Twice a year we publish Zevenblad, a magazine for poetry and visual art.

With Zevenblad, we directly reference Plaatsmaken’s history as a publishing house, while at the same time embracing experiment and multidisciplinarity. We firmly believe in bringing different languages together. The magazine is published twice a year and is launched with a festive program full of poetry.

Price: €10,- (excl shipping)
Subscription to Zevenblad (two editions yearly):
- €27,50 (incl. shipping) per year

Zevenblad#9 with poetry by Arjan van Es, Enno de Witt, Ivana Soyer, Marcel Pol, Roelof Schipper en Ruben Planting. Art is by Agatha van Amée, Arjan van Es, Carel Lanters, Claudia Lindhout, Francis Konings, Ietje Meerman en Liesbeth Doornbosch.  Design by Valentina Stahnke van Werkplaats Typografie/ArtEZ.

Zevenblad#8 with poetry by Annelie David, Kiki Mulder, Willem Bentvelzen, Tabea Nixdorff and anne krul, Anke van Oostveen, Jasper van den Broek, Annet Zaagsma and Sebastiaan Mets. Art is by Floor Martens, Dominique Panhuysen, Willy de Weerd-Maas, Abel Schaminee & Daan van der Pluijm. Design by Camille Cilja Caspersen from Werkplaats Typografie/ArtEZ.

Zevenblad#7 with poetry by Arno Kramer, Antoin Lender, Inge Winter, Ellen Boersma, Roelof Schipper, Jasper van den Broek, Paul Rigolle & Norbert de Beule. Art is by Femke Vindevogel, Barbara Polderman, Frans van Tartwijk, Emily Kocken, Miyuki Okuyama, Albert van der Weide & Angeline Lips. Design by Camille Cilja Caspersen from Werkplaats Typografie/ArtEZ.

Zevenblad#6 with poetry by Anke van Oostveen, Roelof Schipper, Willem van Zadelhoff, Frank Pollet & Corie Grootendorst. Art is by Geer van der Klugt, Sunflower Soup, Tonni van Sommeren, Bert Scholten & Paul Louis van den Bergh.

Zevenblad#5 with poetry by Ellen Boersma, Tina van Baren, Lieke Gorter, Corie Grootendorst, Annet Zaagsma, Antoin Lender & Rick Kewal Gademann. Art is by van Anne Geene, Aldwin Lehr, Melanie Bosboom, Wilfried Nijhof en Ellen Fleich Gracia. 

Zevenblad#4 is een weerslag van het project Altered Breath in taal en beeld. With poetry by Ananda Serné, Dorien de Wit, Hannah van Binsbergen & Vicky Francke and art by van Marijn van Kreij, Astrid Nobel, Bernice Nauta & Muge Yilmaz

Zevenblad#3 with poetry by Astrid Arns, Maud Nass, Margreet Tjalsma en Annet Zaagsma. Art by Mirjam Kuitenbrouwer, Guusje de Bruin, Marieke Noort, Patty Struik, Melle Mijnhardt, Corine Aalvanger, Lydia Wierenga, Carel Lanters, Lenneke van der Goot, Anne Schoemaker & Karin van Pinxteren. 

Zevenblad#2 with poetry by Willem van Zadelhoff, Marije Langelaar, Maarten Buser, Moeckbert, Ralph Dassen, Méland Langeveld & Nancy de Graaf. Art by Wija de Boer, Joanneke Jouwsma, Astrid Polman, Wim Salki en Floor Martens.

Zevenblad#1 with poetry by Tijs van Bragt, Moeckbert, Arno Kramer, Edwin Fagel en Geert van de Ven. Art by Tamara Kho, Carin Unverzagt, Erik Odijk, Remco Dikken, Choi Wong, Koen Kievits, Frederique van Domburg, Rozemarijn Westerink, PJ Roggeband en Elisabeth Vuez.

0-nummer with poetry by collectiefdichters and art by Hester Louter, Hester Vis, Marten Hendriks & Anand Mahabier.

Abonnement op Zevenblad (jaarlijks 2 exemplaren):
- €27,50 (incl. verzending) per jaar

Zevenblad

Come and celebrate the summer! On Saturday, June 20th the Summer Gather Together will take place.

