Zomersamenscholing 25.mp4

From Saturday 21 June through Sunday 29 June, the Summer Gather Together took place.

We look back on a very successful week in which we welcomed many visitors over the course of three days. Koen Kievits and Django van Ardennen photographed the Summer Gathering, while resident artist Maurice captured everything on video. At the bottom of this page you can view the photos and footage.

Day 1 | Sun Day
Artist collective Periphery Center kicked things off after workshops by Sunflower Soup and Hospitality Club, with a spoken word performance and a beautiful presentation of the printed work they produced with us in recent weeks. Curator Lenn Cox interviewed the artists during the opening about their residency period. The spicy Antillean solstice stew they had prepared was a perfect match for the occasion. After the performance, DJ Snobbie took over and treated us to great music.

Day 2 | Letter Day
The second Summer Gathering event began with a letter-stamping workshop by Sunflower Soup, during which our billboard was completely redesigned with new text and images. Many hands worked together to create a piece best described as “activist humorous visual poetry” in which—of course—cats played a central role. After the homemade “Letter Soup,” there was a presentation of the new issue of Zevenblad. Poets and artists read from or spoke—sometimes at great length—about the works featured in the magazine. It was an attentive, thoughtful gathering of the sort we’ve come to expect from Zevenblad. The evening continued long and gently, with the beer table set up outside.

Day 3 | Together Day
The final day of the Summer Gathering centered on a workshop developed by Periphery Center in collaboration with Brussels-based collective Girls Like Us. Participants read aloud together, held discussions, and screen-printed texts onto sweatpants. It was a well-attended afternoon with many new faces. This event, too, ended with a communal meal.

We’ve made beautiful memories and written another chapter in our four-year artistic and social experiment. This past January we began a program curated by Sunflower Soup and Lenn Cox, with Hospitality Club handling the educational component. Rotating teams of artists, poets, and publishers work in our studios for a season. At the solstice or equinox that follows, we celebrate these new additions with a program full of workshops, presentations, gatherings, and soup. The Autumn Gathering will take place around the weekend of 20 and 21 September.

We are letting go of the traditional idea of an exhibition with a set beginning and endpoint. Instead, this year we are organizing ploegendiensten (residencies) of artists, writers, and collectives. Each season, activities culminate in a festive Gather Together, driven by artistic and social experiment.

Program curator Lenn Cox created Time Out/Tune In, a program focusing on time and the need to slow down. It examines the 'household' of Plaatsmaken and intersections are made with the 'households' of other makers and organizations. The Hospitality Club provides educational and public activities. You can learn more about Time Out/Tune In here.

Periphery Center is an emerging collective for artistic practice and shared study. Here, we center the margin as the main site for the production of a counter hegemonic discourse that is not just found in words but in habits of being and in the way one lives.* Here, we meet to inspire one another and co-create the reality we dream of through bookmaking, (graphic) design, publishing, curating, art and writing.

*bell hooks, “Marginality as site of resistance”

Girls Like Us is a queer feminist magazine made by and featuring an ever expanding community of queers from all sides of the spectrum within the arts, culture and activism. The magazine was founded by Jessica Gysel. It mixes politics with pleasure and maps collaborative routes toward a non-patriarchy. To actively build community, Girls Like Us also organizes events ranging from film screenings, exhibiti­ons, talks, workshops, presentations, pop-up shops, to parties. Katja Mater is involved as editor.

With thanks to Mondriaan Fonds and Gemeente Arnhem.

Looking Back | Summer Gather Together 2025

As part of ongoing research into sustainability at Plaatsmaken, we are launching two new workshops: ecological screen printing & sustainable photography. 

When | Saturday October 24
Time | 09:00 until +/- 16:00  
Costs | €100 (incl. lunch)
Location | Plaatsmaken, Klarendalseweg 82a, 6822 GC Arnhem 

You can register using the "Aanmelden" (sign up) button at the bottom left. Please indicate which workshop you would like to attend in the "comment/question" field.

At the Plaatsmaken workspaces, we are continuously exploring ways to make our practices more sustainable. One way we do this is by experimenting with the production and use of natural inks made from unconventional raw materials. As part of this research into eco-friendly inks, this pilot workshop will involve working with ingredients such as pumpkin soup, nuts, and beets. No prior knowledge or experience is required to participate; everyone is welcome!

The day consists of two separate workshops, both taking place at Plaatsmaken on Saturday, October 24, from 9:00 AM to approximately 4:00 PM. To take part in the pilot, you can sign up for one of the two workshops. You can choose from the following options:

In this workshop, we will experiment with analog and ecological photography. We will work from start to finish on all the elements required to create an analog photograph — from building the camera and brewing the developer to printing the final image. We will brew the developer using, among other things, leftovers from the pumpkin soup we enjoy for lunch. We will incorporate the season into our process and explore the realm of "sustainable photography" together.

This workshop is led by Aracelly Scheper, Mirka Farabegoli, and Carel Lanters (Collectief A.I.M).

Workshop 1. Building, Brewing, Developing, Printing

In this workshop, we will explore eco-friendly screen printing on poster paper. We’ll start by brewing ink made from nuts and beets, incorporating pigments found right in your kitchen cupboard. To create the printing medium, we’ll use ingredients such as flour and honey; this mixture will serve as the base for our screen printing. In the afternoon, you’ll have the freedom to experiment with stencils and existing screens. You also have the option to submit your own A4-sized design for the workshop. Finally, we’ll print with chocolate spread onto edible paper — a treat to enjoy as dessert following our pumpkin soup lunch.

Workshop 2. “Ecological screen printing”

Workshop eco-ink | Screen print & photography

 Re-arrangement of Priorities #25, the result of ploegendienst 7, can be visited from the 19th of  September until the 14th of November at Plaatsmaken.

