The roundness of loss

Taking its title from the book by writer and curator Hanne Hagenaars, the Stedelijk Museum Schiedam presents an exhibition about loss and resilience, about coping with the absence of a loved one, a pet, or a homeland. The show features work by more than 30 (inter)national artists.

Artists such as Ayşen Kaptanoğlu, Minne Kersten, Kevin Simón Mancera, Keetje Mans, Job Koelewijn, Berend Strik, Aline Thomassen, Efrat Zehavi, and many others explore the irregular, non-linear, yet often hopeful, journey of loss and mourning. These stories are expressed through embroidery, objects once belonging to their loved ones, paintings of quiet living rooms, sculptures, and images. Keetje Mans (1979) compares art about grief to the flame of a candle, rising in a line toward the sky: ‘I want the work to walk a fine line, something both good and bad, a kind of grey area, the way people perhaps are.’

Image: Ayşen Kaptanoğlu, The Cruelest Month, 2020, diptych, acrylic on canvas, 40×80 cm | artist’s collection