Over the past few months, Tabea Nixdorff and anne krul have been working in our workshops. The work created during this Ploegendienst (residency) will be presented, explained, and activated in a festive event. This presentation will remain on view for two months following the Zomersamenscholing.


PROGRAM POETS IN THE KITCHEN REVISITED BY ANNE KRUL & TABEA NIXDORFF


SATURDAY 20 JUNE (OPENING)
3 PM | Beginnings 
Bring your own tea towel, pillowcase, tote bag or garment to screenprint on and take home

5 PM | Opening 
With a poetry reading by anne krul and Tabea Nixdorff and welcome words by Lenn Cox


SATURDAY 25 JULY 
3 PM – 5 PM | Meet & Read with the Artists 
anne krul and Tabea Nixdorff

SATURDAY 22 AUGUST (FINISSAGE)
3 PM – 5 PM |  Collective Reading 
Bring your personal companion book (a text that supports or inspires you) Reservation appreciated: mail@tabeanixdorff.com. With cake and (cold) tea 

6 PM | Film Screening and Talk at Queer Bar De Kurk 
Together we watch the film We Are The Archive and have a conversation with Joy Brandsma, one of the directors. Wij Zijn Het Archief / We Are The Archive, directed by Duizend Kleuren, 33 minutes, Dutch spoken with English subtitles, Dark Matter Collective, 2024. 

About the Ploegendienst (residency)
During their residency, anne krul and Tabea Nixdorff worked together as an intergenerational duo, using poetry, archival wandering, silkscreening and book making as artistic tools and mediums to explore broader questions about how to break silences, as a way to create and reshape supportive structures and practice solidarity and allyship.
Read more about the Ploegendienst of anne and Tabea

About the program
The residency with anne krul en Tabea Nixdorff is part of the Time Out / Tune In program that Lenn Cox curated around Plaatsmaken's shared household. Time Out / Tune In connects the cyclical nature of time and its seasons, with a call to slow down! The program explores with multiple generations how we can organize together, what we can learn from each other and what is at stake in the cultural field and beyond. Dancing through chosen families, kindred spirits and ancestral matters. 
Read more about the program Time Out / Tune In.

With thanks to Mondriaan Fonds and Gemeente Arnhem.

Summer Gather Together

Location: Café De Kurk, Steenstraat 68, Arnhem

On August 22nd, a screening of the film Wij Zijn Het Archief (We Are The Archive) will take place at cafe De Kurk. Afterwards we'll have a conversation with Joy Brandsma, one of the directors.

This film screening is part of the finissage from POETS IN THE KITCHEN REVISITED, by anne krul and Tabea Nixdorff.

SATURDAY 22 AUGUST 18:00 | Film screening and conversation at queer café De Kurk, Arnhem 
Wij Zijn Het Archief / We Are The Archive, directed by Duizend Kleuren, 33 minutes, Dutch spoken with English subtitles, Dark Matter Collective, 2024. 

“We Are the Archive takes us into the hidden past of the black queer community in the Netherlands. What connects us to the generations before us, and what can we learn from each other? In this film a group of young queer people of color meet the women of Stichting Mil Colores, who have been creating meeting places for women of different ethnic backgrounds and gender preferences since 2000. A story about identity, resilience and a history still in motion.”

You are also warmly invited to join us at Plaatsmaken before the film screening for the first part of the finissage of POETS IN THE KITCHEN REVISITED with Tabea Nixdorff and anne krul.

15:00–17:00 | Collective reading at Plaatsmaken 
Bring a personal book (a text that supports or inspires you). With cake and (iced) tea. Please register via mail@tabeanixdorff.com. 

About POETS IN THE KITCHEN REVISITED 
During their residency, anne krul and Tabea Nixdorff worked together as an intergenerational duo, using poetry, archival wandering, silkscreening and book making as artistic tools and mediums to explore broader questions about how to break silences, as a way to create and reshape supportive structures and practice solidarity and allyship.

Read more about anne and Tabea’s Ploegendienst residency here. 

Image: Duizend Kleuren / Dark Matter Collective

Film screening at De Kurk | We Are The Archive

Now on show: the group exhibition Fleeting Emotions.

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.