Part of the H0ha program, curated by the collective Sunflower Soup. In this multi-year program, the workshops of Plaatsmaken are used to experiment with forms of protest and resistance through image and language. Poets, visual artists, activists, and publishers are invited to collaborate at Plaatsmaken in so-called 'Ploegendiensten' (work shifts).

During the Autumn Gather Together on Saturday September 19, art and solidarity collective Rainbow Soulclub presented a series of three new works created during their ploegendienst (residency).

The exhibition can be seen from September 19th until November 14th at Plaatsmaken. 

Rainbow Soulclub:
“These are works we have wanted to make or experiment with for some time, but for which there was no time, space, or simply no focus. Or they are earlier works that still needed further development, but never got around to because the next thing was already waiting around the corner. The title Re-arrangement of Priorities was conceived in 2017 by Rainbow Soulclub member Ebby Addo. Since 2017, we have used the title for all our presentations, because it is still relevant and we never really came up with a better one. Rearranging priorities is something we do every day.

Both the personal lives of the members and the Rainbow Soulclub schedule have been quite full in recent years. There have been legal battles over residence permits, illness and bereavement, but also positive things such as getting a first home, a passport, or reconnecting with long-lost family. Sometimes real life takes precedence over art.

At Plaatsmaken, we made a series of 12 hand-painted and printed cotton cloths that together form an empty yearly calendar, with one cloth for each month.

The cloths are multifunctional and can be used as desired: as a piece of clothing, picnic blanket, scarf, curtain, or simply pinned to the wall as a calendar. The empty calendar underscores the desire not to be dictated by circumstances, but to take control of one’s own schedule. Something Rainbow Soulclub members regularly have to contend with.

The cloths are made from used bed sheets, a classic ‘material’ for banners used during demonstrations. With these, we are demonstrating, in a modest way, for freedom of time.

Perry Person, one of the Rainbow Soulclub members, is a dancer by origin. In 1980, he participated in the World Disco Dancing Championships in London. He creates his own dance steps and choreographies, and has developed a notation system for music as well as one for dance. During the work period at Plaatsmaken, he designed dance shirts and dance suits. The choreography is printed on the front of the shirt and is never visible to the dancer wearing it. Ultimately, the dance depicted on it is something you have to ‘know and feel from within’. (PP)

During the Autumn Gather Together, Perry performed a dance-in, where everyone was invited to wear the shirts and dance suits.

In the presentation, two large paper fans slowly rotate in the space. The fans are made up of texts and drawings from the Rainbow Soulclub archive, meticulously folded into fans. They have a meditative effect, bringing coolness and silence to visitors to the exhibition. The work is based on an earlier piece from 2009.

The presentation is illuminated by coconut lamps from the Rainbow Soulclub archive: a spotlight on an empty calendar, paper fans, and personal dance suits. On freedom, calm, joy, and collaboration.”

This ploegendienst and the Herfstsamenscholing are part of the programme H0ha by Sunflower Soup.

About Rainbow Soulclub
Rainbow Soulclub is an art and solidarity collective founded in 2005. The collective consists of artists and thinkers from diverse social, economic, and cultural backgrounds. The members regularly meet in their shared studio at the drop-in centre of Stichting De Regenboog Groep, an organisation in Amsterdam that supports people experiencing homelessness, addiction, poverty, and the challenges associated with undocumented status.

Working with an organic model that continues to expand and evolve - without agendas, hierarchies, or expectations - the Rainbow Soulclub centres the idea that every person has the capacity for expression, even in complex and undignified circumstances.

Click here for a glance at the Herfstsamenscholing, the opening of the work of ploegendienst 7.  

Now showing | Re-arrangement of Priorities #25

dit is m adil zeefdruk .mov

We had a wonderful and successful Spring Gather Together last week.

There were many people who joined us in celebrating the change of the season by attending workshops, eating soup, watching, listening, and walking. The Mobile Unit (a portable screen printing station) had its debut at Velperpoort station, where passersby could screen print on the spot.

Hospitality Club came up with Protest Pasta—screen printing on fresh pasta, followed by enjoying a lovely meal with it. In a workshop led by Sunflower Soup, a font was designed for the Mobile Unit Lino. The letters were tested on our billboard and will appear in unexpected locations in the near future.

We walked past historical sites and listened to readings from Republishing: Umoja Zwarte Vrouwenkrant by Anne Krul and Tabea Nixdorff of Archival Textures, a preview for the program by Lenn Cox.

We were enchanted by Abhishek Thapar and his performance about his hometown in India, and Zaban Razdar shared his adventures on the West Bank. The striking images that accompanied these stories are on display at our exhibition space. Meanwhile, we also hung up new works by notshitprint, Zaban Razdar, curators Sunflower Soup, and in the basement, the impressive installation of 470 linocuts by Willemijn Theisens. All of these works will still be on view in the coming time, so please come and take a look!

We thank all the visitors, the artists, Sunflower Soup, Hospitality Club, and Lenn Cox, as well as the Municipality of Arnhem and the Mondriaan Fund. Now we can rest easy knowing that all the seeds for the future are ready to sprout, the plants can finally grow and spread.

More about the (year)programs H0Ha and Time Out/Tune In, can be found here.

Watch the video here for a retrospective of the Spring Gathering 2025.

Photography: Django van Ardenne

Looking back: Spring Gather Together 2025

On the 18th & 20th of September, the Autum Gather Together took place.

Koen Kievits and Django van Ardenne photographed the Autumn Gather Together, and Plaatsmaker Maurice captured everything on video. You can view the footage at the bottom of this page.

