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

H0ha by Sunflower Soup

For a multi-year program at Plaatsmaken, Sunflower Soup presents H0ha. H0ha is a spicy soup of wordplay and visual invention that we will keep simmering for multiple years. It is a platform for developing new ways for people to make their voices heard, making use of the space and resources Plaatsmaken provides. Posters, protest (Ho!), poetry and pleasure (Ha!).

We begin with handmade protest signs bearing inventive slogans and move through spoken word, dreamy poets, local residents, DIY makers, graphic hardliners, and printers against oppression toward new combinations of all these elements, produced in rotating shifts. The results can be presented at Plaatsmaken, but also far beyond: on the streets, from coat pockets and backpacks, in libraries, and community spaces.

People who, for various reasons, find themselves at the margins of the art world—those who independently create magazines, imagine visions for change and resistance to oppression, find ways to laugh despite hardship, and have developed their own words and language—are given a central place within H0ha.

Art collective Sunflower Soup

Sunflower Soup is a collective founded in 2021 with the aim of connecting art and activism. Its members, Derk Thijs and Simon Kentgens, are both trained as artists and have in recent years been active in climate, housing, and anti-racism protests. Sunflower Soup produces, among other things, exhibitions, drawings, zines, and soup.

The programmes Altered Breath (2022–23) and Half Rhyme (2024), curated by former Sunflower Soup member Ester Venema, served as key inspirations for H0ha. The collaboration between writers and artists proved highly successful, as did the longer duration of these programmes.

H0ha runs parallel to Lenn Cox's Time Out / Tune In programme. The two overlap and reinforce one another.