Now showing | Fleeting Emotions

On Saturday, June 20th, during the Summer Gather Together, we will open the new exhibition POETS IN THE KITCHEN REVISITED.

POETS IN THE KITCHEN REVISITED | ANNE KRUL & TABEA NIXDORFF
June 20 - August 22, 2026

During their residency, anne krul and Tabea Nixdorff worked together as an intergenerational duo, using poetry, archival wandering, silkscreening and book making as artistic tools and mediums to explore broader questions about how to break silences, as a way to create and reshape supportive structures and practice solidarity and allyship.

ABOUT THE RESIDENCY
anne krul and Tabea Nixdorff met through their shared commitment to archiving the traces of marginalized queer and feminist lives—first in 2021, when Tabea encountered part of anne's archive at Atria in Amsterdam, home to the International Archive of the Women's Movement. It quickly became clear to them that their common interests also extend to poetry, literature, collage making, creative collaboration and social gatherings. For their Time Out / Tune In residency at Plaatsmaken, anne and Tabea explored their ways of co-creating further by using language as material to engage with, and to spark conversations around the questions that drive their work: Where and how do we find the courage to break through internalized silences? How can language, as an artistic medium, help to create or reshape supportive structures? How does solidarity emerge? Which archival traces in queer, people of color, and feminist archives are sources of unruly knowledges to us?

One book from the archives, which anne and Tabea have brought as a companion to their Ploegendienst is Zwart aan Zet (published by the Groep Zwarte Vrouwen Nijmegen, 1985). A sentence from the book’s introduction formed the central theme of the residency:

“Breaking a silence within yourself and a silence around you is such an act. It’s really not an easy one because: will the sound you produce resonate? And where does it arrive, and how long does it take before you hear the echo?”

Interested in the connection between a printed book, orality and space, the duo researched the questions above through reading and writing, as well as silkscreening and bookmaking—working with Plaatsmaken’s facilities and skilled workshop facilitators. Another important aspect was the collaboration with a weekly, Arnhem-based art workshop called Open Atelier. anne and Tabea wanted to deepen their engagement with their research questions by co-creating with this local group for which the connection between healing and art is central.  

For the Summer Gather Together, anne and Tabea present their residency research and works in the installation POETS IN THE KITCHEN REVISITED, which is both a nod to an artistic intervention from anne’s archives, as well as a broader acknowledgement of feminist efforts to challenge the hierarchies of where art belongs, where it is created. By questioning what words and worlds get to code and fixate these definitions, kitchen tables, sickbeds or support groups become spaces of resistant knowledges and creativity, where lived experiences translate into an errantry and openness that embraces a poetics of deviance.

ABOUT THE PROGRAM
The residency with anne krul en Tabea Nixdorff is part of the Time Out / Tune In program that Lenn Cox curated around Plaatsmaken's shared household. Read more about the program Time Out / Tune In.

ABOUT THE ARTISTS 
Tabea Nixdorff is an artist, typographer and researcher based in Arnhem. Her artistic practice involves writing, (self)publishing, sound and language based performances, collaborative learning and social gatherings. Often working with/in archives, or libraries, Tabea’s works delve into micro-histories while touching upon broader themes such as omissions and distortions in historical narratives, embodied knowledges, queer belonging and a feminist poetics of error.

Her artist’s books are held in several public collections, and her work has been featured in group exhibitions at IHLIA LGBTI Heritage, Amsterdam (2024) and A Tale of A Tub, Rotterdam (2025). In 2023, she founded the publication series Archival Textures, which centers on (re)distributing archival texts and ephemera, namely of queer and feminist archives.

anne krul is an Afropean visual artist, poet, archivist and activist. Among many other queer and feminist groups including the International Lesbian Information Service (ILIS) and ZAMI, krul was a member of Strange Fruit, an organisation for young queer people from different cultural backgrounds (1989-2002). anne krul is invested in creative discourse, activism, art and poetry to implement change: breaking silences, empowering each other, exploring co-creation. 