Autumn had just begun to change the colors. In the soft September light, we celebrated the transition into the new season. On Thursday, we walked through Klarendal to see the utility boxes that Harmen Liemburg had decorated with designs based on the favorite things of local residents. Everything was color-coordinated. Some neighbors had even created small gardens around the boxes in front of their doors, complete with matching flowers. Upon returning, we were served Equinox soup made of pumpkin and ginger, with roasted sage croutons. At the table, Sunflower Soup led a workshop where participants could draw on edible paper. Cats were drawn - filled with worry and tension. When everyone was finished, the drawings - and with them the worries - were eaten.

By midday on the second day of the Gather Together, it was already bustling at Plaatsmaken. Periphery Center led a workshop involving reading, listening, writing, and ultimately creating a large collaborative work. Participants sat in a circle and discussed how to transform their anger and political disappointment into something constructive. Together, they created a large blueprint, now on display as inspiration in the Compost Heap in the corner of the space.

Outside, the Hospitality Club filled the billboard with brightly colored monoprints. Here and there, a windmill appeared - an early hint at the upcoming Windmill Project, in which they’ll create sails for the blades. After these activities, we enjoyed delicious banana bread in preparation for the basement rave.

It was time for the presentation of Ploegendienst 3. The work of Margreet Sweerts was presented through a performance. Two flag bearers approached the audience from the entrance, waving wildly and then calmly locking eyes. The banners flapped vigorously in the wind. Later, they were tied together into one large flag—surrender and acceptance.

Emmeline de Mooij took us on a hilarious journey through her bodily transformation - from standing still in her body to exuberantly celebrating and sharing it. Moni Zwitserloot performed equally physical texts, with subjects such as worms, maggots, and loose cuticles. Hussel Zhu stood on the millstone and spoke in Chinese about his work. The fact that no one understood what he was saying was no issue - we followed blindly, guided by his passionate explanation.

We headed to the basement for the launch of the collaboratively made music video. For the occasion, the entire basement had been wrapped in black plastic, with a smoke machine, laser lights, and a DJ. We saw Margreet, Emmeline, Hussel, and Moni scream, dance, move, and summon and battle their demons. Then it was our turn to face our own, to dance, arms in the air, helped along by the music and the occasional fitting cocktail, like a Dark & Stormy.

The Autumn Gather Together is part of H0ha, a program in which poets, visual artists, activists, and publishers are invited to (co-)work in rotating “Shifts” (Ploegendiensten) at Plaatsmaken. Each season includes a Gathering Together, in which activities are bundled into a vibrant mix of artistic and social experiment. For this program we collaborate with artist collective Sunflower Soup and curator Lenn Cox.

ABOUT THE PARTICIPANTS

Moni Zwitserloot is a writer and performer. Key elements in their work include physicality, transformation, and community. Being strange, muck, or weird is celebrated through the use of gore elements and magical realism. Current obsessions: insects, fungi and bodily fluids.

Hussel Zhu is a visual artist, short fiction writer, and researcher. In his printmaking, he often uses the image of a dancing frog—inspired by the Japanese ink painting Birds, Beasts, and Human Play, and the animal paintings of Bada Shanren—where animals satirize those in power.

The Feministische Handwerkpartij is a political feminist artist movement that is dedicated to studying, repairing, speaking, patching up, unlearning and mending. It is initiated by visual artist Emmeline de Mooij and performance director Margreet Sweerts.

Periphery Center is a collective for artistic practice and shared study. They meet to inspire one another and co-create the reality they dream of through bookmaking, graphic design, publishing, curating, art and writing. Periphery Center consists of Leana Boven, Pelumi Adejumo, Yusser Al Obaidi, Jeanine van Berkel en Yessica Deira.

For our small-scale educational projects, we collaborate with Hospitality Club, consisting of Mirka Farabegoli and Krista Burger. These projects involve local primary schools, young people, children, ArtEZ students, MBO students, and neighborhood residents.

With thanks to the Mondriaanfonds and the Municipality of Arnhem.

Looking back | Autumn Gather Together 2025

On Saturday, March 21, the Spring Gather Together took place, during which the results of Ploegendienst 5 were presented.

Hussel Zhu photographed the Spring Gather Together, and Plaatsmaker Maurice captured everything on video. You can view the visual material at the bottom of this page.

During Ploegendienst 5 (January/February/March 2026), artists Merel Nijhuis, Jivan van der Ende, and the Queer Collective Workers’ Union worked in the Plaatsmaken workshops. As a common thread throughout their working periods, they explored the visible and invisible aspects of labor, and the emotional and physical pain that comes with it.

Merel created zines in which she combined text, cyanotype, and screen printing. Jivan van der Ende gave herself over to her fascination with reflective workwear. The Queer Collective Workers’ Union presents their founding letter on a billboard, based on the contradiction of a collective that demands its workers to “work alone.”

During the Spring Gather Together, the new works were celebrated along with the arrival of spring and Iranian New Year, marked by a reading by Merel. We served Iranian soup, and there was an open workshop where participants could express themselves about the war in the Middle East. In the basement, visitors could use their phone flashlights to search for the messages Jivan had applied to her work using reflective ink. Afterwards, we watched as the Queer Collective Workers’ Union used a green spray can to write “Work Alone” on the billboard while reading their founding letter aloud.

The Spring Gather Together is part of H0ha, a program by Sunflower Soup.

Looking back | Lentesamenscholing 2026

Click here for video's about this project

Stadsatelier Arnhem is a collaboration between four cultural organizations  based in Arnhem; Theater a/d Rijn, Plaatsmaken, ArtEZ, and The Hub. 

The goal of this collaboration is to make the art world of Arnhem more diverse and accessible for both artists and the public. New ways of collaborating between art, public, and society are the central focus. 

To achieve this, short work periods are organized giving creators the opportunity to conduct artistic research at various locations in Arnhem and share this with the city's residents. 

