Sonsbeek20→24: Force Times Distance, On Labour and its Sonic Ecologies
2 July – 29 August 2021, Park Sonsbeek and other locations, Arnhem
Inleiding
Under the leadership of Bonaventure Soh Bejeng Ndikung, Sonsbeek20→24 presented the 12th edition of the international art project as a multi-year trajectory, launched in 2020 and originally intended to celebrate Sonsbeek’s 75th anniversary in 2024. Together with co-curators Antonia Alampi, Amal Alhaag, Zippora Elders, Krista Jantowski, Aude Christel Mgba, and Vincent van Velsen, Ndikung developed a broad interdisciplinary program spread across 14 locations in and around Arnhem. From the Eusebius Church, Collectie De Groen, and Rozet to Park Sonsbeek, Park Zypendaal, Buitenplaats Koningsweg, and the Kröller-Müller Museum on the Hoge Veluwe, art took place both in the city and within the landscape.
The theme of Sonsbeek20→24, labor and its “sonicities,” invited visitors to listen to what often remains invisible: whispered stories, rhythms, songs, narratives, dance, and embodied histories. The focus was on alternative narratives, transmitted through singing, play, performance, care, and polyphonic rhythms, connecting traditions, spiritualities, and cosmologies while traversing oceans and deserts. The curators described the edition as a journey to and within the unknown, a process partly shaped by the challenges of the COVID-19 pandemic.
Although the project was prematurely concluded in 2022 and the planned 2024 exhibition did not take place, Sonsbeek20→24 is regarded as one of the most ambitious editions since 1971. Its conceptual richness and international resonance laid the foundation for a renewed future vision of the Sonsbeek art project, under the guidance of a new team and a dedicated director.
Artists
- Julieta Aranda
- Leo Asemota
- Sam Auinger
- The Black Archives & Yinka Ilori
- stanley brouwn
- Gustavo Crembil & Mea-Ling Lokko
- Cheick Diallo
- Ndidi Dike
- Justine Gaga
- Ellen Gallagher
- Antonio Guzman & Iva Jankovic
- Sedje Hémon
- Louis Henderson & João Polido
- Kudzanai-Violet Hwami & Belinda Zhawi
- Anne Duk Hee Jordan
- Ibrahim Mahama
- Oscar Murillo
- Hira Nabi
- Olu Oguibe
- Wendelien van Oldenborgh & Erika Hock
- Laure Prouvost
- Raumlabor
- Willem de Rooij
- Nader Mohammed Saadallah
- Mithu Sen
- Farkhondeh Shahroudi
- Libita Sibungu
- Buhlebezwe Siwani
- Jennifer Tee
- Sunette L. Viljoen
- Omer Wasim
- Werker Collective, Gleb Maiboroda & studio bonbon
- Alida Ymele
Locations
- Eusebiuskerk
- Waalse kerk
- Collectie De Groen
- Showroom
- Rozet
- WALTER books
- Park Sonsbeek
- Stadsvilla (Park Sonsbeek)
- Park Zypendaal
- Buitenplaats Koningsweg
- Kröller-Müller Museum
Facts and figures
148,000 visits · 14 exhibition locations · 40 artists · 44 artworks, 20 new commissions · 63 events · 1,150,000 press impression · 150 volunteers
Publications
— Catalog: Sonsbeek 20→24. Force Times Distance: On Labour and its Sonic Ecologies, 2021 · Design: Werkplaats Typografie · Publisher: Archive Books — Reader: On Labour, 2021 · Design: Werkplaats Typografie · Publisher: Archive Books
Sonsbeek 20→24: Sedje Hémon. Imran Mir. Abdias Nascimento. Abstracting Parables (in collaboration with Stedelijk Museum Amsterdam)
1 July – 22 October 2022, Stedelijk Museum Amsterdam
Abstracting Parables is a manifestation of three distinct historical voices and artistic positions, each proposing unique understandings of how abstraction can be translated into multiple and complex languages. The exhibition brings together the works of Dutch-Jewish painter and composer Sedje Hémon (1923-2011), Afro-Brazilian painter, poet, essayist, dramatist, and political activist Abdias Nascimento (1914-2011), and Pakistani artist and designer Imran Mir (1950-2014).
Conceived as an exhibition with three in(ter)dependent chapters, Abstracting Parables is approached as a work of translation. In its meaning ‘to carry across’, the exhibition deliberates on translations of meaning to form, thoughts to symbols, symbols to language, and language to experiences.
Central to this exhibition is Hémon’s, Mir’s, and Nascimento’s relationships with abstraction, geometry, spiritualities, histories, and the way their works inherently challenge the confines of modernism–opening up a world of multiple modernisms. The exhibition highlights the artists’ multifaceted oeuvres across geographies and histories, as tales that assemble and interlink aesthetic, socio-political, spiritual, and scientific discourses.
By presenting these positions at the Stedelijk, the institution continues its critical engagement with the blind spots, historical gaps, and silences in its collection.
Sedje Hémon. Imran Mir. Abdias Nascimento. Abstracting Parables is curated by Amal Alhaag and Aude Christel Mgba with the support of Zippora Elders, Krista Jantowski and Stedelijk curator Claire van Els, under the artistic direction of Bonaventure Soh Bejeng Ndikung for Sonsbeek20→24 and Rein Wolfs for Stedelijk Museum Amsterdam.
The exhibition is developed in partnership with the Sedje Hémon Foundation, Afro-Brazilian Studies and Research Institute (IPEAFRO), and the Imran Mir Art Foundation.
Artists
- Sedje Hémon
- Imran Mir
- Abdias Nascimento
Location
- Stedelijk Museum Amsterdam
Publications
Abstracting Parables will be accompanied by three readers, one on each of the artists, published by Archive Books. The contributing authors are Elmyra van Dooren, Keyna Eleison, Natasha Ginwala, Lélia Gonzalez, Negarra Kudumu, Elisa Larkin Nascimento, Abdias Nascimento, Cannach MacBride, Marianna Maruyama, Momtaza Mehri, Nighat Mir, Quddus Mirza, Kabengele Munanga, Gwen Parry, Nafisa Rizvi, Romy Rüegger, Maurice Rummens, Peter Wapperom, and Olabiyi Yai.
— Readers: Abdias Nascimento: Being An Event Of Love, 2022 · Imran Mir: A World That Is Not Entirely Reflective but Contemplative, 2022 · Sedje Hémon: Emotion of Spirits, 2022 · Design: Sophie Douala · Publisher: Archive Books