As an artist, anne krul has participated in the group exhibitions Diasporic Self – Black Togetherness as Lingua Franca (Framer Framed, 2019), and Proud Aliens (2021), Hybrid Garden (2023) and Metamorphosis Manifesting (2024), as part of the artist community Open Atelier at Framer Framed, Amsterdam. In 2025, the unconventional retrospective ANAGRAMMA TICS featured the full scope of krul’s practice for the first time—anagram poetry, art making, education, organising, collaboration and intergenerational dialogue—at A Tale of A Tub in Rotterdam.

Lenn Cox is a community organizer, artist, educator and program maker. Lenn explores solidarity economies by immersing herself in self-organised learning-working-living environments. Many with an eco-feminist and queer heart. Lenn initiates and organizes relational spaces and structures that facilitate collective learning. While engaging navigation cards and clothes as correspondence to transfer the exchanges she collects as topics of conversation. An ongoing research into how we organize ourselves, what we can learn from each other, and what is at stake in the cultural field and beyond.

POETS IN THE KITCHEN REVISITED

Locatie:
Vitrine Paleis van Justitie
Walburgstraat 2-4
6811 CD Arnhem

In front of the Palace of Justice in Arnhem stands a historic display case, in which Plaatsmaken has been presenting contemporary visual art since 2011.

In the past, notices of court hearings were posted here. As a historical object, it is well worth preserving as part of the city's heritage. The display case is freely accessible to everyone.

After the Ministry of Justice restored the display case, Plaatsmaken was invited in 2011 to develop a suitable concept that would give it a new purpose. This resulted in De Uitspraak (The Verdict), a project that not only draws attention to contemporary visual art, but also highlights the judicial system and the display case itself. The idea that unexpectedly encountering art can add a special spark to your day is an added benefit of this unique location.

Plaatsmaken began programming the display case in 2012. For the past five years, this has been done in collaboration with the BEAR (Fine Art) department of ArtEZ University of the Arts. Students from all years are invited to submit proposals for the display case. This arrangement benefits both parties: emerging artists gain valuable exhibition experience, while Plaatsmaken is able to present promising young talent directly from the academy. Participating students often bring fresh perspectives to themes such as justice, punishment, and remorse.

Among the many artists whose work has been presented are Rosemin Hendriks, Lisa Vieten, Merlijne Marell, Ruben Planting, Ferdinand Dunnewold, Jessica Tiemessen, Hannah van der Schaaf, Janna van Welsen, Dante van Elburg, Hester Louter, WONNE, Wija de Boer, Frida Berntsen, Anya Janssen, Rinke Nijburg, Hebe Diepenmaat, Levi Overvest, Ro Smit, Tico Geurtzen, Yubin Lee, Sam Zanardo, and Milan van der Stouw.

Vitrineproject | De Uitspraak

To support our organisation, we are looking for an accurate and independent Bookkeeping & Administration Officer (0.4 FTE).

Are you financially and administratively skilled, detail-oriented, and enthusiastic about working in a creative environment? We would love to hear from you.

You will be responsible for the organisation’s day-to-day financial and administrative operations. Your tasks will include:

Processing incoming and outgoing invoices

Maintaining the (digital) bookkeeping system

Managing and updating administrative records

Supporting financial processes and reporting

Ensuring accurate and well-organised administration

You have experience with bookkeeping and administrative work

You are accurate, independent, and well organised

You are able to maintain an overview and set priorities effectively

You feel at home in an organisation dedicated to contemporary visual arts

You are resilient and confident in your work

A 0.4 FTE position on a one-year contract

An inspiring workplace and supportive colleagues

The opportunity to work independently and contribute ideas for improving administrative processes

A competitive salary and attractive employment conditions, based on your experience and in accordance with the job classification and salary framework of De Zaak Nu for presentation institutions

Please send your motivation letter and CV to vacature@plaatsmaken.nl before 30 June. We look forward to receiving your application.

Job opening!

On Friday, June 26th we are launching the tenth edition of Zevenblad. 

Zevenblad is amagazine for art- and poetry magazine, which is published twice a year by Plaatsmaken. 

Presentation Zevenblad#10

A wonderful group of volunteers is already part of Plaatsmaken, and we’d love to expand it. We’re looking for enthusiastic, communicative individuals who are available to staff our exhibition space about once a month on Saturdays (12:00 PM – 5:00 PM). You’ll be welcoming visitors, sharing information about Plaatsmaken, and providing context about the exhibitions and projects we organize. We also often need help during openings and workshops.