Each year features one long-term residency—the 'city residency'—in which an experienced artist conducts research related to the city of Arnhem. In addition, seven short-term residencies will be organized in 2026, giving emerging creators the space to experiment, gain experience, further develop their skills, and share their work with the public. Throughout this process, they receive support from the collaborating organizations.

At Plaatsmaken, artists can experiment and work in various workshops and make use of the exhibition space. ArtEZ provides an online platform, APRIA (ArtEZ Platform for Research Interventions of the Arts), where publications can be shared online. They also assist residents in formulating a research question and connect various study programs and students with the project. The Hub serves as a meeting place connecting students, self-taught artists, and alumni, helping residents take their first steps into the professional cultural sector. Theater aan de Rijn offers residents a stage for experimentation and helps them connect with a suitable audience.

In 2024, social theatre maker Abhishek Thapar served as the city resident. He is an artist who blends personal stories with major global themes. His research focused on the often-invisible kitchen staff within the hospitality industry. Through his project Lacuna Kitchen, he aimed to bring together theatre, gastronomy, community building, and social activism. He united all these elements in a performance staged in May 2025. This initiative allowed kitchen staff not only to share their stories but also to play an active role in creating and performing the piece. In addition to the performance, the project included workshops with ArtEZ students and "Kitchen Telling Events"—community meals where the public could gather to eat, get to know one another, converse, and foster a sense of community. Meanwhile, emerging artists Ro Smit, Mel Kikkert, Levi Overvest, and Charlotte Gillain developed their practices at Plaatsmaken and Theater a/d Rijn. Their work centered on social themes, utilizing various analog and digital art forms while exploring new ways to experience art. The results of their residencies were showcased through exhibitions, performances, and workshops.

Ro Smit graduated in 2023 (BEAR ArtEZ) and invites the public to create a collaborative exhibition through workshops. He explores how objects acquire meaning through memories and conducted research into screen printing techniques at Plaatsmaken.

Also Levi Overvest graduated in 2023 (BEAR ArtEZ). Levi moved into the Klarendal neighborhood and gathered topics relevant to Arnhem’s young residents. During his residency at Plaatsmaken, he explored screen printing on ceramics.

Mel Kikkert graduated in 2023 (Creative Writing, ArtEZ) and is fascinated by the internet and its inhabitants. At Theater a/d Rijn, they explored theatre as a medium and created new work using words, imagery, and digital tools.

Charlotte Gillain graduated in 2021 (Mime School, AHK). She works from the body and seeks to make the way that our brains store memories tangible. Together with designer Zak Lennard, she explored the physical experience of remembering and the visualization of this inner world using digital design.

The 2026 city resident is artist, educator, workshop leader, and organizer Frank Koolen. He creates installations, videos, performances, drawings, and sculptures. Frank enjoys creating work for and with others and wants to share the pleasure he derives from art with them. He believes that art does not need t be anything specific, yet can serve as a wonderful starting point for social change or a shift in consciousness. His primary driving force is his enthusiasm for the creative process as a catalyst for an open and empathetic perspective. Key elements in his approach include the use of humor, disruption, and improvisation.

In FIASCO TOTAAL, Frank Koolen’s research project, the creative process takes center stage as the driving force behind play, conversation, and new discoveries. It is a dynamic, experimental, and playful exploration of the methods and effects of collectivity and collaboration—of ‘working together’—in which the process and the shared experience are paramount. The findings of the research will be presented at various locations, including Plaatsmaken and Omstand. The project comprises several components, namely: STUDIO FIASCO, CIRCUS FIASCO and FIASCO TOTAAL. 

The artists undertaking a short residency at Plaatsmaken in 2026 are Isaac van den Aker, Frida Berntsen, and Carmen Molenaar. More information will follow soon.

Arnhems Stadsatelier

On Saturday September 19th the 'herfstsamenscholing' (Autumn Gathering) took place at Plaatsmaken

During the Autumn Gathering on Saturday September 19, art and solidarity collective Rainbow Soulclub presented a series of three new works created during their ploegendienst (residency).

Program (free admission)
15:00 Doors open 
15:30 Dance-in with Perry Person
16:00 Opening remarks by Sunflower Soup and Rainbow Soulclub
16:30 Workshop: making End of summer rolls with Ting Phangpanya
18:00 Soup 
19:00 End

Click here for the video that provides an overview of the opening. 

During the Autumn Gather Together there was a dance-in with Perry, where everyone was invited to join and wear the shirts and dance suits.

Visitors make springrolls with the help of Ting Phangpanya

Visitors looking at the displays with footage from the archives of the Rainbow Soulclub

The dance choreography of Perry Person printed on shirts and dance suits 

Screen printing of one of the Rainbow Soulclub prints

Looking back | Autumn Gathering 2026

On Friday, September 11th at 20:00h we are launching the tenth edition of Zevenblad. 

From loads of submissions, we unanimously selected a number of triptychs, ranging from self-portraits with handkerchiefs to dark chairs and drawn landscapes. In the poems we chose, we read about unsafe forests and find ourselves constantly on the move - from doorways to asphalt, and in search of who we are. The result is a remarkably atmospheric issue, designed by Valentina Stahnke of Werkplaats Typografie. Come and listen to the poets and artists!

Participants: Albert Hagenaars, Erik Lucassen, Henriëtte Tavenier, Ivana Soyer, Jaap Blonk, Jeanet Kingma, Sam Ellyn Theunissen, Lique Schoot, Mirjam Kuitenbrouwer, José Witteveen, Reggie Voigtländer, René van der Hoofd, Sandra Kruisbrink, Suzanne de Jong, and Marion Steur.

