Positions #7: Everything worthwhile is done with other people

The 2023 edition of Positions, the Van Abbemuseum’s ongoing exhibition series, presents the work of six groups of collective and collaborative practices in dialogue with the practitioners’ individual works. The title Everything worthwhile is done with other people is borrowed from the writing of abolitionist educator and organizer Mariame Kaba’s account of something she learned from her father—that nothing exists in isolation; it is relationships that determine our existence. The exhibition responds to efforts to work collectively in a time of hyper-precarity, across local and international networks toward the question: What is more possible together that cannot be achieved alone?

The different positions explore concepts of decentralization (the transfer of control of an activity or organization to several members) and relationality (a view of the world that underlines how no person or thing exists in isolation, because existence necessarily means being ‘in relationship’). They ask how collectivity might offer a means to look beyond the horizon of the institution and offer methods for practices that can shape pleasurable and equitable presents and futures. In this sense the exhibition investigates how the museum can serve practices based on long-term collaborations that center sustainable and conscious working methods. Viewed together, the project envisions an expansive form of kinship—with artists and collaborators, and with the human and more-than-human—pointing to how past and present connect with imagined futures.

Participating artists
Ellen Gallagher and Edgar Cleijne: Gallagher and Cleijne show a newly edited version of their 16mm film installation Drowned Forest. Gallagher’s paintings and works on paper depict characters and scenes from the underwater world, while Cleijne’s carbon print photographs are presented across multiple rooms. 

Metro54 and ABC Noorderlicht (with Yahaira Gezius, Kwami Coleman and Pris Roos among others): Metro54, the multidisciplinary platform for young artists, designers and performers, together with ABC Noorderlicht have developed the radio play Sonic Tings: <3 No Stress (A Radio Play), focusing on the personal environments of the young storytellers. Katharina Sook Wilting and Tal have designed a hangout space for museum visitors to listen to the play.

NTU (Nolan Oswald Dennis, Tabita Rezaire and Bogosi Sekhukhuni): The collective, who work at the intersection of spirituality and technology, present NERVOUSCONDITIONER.LIFE.001.NTU, a safe space on the internet. Dennis presents Black Liberation Zodiac (Khunuseti) a room-filling reimagination of the night sky, while Sekhukhuni’s new work Bringers of the Dawn: A Herald for C/1882 R1 is an astronomical monument that looks forward to the return of a family of comets. 

Olaniyi Studio (Yussef Agbo-Ola) and Amakaba (Tabita Rezaire): PITU—fertilization temple is an installation that floods the room with flowers, where visitors can be embraced by sounds and smells as they enter the textile architecture to contemplate the fertility of the soil and the process of creation. 

Subversive Film: The film research and production collective present their film Tokyo Reels, which highlights the formerly overlooked anti-imperialist solidarity between Palestine and Japan. In the adjacent reading room, the public can find publications, film posters and an interview with Subversive Film.

Jatiwangi art Factory (JaF): The collective presents Eco-On-My (cooking station), a mobile installation in the form of a stall where visitors can eat, talk and make music, as well as their large installation New Rural Agenda Temple. JaF underscores the connection between local rural life and the terracotta industry in the district of Jatiwangi (Java, Indonesia), where the collective originates. JaF will further organize events together with Baltan Laboratories (Eindhoven) and The Future of Work (Den Bosch) among others. 

The exhibition is accompanied by a public program. For a full list of events, workshops and performances visit the Van Abbemuseum website.

Curated by: Yolande Zola Zoli van der Heide with Nick Aikens
Intern: Dagmar Marent 
Production: Inge Borsje
Project engineer: Benno Hartjes 
Installation and technical coordination: Diederik Koppelmans
Registrar: Angeliki Petropoulos
Co-producer, Sonic Tings: <3 No Stress (A Radio Play): Chala Itai Westerman 
Fundraising: Samantha Hoekema 
Production and presentation: Antoine Derksen 
Text editing: Janine Armin, Marie Baarspul, Leana Boven and Rosa Paardenkooper
Communication and marketing: Maud Bongers and Kelly Hamers
Mediation and education: Vivian Heyms and Glenda Pattipeilohy