And in return..
A volunteer allowance is available, and we also offer to use the studio facilities for free. On top of that you can participate in workshops for a reduced fee.

Plaatsmaken is a growing art platform where experimentation and togetherness are our core values. Our inclusive artistic program places a strong emphasis on our printmaking studios, as well as dialogue and depth. We have a close-knit team and regularly organize activities. Would you like to become a Plaatsmaker too? Send us a message!

Volunteers wanted!

Plaatsmaken has been showcasing contemporary visual art in the display case in front of the Palace of Justice in Arnhem for several years now. 

This is based on the idea that encountering art in unexpected places can be inspirational in every day life.

In collaboration with the BEAR (Fine Art) department at ArtEZ, current and former students will have 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 May 22th:  Lotus van Zoggel

Lotus Parel van Zoggel combines disciplines such as ceramics and painting in her work. Her style is characterized by an expressionistic and playful approach, often with a touch of irony. She draws inspiration from her everyday life and explores themes such as family, memories, and human connection.

De Uitspraak

For several years now, Plaatsmaken has been programming contemporary visual art in the display case situated in front of the Palace of Justice in Arnhem.

This initiative stems from the idea that unexpectedly encountering art can be insprirational in every day life.

On display from March 25th 2024: Yubin Lee

The display case will feature the work of South Korean artist Yubin Lee. Lee is a third-year BEAR student at ArtEZ and works across a wide range of media, including painting, sculpture, video, and performance art.

Many of Yubin Lee’s works make intriguing use of diverse materials, reflecting her artistic approach within her practice. Her highly distinctive drawing technique is rooted in a state of “unconsciousness,” initially inspired by meditation. It intricately weaves together countless small details that evoke a sense of nostalgia while simultaneously conveying an ominous atmosphere. Through her work, she initiates social critique and delves deeply into the “fundamental core” of ourselves.

By challenging dualism, hierarchy, racial constructs, gender, and anthropocentrism, she raises the question: what remains of the “self” when these constructs are ignored? Yubin argues that dissolving the self leads to enlightenment, awakening, and openness - the true keys to freedom.

All of these narratives are uniquely expressed through various materials such as hanji (traditional Korean paper), octopus ink, and rice paper, each possessing its own distinct texture.

This work by Yubin Lee is the first presentation of 2024 in the project De Uitspraak, on behalf of Plaatsmaken in collaboration with BEAR / ArtEZ.

Calling all stropdasmannetjes, strapjocks & tie survivors:
STRIPSTROPSTRAPTIESTROPHIC CLOSING EVENT

On Saturday, May 23, we will officially close Ploegendienst 5. During this finissage, you are welcome to visit the presentation by Jivan van der Ende, Merel Nijhuis, and the Queer Collective Workers' Union one last time. Meanwhile, you can screen print on ties with a Mai Tie cocktail in your hand.

Date | Saturday, May 23 / 14:00 - 17:00
Bring a stropdas!

stroptease stripties silkscreen catwalk cut-your-ties celebration outlet

Bring your tie.
Lose your tie.
Print your tie.
Cut your tie.

We will print & cut our ties,
you can buy QCWU shirts,
While sipping on an exclusive Mai Tie cocktail

Together we close off Ploegendienst 5 in stijl 

Come and let it out, cut your ties & have a drink.
No strings attached - behalve misschien aan je stropdas.

Finissage Ploegendienst 5

We have some new workshops planned for the upcoming months.

Always wanted to learn how to screen print? Or would you like to learn how to work in a Darkroom for developing analogue photography? You can sign up for the following workshops:

Friday June 5 | Workshop toyobo etching
Saturday June 6 | Workshop Screen printing

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

New workshops

This year, we’re back again at Festival Hoogte80! We’ll be doing lots of screen printing, along with an extensive additional program.

This year we’ve put together a varied and diverse lineup. There are all kinds of activities to do, listen to, or even sit on.

SCREEN PRINTING (THU – SUN 14:00 – 17:00)

Plaatsmaken x Sunflower Soup
Just like last year, visitors can have textiles printed with two designs by Sunflower Soup. You can bring your own textile, or buy a nice shirt or tote bag from us.