Zevenblad is an arts and poetry magazine published twice a year by Plaatsmaken. Each issue is celebrated with a festive launch featuring a programme full of poetry. Read more about all editions of Zevenblad here. Press here to buy Zevenblad#10. 

Presentation Zevenblad#10

Plaatsmaken welcomes two new members to its Supervisory Board: Ralph Dassen and Ide André.

With the arrival of Ralph Dassen, and following the departure of Jenny Doest, we once again have an experienced cultural leader from Arnhem on board. In addition, we chose to appoint an extra member with an artistically driven perspective, and we’re delighted to welcome artist Ide André as a new Plaatsmaker. We’re excited to introduce them both — and look forward to the collaboration!

“I’m a visual artist and have been living and working in Arnhem for over ten years. My work originates primarily from painting but increasingly extends into sculpture, performance, video, and sound. Alongside my own practice, I’m one of the regular studio practice tutors in the Fine Art department at AKI ArtEZ in Enschede.

My interest in graphic techniques stems from my background in painting — they’re often direct, physical methods. I also have a fondness for spaces and initiatives that create opportunities to come together: to think, act, and especially make, collectively. Plaatsmaken is one of those places where all this converges. I’m therefore very happy to be able to support that from within the Supervisory Board, wherever needed.”

“I always think there is a mystical understanding between the moon and the street,
like between two sisters who have grown old together
and no longer need any language to communicate with each other.”
— Tove Ditlevsen

“That feeling — that something speaks without words — I recognize it.
In art. In poetry. In silence.
In the way a thought, an image, or a glance suddenly opens something up
and for a moment connects everything.

I’m Ralph Dassen, director of Focus Filmtheater Arnhem,
father of two boys, and three years deep into that one book
that stubbornly refuses to move past thirty thousand words.
I like to move between worlds — between word and image,
between practical organization and losing myself in dreams.

I love art that dares to get lost,
language that both stings and soothes,
colors that are just a bit too bright,
and makers who can’t be tamed.

That’s why I feel at home at Plaatsmaken:
a place where artists experiment, fail, shine —
where things are born that don’t yet have a name.

As a new board member, I hope to contribute to creating space —
space to make, to doubt, to explore.
Space where art and poetry can keep breathing.

And yes — always with a cup of coffee nearby.

I look forward to meeting you all soon, and to truly becoming a Plaatsmaker!”

Nieuwe leden RvT

We have some new workshops planned for the upcoming months.

You can sign up for the following workshops:


Saturday, October 10th | Workshop screen printing (beginners)
Saturday, October 17th | Workshop book binding (experienced)

You can read more about the workshops (and how to sign up) here.

New workshops

For several years, Plaatsmaken has been programming contemporary visual art in the display case (De Vitrine) standing in front of the Palace of Justice in Arnhem.

Based on the idea that encountering art in unexpected places can add an extra sparkle to your day, in collaboration with the BEAR (Fine Art) department at ArtEZ, (former) students are given the opportunity to submit a proposal for the showcase. This benefits both parties: young artists gain experience exhibiting, and Plaatsmaken is thus assured of programming young talent directly from the academy.

On display in the showcase from September 1st: Kajetan Oniszk

Kajetan graduated from BEAR in 2026 and has selected six prints from his graduation work for the showcase. The work is titled Gaza Strips (2026).

What we see is an archive of thin, horizontal screenshots of the recently updated satellite images of Gaza on Google Maps. Where life, stories, cities, and nature once existed, only rubble, desert, and traces of bulldozers remain.

Read more about the De Uitspraak showcase project here.

De Uitspraak | Kajetan Oniszk

De resultaten van de vierde Ploegendienst, onderdeel van het programma H0ha. 

Ploegendienst 4 | Rizqita Naherta, Not Just a Collective & ROTS
Working period: September - December 2025
Winter Gather Together: 9, 12 and 13 December 2025
On show: January 5 - February 21 2026

Part of the H0Ha programme, curated by the Sunflower Soup collective for Plaatsmaken, Arnhem.

These are the results of the fourth work shift of the multi-year program H0Ha. In H0Ha, the workshops of Plaatsmaken are used to experiment with forms of protest and resistance, through images and language. Poets, visual artists, activists, and publishers are invited to collaborate at Plaatsmaken in so-called ‘Shifts’. H0Ha is curated by the Sunflower Soup collective.

Did you have a grandmother who knitted socks for you? Did she teach you how to do it? And do you have the patience for that time-consuming work?

Handicrafts, such as crocheting, knitting, and sewing, have traditionally been seen as work done by women. It is labor that is often performed at home or in small communities. The maker often remains unpaid and unnamed. This fits into a broader pattern in which women's work is made invisible. At the same time, this labor forms a basis for women to come together, organize, and emancipate themselves.

The Arnhem collective Not just a collective has transformed handicrafts into graphic work. It is precisely this translation that creates a new visibility that makes it possible to reflect on these aspects of handicrafts. Handicrafts are often seen as old-fashioned, but they also carry a history of subversion, resistance, and solidarity.

The artist Rizqita Naherta created an installation that refers to women's emancipation in Indonesia and the important role that the Gerwani movement played in it. This movement is an example of how different forms of emancipation and resistance come together and reinforce each other, because anti-imperialism and decolonization were central to Gerwani. The silkscreen prints feature texts from Gerwani's magazine Api Kartini, printed on images of kebayas (traditional Indonesian clothing for women).

In the practice of artist and poet ROTS, “unravelling” is an important method that is used in both a concrete and metaphorical way: wool from old jumpers is reused for objects with other purposes. A seemingly familiar concept such as “man” is unravelled in order to question what masculinity actually consists of. ROTS created a man cave printed with images of Androgel, a hormone treatment. How should a man behave in his cave? You are welcome to find out for yourself by taking place in the soft interior of this cave, which can also be seen as a manwomb.

