflower Soup. The two overlap and reinforce one another.