Hoogte80 merchandise
You can also come and screen print a cheerful Hoogte80 dot onto textile yourself (for free). Each day features a different color, so you can collect all the colored dots from each day of the festival!

You can bring your own textile, or purchase a (organic cotton) t-shirt on site.

“One of Those Days”
Artist Frank Koolen presents One of Those Days (dream station), an interactive artwork. This oversized rag doll is intended as a meeting place and seating cushion where stories can be shared. At the same time, the work invites you to lie down, close your eyes, and wait for the stories in your own mind.

Children’s workshop: making pillowcases
On May 14 and 17, Frank Koolen will be present in person and will host a workshop for children at three different times. Through a performative introduction about the creative value of dreams, children are invited to reflect on a recent dream, which they will then turn into a drawing on a pillowcase.
Each workshop has space for 10 children, and once dry, the pillowcases can be taken home.

Pillowcase workshop | Thursday May 14 and Sunday May 17
Times | 12:30, 14:00 & 15:30
Cost | €5

Plaatsmaken POP-UP Poetry Stage
On May 15 and 16, the Pop-Up Poetry Stage will take place at the pop. Various poets will perform their work, and everyone is invited to join and listen. DJ Snobbie will also be present for musical entertainment. The Pop-Up Poetry program:

May 15:
14:30: Dorien de Wit
14:40: Ivana Soyer
14:50: Marije Langelaar

May 16:
14:30: Terra van Dorst
14:40: Sebastiaan Mets
14:50: Vicky Francken

DJ Snobbie
May 15: 13:30–14:30 and 16:00–17:00
May 16: 16:00–17:00

BILLBOARD
At the highest point of Arnhem, we’ve built a large billboard for Hoogte80 that functions as an interactive daily newspaper. It features highlights, statements, information, and announcements. Throughout the festival, visitors can add their own texts, drawings, messages, and stamps to the board.


We hope to see you at Hoogte80!
Access is free, you can find more info about the festival here.

Plaatsmaken on Hoogte80

Nu te zien: 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.

Now showing | Ploegendienst 4

Starting in January, we will open our doors every Saturday! You're welcome to visit our exhibition between 1:00 PM and 5:00 PM.

Now showing: the results from the fourth Ploegendienst. Read more about the program here.

Open on Saturdays

CIRCUS FIASCO is the swirling arena where a large group of makers from various media and disciplines show what performance can be and what it can set in motion.

A festive and surprising evening-long event that serves as a source of inspiration for casual visitors, makers, thinkers, and participants. CIRCUS FIASCO explores the essence of performance in a multifaceted way: a consciously executed action. And in doing so, it poses the question: What can that action be, mean, and cause?

Confirmed acts:C.V. De Gierboys, Harry Merry, Broken Toaster Records, Skate Bush, Unemployed Airhostesses and many more!

Tickets | Student €7,50 / Regular €10,-

CIRCUS FIASCO is part of Arnhems Stadsatelier, a collaboration between four Arnhem cultural organizations: Theater aan de Rijn, Plaatsmaken, ArtEZ University of the Arts and The HUB. The goal of this collaboration is to make the Arnhem art world more diverse and accessible, for both artists and the public. New ways of collaborating between art, the public, and society are central to this.


Arnhems Stadsatelier is made possible by the Municipality of Arnhem.

CIRCUS FIASCO

Plaatsmaken is closed during Ascension day and the weekend that follows and during Pentecost. 

Due to our activities at the  Hoogte80 Festival, Plaatsmaken will be closed at Klarendalseweg from May 14 to May 17.

On May 18, we will be open again as usual from 09:00 to 17:00.

We are also closed on May 25 due to Pentecost.

Plaatsmaken closed

Now on view: 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.

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.

With thanks to the Mondriaanfonds and the Municipality of Arnhem.

Now showing | Ploegendienst 3

Now showing: 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.

en

nl

Search

Back

Film screening at De Kurk | We Are The Archive

On August 22nd, a screening of the film Wij Zijn Het Archief (We Are The Archive) will take place at cafe De Kurk. Afterwards we'll have a conversation with Joy Brandsma, one of the directors.