What does it mean to pass on handworking techniques in the modern world? Who taught you how to crochet, knit or work with textiles? Did the women you knew mostly do this for leisure, or was it the only work available?

In this textile work, five members of Not Just a Collective — Lu Lin, Femke Kersten, Alessandra Varisco, Doga Gönüllü and Heike Renée de Wit — started from the knowledge and techniques they had learned from their grandmothers. They shared their crochet and knitting skills with each other and with their neighbours at De Nieuwe Hommel community centre. By combining stories and memories from their grandmothers, they translated textile crafts into prints. Using printing techniques such as silkscreen and monoprint, these images were printed onto textiles which were then pieced together. This patchwork is on display in the middle of Plaatsmaken's space. You cannot miss it! The work reminds us of the labour, knowledge and stories of our grandmothers, and of the value of these aspects, which should not be forgotten.

Merawat Api dari Penyihir-Penyihir Militan Kami - Nurturing the Fire of Our Militant Witches

Through the assemblage of archives reactivated from Gerwani’s magazine Api Kartini, the excerpts from the magazine are presented on the many kebaya prints and the bamboo mats within the living room space, as revolutionary passages, poem, and list were recited through the phone and television by exiled relative.

The work holds a space of remembrance for the militant women’s mass organization. Along with the pedagogical activation, the work asks to nurture the memories of Indonesian women’s resistance, and their methods of understanding that are organizing with the masses that is prone to be forgotten in the present, as a result of the historical trauma under Suharto’s regime.

hello I'm a performative male
my mancave is a womb
Dear Virginia, I'm now squatting the room, owning the room, making the room. The that became the (on steroids).

My body on testosterone feels more and more like my own, literally better, stonger. Was it only hormonal dysfunction? Did i just not have enough?

I know the moon, even so far away, was too much for me.

Do I feel more masculine because I'm taking testo or am I masculine and therefore I take testo?

masculinity is transforming
masculinity is tender and often fragile
masculinity relies on stories we tell about how men come into being.
Am I becoming a man by performing the same act again and again and again? I'm never quite reaching, quite being but probably for the better.

Gender is image perpetually cited, repeated, and reproduced. (J. Butler)
this mancave/womb gives shelter to ideas of performative masculinity exposing what Butler calls the machinery of becoming.
Becoming by performing.

my manwomb - an ode to my muses: the matchamen, the soyboys, the softbois, the metromen, the dandies and the hipsters.

Ploegendienst 4

Opening | Thursday, May 28 at 5 p.m.
On view through June 13
Photography | Hussel Zhu

Participants: Yubin Lee, Lotus van Zoggel, Milan van der Stouw, Sam Zanardo, Ouiee Park, Arya Rambod, Merel Hoogendijk, and Chenxin Feng.

In collaboration with BEAR and ArtEZ, we curate the display case located in front of the Palace of Justice in Arnhem. Each year, four students are given the opportunity to present work they have created specifically for this location. This means that visitors can view contemporary work by emerging artists day and night.

At the moment, we are hosting a group exhibition featuring works by artists who have exhibited there over the past two years. Eight presentations of promising work offer an exciting glimpse of what is still to come. Among the pieces on display is a papier-mâché stove with ceramic pots and pans. Hanging in the kitchen are atmospheric photographs of everyday street life in China, alongside carefully executed drawings of hands and birds. There is also an intense video exploring the many ways people push their physical limits in the gym, accompanied by a boxing bag and a mat where visitors can try out some exercises themselves. Across one wall stretches a broad constellation of small, fleeting drawings, scattered and expanding in every direction - sprawling, all over the place.

And outside, on the billboard, an apt summary has been posted: My god I love it!

Arya Rambod (2004, Iran) is an interdisciplinary artist currently based in Zurich. His work explores the relationship between infrastructure, human behaviour, and economy through moving image, installation, and digital media. Combining research and experimentation, he reconfigures infrastructural systems within affective and historical frameworks, exposing their latent tensions.

Lotus Parel van Zoggel is a BEAR Fine Art student at ArtEZ. In her work, she combines ceramics, painting, and papier-mâché sculptures in installations where different disciplines engage in dialogue. She explores themes of family dynamics, social pressure, idealization, nostalgia, and relationships. Her work examines often overlooked domestic labour and the persistence of traditional gender roles within everyday family life.

Merel Hoogendijk (2003) is an artist who works primarily with drawing, and occasionally with painting, animation, and installation. She lingers on curious fleeting moments, like a bird on its eggs, finding consolation in their warmth before they transform and fly by.

Milan van der Stouw (2001) works with materials undergoing their own quiet rebellion. After developing a practice based on collecting and reassembling discarded objects, he now applies this research into potentiality and meaning-making to drawing. Following the pencil’s intention, graphite lines form shapes that emerge from the character of the line itself. Treating sketching as a medium in its own right, he explores openness, emptiness, and form. His interest in materiality also draws him to woodworking and traditional hand tools, which increasingly feature in his mixed-media installations. Besides his individual practice, van der Stouw is part of The Barattolo Projects, a collective focused on sharing artistic knowledge and fostering sustainable, communal living.

Ouiee Seo Yeon Park playfully performs an autopsy on image qualities—resolution, captions, and aftereffects—through paper-based sculptures and films. Revisiting moments of laughter, fascination, and conviction, Ouiee researches how pleasurable and familiar forms can obscure discussion and consent by producing shared desires and beliefs. Their research draws on personal experiences with TV comedy shows, exhibition routes, noise cancelling, and military Armed Forces Day festivals.

Sam Zanardo is a visual and performance artist from Italy, currently based in the Netherlands. Coming from a background in dance and martial arts, their practice centres on endurance, constriction, and repetition, investigating how transformation can occur within predetermined structures and rules. Through physically demanding actions and the use of mass-media platforms, they address subjectivity as a process of constant decomposition and reconfiguration. Their current work explores storytelling through performance, filmmaking, and writing, drawing on folklore, rituality, and magic in Southern Italy, where religious traditions, personal narratives, and media archives intertwine.

Yubin Lee explores questions of existence, transformation, and self-reflection through drawing. Rooted in the Buddhist art of Thangka and meditative practice, Lee’s work unfolds through Saerang-i (새랑이), an autobiographical character navigating growth, desire, acceptance, and consciousness. While grounded in personal experience, the work also engages with political, environmental, and social structures, challenging dualism, hierarchy, stereotypes, and anthropocentrism. Through detailed, contemplative imagery created with materials such as Hanji, ink, and rice paper, Lee invites viewers into spaces of introspection and reflection.

Fleeting Emotions

The results of the third Ploegendienst, part of the H0ha program.

Ploegendienst 3 | Moni Zwitserloot, Hussel Zhu & de Feministische Handwerkpartij
Work period: June – September 2025
Autumn Gather Together: 18 – 20 September 2025
On view: 22 September – 5 December 2025

H0ha is a program in which poets, visual artists, activists, and publishers are invited to (co-)work in so-called “Ploegendiensten” (Shifts) at Plaatsmaken.
Each season concludes with a Gathering Together, during which activities are brought together into a vibrant mix of artistic and social experiment.
For this program, we collaborate with the artist collective Sunflower Soup and curator Lenn Cox. The Autumn Gather Together took place from 18 to 20 September.

Ololyga is an Ancient Greek word that refers to the 
high-pitched, horrifying, blood-curdling screams of a woman*. 
These are sounds that are emitted during intense pain or intense pleasure.

The overarching theme of this Ploegendienst is how the body can serve as a space for resistance. This resistance is not bombastic and in-your-face as we are perhaps accustomed to, but rather modest, subtle and subversive. Through etchings, textiles, prints, texts and other interventions in the space, the artists demonstrate how they challenge societal norms and celebrate bodies, both human and non-human, that do not conform to the status quo. These works demand the viewer's attention and concentration, inviting them to engage with them, participate, question them, and adjust their own expectations.

In her essay 'Gender of Sound', Anne Carson describes how special festivals were held in classical Greek culture where women could make these sounds outside the city limits, the domain of civilised men. Men, who use reason as a barrier to keep emotions at bay, want nothing to do with people who leak on all sides. The person with two 'mouths', one above and one below. One with which unspeakable things are done, and one with which unspeakable things are said. With all their frightening, uncontrollable physicality and bodily fluids, this person is closer to the animal kingdom than to the world of developed humans, oh oops, cisgender men.

The etchings by Emmeline de Mooij (Feministische Handwerk Partij), featuring the figure of Sheela Na Gig, illustrate this very directly. We see an old body that is as much vulva as mouth, with hands that spread the genitals open. This figure was often carved in stone and placed on buildings, primarily medieval churches in Ireland. The reason for this is unclear, but what we do know is that the figure predates Christianity. They were considered a witch-like figure associated with twilight, transition and transformation. Embodying death as much as life. Through Sheela Na Gig, Emmeline questions current issues, such as who can claim ownership of their sexuality. Is it reserved for young bodies? Why are we not surprised when an older man displays his sexuality, yet turn up our noses when an older woman does the same?

In their text 'Vruchtvlees', Moni Zwitserloot offers a different perspective on the body. They employ the horror trope of 'gore' to challenge our perception of what the body can experience. Moni began by asking whether it is possible to make etchings using bodily fluids. This then gave rise to their text. Drawing inspiration from the everyday sensation of pulling a piece of skin off your fingernail, the text takes us on a journey of sensations that far surpasses this experience. The text can be read on the back of the prints, which hang gracefully from thin chains suspended from the ceiling.

Drawing inspiration from the Japanese Chōjū-giga scrolls, in which monkeys, frogs, and rabbits take on human roles, Hussel Zhu employs the frog (or toad) as a subtle means of criticising contexts in which political expression is suppressed. His etchings are like a 'knife in water': sharp yet restrained. We see frogs in many guises: disguised as bodhisattvas (in some forms of Buddhism, this is a being striving for enlightenment), nailed in the corner like a curse on a piece of paper, or hanging from the willow branch of Guanyin, the goddess of mercy. At the back of the room is a large piece of work in which a frog is surrounded by yellow and gold lines. These colours are associated with power in China. Visitors are invited to challenge the concept of power itself by leaving their mark on the work. 

Visitors are also challenged by the work of Margreet Sweerts (Feministische Handwerkpartij). White flags bearing etchings in the corners stand motionless in the space. This piece awaits activation by two people. They want to feel the resistance of the air and serve as an extension of the bodies that set them in motion. The piece calls for movement together and stems from the question: what do we surrender to? Do we submit to harsh forces that squeeze all humanity out of us? Or do we surrender to a society that seeks to render disabled, feminine, queer and trans bodies invisible?

The white flag is often considered taboo in contemporary activism, particularly when used by white people from a Western perspective. However, if you look closely or hold the flags in your hands, you will see that they are not actually white. They have a tactile history. They are not passive; they call for connection and reflection on the body of the person wearing them. While you are in the Plaatsmaken space, you might like to ask another visitor to accompany you outside, where you can tie the flags together and experience how the wind plays with the fabric.

The four participants have collectively made a music video based on their shared experience of the suppression of raw energy. In the video, they allow the sounds inside them at that moment to come to the fore. Is this perhaps a modern version of ololyga? Do we still feel uncomfortable expressing these kinds of sounds? Are they permitted within the city limits?

*In this day and age, 'woman' could refer to anyone who does not identify as a cisgender man. A cisgender person is someone whose gender identity corresponds to their birth sex.

Ploegendienst 3

The results of Ploegendienst 5, part of the H0ha programme.

Ploegendienst 5 | Jivan van der Ende, Merel Nijhuis and Queer Collective Workers’ Union
Work period: January – March 2026
Spring Gather Together: March 21, 2026
On show: March 21 – May 23, 2026

Part of the H0ha program, curated by the collective Sunflower Soup. In this multi-year program, the workshops of Plaatsmaken are used to experiment with forms of protest and resistance through image and language. Poets, visual artists, activists, and publishers are invited to collaborate at Plaatsmaken in so-called 'Ploegendiensten' (work shifts). 

About Ploegendienst 5
Artists Merel Nijhuis, Jivan van der Ende and the Queer Collective Workers’ Union, address the visible and invisible aspects of labour, and the emotional and physical pain it comes with.

Within H0ha, questions around labour are recurring. When we chose the word Ploegendienst (‘work shift’), we were attracted to its proletarian or even socialist connotation. Of course there is a romantic side to this choice, but it also helped us to think about the way in which the different kinds of labour were compensated. In the first year of Hoha, all participants received the same hourly rate, but this turned out to be difficult to handle, because what precisely is labour? When does activist or artistic labour stop and start? And maybe, the difficulty is even more fundamental. Because etymologically, the word labour has the following background:

‘c. 1300, "a task, a project" (such as the labors of Hercules); later "exertion of the body; trouble, difficulty, hardship" (late 14c.), from Old French labor "toil, work, exertion, task; tribulation, suffering" (12c., Modern French labeur), from Latin labor "toil, exertion; hardship, pain, fatigue; a work, a product of labor," a word of uncertain origin.’

That brings us to the hardships that seem to be inseparable from facing uneasy truths, which in turn seem to be inseparable from doing activism. It might be justified to say that the labour of Ploegendienst 5 consists both of printmaking and dealing with pain.

Thanks to the Mondriaan Fund and the Municipality of Arnhem.

Merel Nijhuis
During the Shift at Plaatsmaken, Merel created zines combining text, cyanotype, and screen printing. The work revolves around her experience of (crip) time, what it means to be “healthy” in our current political climate, well-being, joy, and contradictions. Each zine is slightly different, making them as unique as the embodied experience of the moment in which they were produced: some were made during periods of intense headaches or while experiencing recurring tingling sensations in her fingertips, while others were created while enjoying the first spring sun.

Merel Nijhuis is a crip-queer writer, artist, and editor. They write experimental poetry and are inspired by critical theory, processes of cripping and queering, unreliable memory, and embodied experiences. Their work has been published in literary journals such as nY and Hard//hoofd.

Jivan van der Ende
During the Shift, Jivan van der Ende surrenders to her fascination with reflective workwear. She explores the drama and camp of reflective inks to see what happens when pots find lids, when there is light in the darkroom, and when everything is laid bare.

Jivan van der Ende is a visual artist who analyzes and deconstructs symbols of power structures and social constructs. Her eclectic method is based on endless collecting, documenting, tearing apart, and reusing.

An essential part of her practice is cross-gender research into clothing. During the Shift, the artist’s project was gradually taken over and ultimately completely hijacked by her fetish for reflective workwear.

Queer Collective Workers’ Union
presents its founding letter on a billboard, based on a contradiction: a collective that demands its members “work alone.” Their counter-archive is an online publishing tool using a “Seed Packet” template. During their gathering, the billboard becomes the center of the space, the archive is projected, and an information table offers “Seed Packet” posters and union merchandise. Members of the union lead conversations and connect their specific conflict to broader struggles. The event marks their public launch. The infrastructure for collective authorship is under construction.

Ploegendienst 5

We let go of the traditional idea of an exhibition with a start and end point. Instead, we are organizing ploegendiensten with artists, writers and collectives.

Every season, there is a Samenscholingsweek, in which activities are bundled into an exuberant whole of artistic and social experiment. For this program, we collaborate with art collective Sunflower Soup and curator Lenn Cox. The first Samenscholingsweek took place in the week of March 17-22. The results of this first Shiftwork and Samenscholing can still be seen until mid-June.

Spring Samenscholing: March 17 - 22, 2025

During this first ploegendienst, Sunflower Soup, Zaban Razdar and Notshitprint have been working in Plaatsmaken for the past few months. A central question in the work created during this first ploegendienst is how the West views the way in which oppressed people have fought for their liberation in different places and at different times, or are still doing so.

Art collective Sunflower Soup emerged from a shared activist commitment and an urgent need to explore what art can mean beyond the personal, isolated individual. The collective is driven by a series of lively questions: can working in community foster a less passive, more participatory experience of art? How can art contribute to the politics of the everyday in which people relate to each other and to the more-than-human, planetary world? How do we reconcile the importance of activism with a poetic visual language that allows for humor, paradox, and ambiguity?

Lenn Cox is a community organizer, artist, educator, and program maker. She explores solidarity economies by immersing herself in self-organized learning-working-living environments, many with an ecofeminist and queer heart. She uses clothing and navigation maps to carry the exchanges and stories she collects. Lenn initiates gatherings that enable collective learning. An ongoing investigation into how we organize ourselves, what we can learn from each other, and what is at stake in the cultural field and beyond.

Zaban Razdar is in the holy land to support the indigenous population in their fight against ethnic cleansing together with other activists. In between, he picks up the pen to write off the Palestinian he is in love with.

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Workshop eco-ink | Screen print & photography

As part of ongoing research into sustainability at Plaatsmaken, we are launching two new workshops: ecological screen printing & sustainable photography.

Aanmelden Workshop eco-ink | Screen print & photography