Quartair – Quartair

Toasted

Fresh art from the factory floor

EN
Toasted is raw, fresh, and full of energy, straight from the factory floor. Art, fashion, and music merge into a sensory experience. With installations and performance by both emerging and established talents.

NL
Toasted is rauw, fris en vol energie, direct van de fabrieksvloer. Hier smelten kunst, mode en muziek samen tot een zintuigprikkelende ervaring. Met installaties, mode en performance van opkomend talent én gevestigde kunstenaars.

Opening 26 September 2025, during Hoogtij #82, from 19:00 to 23:00
Opening hours: Saturday-Sunday, from 13:00 to 17:00
Finissage 11 October 2025, during MusemNacht Den Haag, with performances and DJ set, from 19:00 to 1:00

Participating artists / kunstenaars:

Marlies Adriaanse, Lau Breukhoven-KROES, Blanka de Bruyne, Marc Claeijs, Oliver Doe, June Gibbs, Mekhlla Harrison, Dana laMonda, Astrid Nobel, Jessy Rahman, Zeger Reyers, Mike Rijnierse, Pietertje van Splunter, Mariska Streefland, Thom Vink.

June Gibbs has made her work ‘More or Less’ into an installation for Toasted at Quartair

June Gibbs investigates the norms and perceptions that confine us. By giving room for recognition, humor, and reflection, she tries to navigate a world full of contradictions: “I intend to provoke a tension that triggers reflection and wonder. Either by subtle gestures, or straight forward moves, I playfully explore the abstract and the recognizable to expose the forces that shape our expectations and opinions.” For Toasted, her work ‘More or Less’ will take the form of an installation presenting parts of the 2025 graduation project.

Oliver Doe: Something More, Something Else, coloured pencil drawings on cotton rag paper

Oliver Doe’s drawings stem from an interest in the asterisk within queer language use. This typographical symbol often appears as a marker of ‘something more’ or ‘something else’ beyond the language that we can see. This can be used as a mode of queering, particularly within gendered expressions (eg. Queer*, Man*, Woman*), but appears most notably with the use of “Trans*”, implying a set of meanings beyond the simplicity of this foundational word. As we expand the categories, these layers begin to overlap and their meanings expand into something new, something queer, something that defies concrete, universal meaning. “My research has been focused on linguistic abstraction as a performative mode that can (de)construct the possibilities of queer identities, communicating beyond language as we expect it. This work focuses particularly on paralanguages – movement, colour, gesture, tone – on ways in which they are abstracted through time and context to defy understanding and entangle their meanings as they overlap with the verbal.”
Visit also: Oliver Doe

Museumnacht Den Haag 2025

During the MuseumNacht Den Haag, on October 11th, 2025, we are preparing a lively program of performances and a DJ set.

Rhythm of Flour, KROES

EN
Rhythm of Flour is a performance and interactive sound installation by Lau Breukhoven, also known as KROES. Inspired by Quartair’s history as a former bread factory, it explores themes of rhythm arising from repetition and slow change, in two performances. Expect DIY electronics and a fresh perspective on sound art.

NL
Rhythm of Flour is een performance-element en interactieve geluidsinstallatie van Lau Breukhoven, ookwel KROES. Geïnspireerd door de geschiedenis van Quartair als voormalig broodfabriek exploreert het in twee performances thema’s van ritmes voorkomend uit herhaling en langzame veranderingen. Verwacht doe-het-zelf electronica en een frisse blik binnen de geluidskunst.

DJ set

🎶 We will close the Museum night with DJ Yan Sun and his eclectic vinyl collection invoking Afro, Exotica, Cumbia, Brazilian, Funk, Disco, Ska and Reggae spirits.
Join us!

header image: *De walvissen komen de botten van hun voorouders halen*, Astrid Nobel
(casein, washed up coal, whale bone, seawater and gesso on canvas)
200×80 cm, 2024

Visitor strikes a pose in front of Marc Claeijs’ works; photo by Dana laMonda, 26 September 2025

See you at Quartair!
Toussaintkade 55,
The Hague

Upcoming: Roaring into Being

Exhibition from October 18 – November 4, 2025
Opening on Saturday, October 18th at 16:00
Exhibition hours: Tuesday-Saturday, from 12:00 to 15:00

Roaring Into Being looks at the convergence of the synthetic and the organic. The exhibition moves between the rumble of machines, the resonance of nature, and the shifting terrains of digital evolution. Each work reflects on humanity’s changing relationship with technology — its imprint on the environment, the body, and ways of seeing. Some works treat ecology as metaphor, others as method — erasing the divide, questioning interdependence, and tracing the fragile systems we inhabit.

With: Andrea Samory, Chang Hsin Yu, David Bowen, Egosito, Johannes Thiel, Lotta Stöver, Maxime Lechêne, Sophia Gatzkan

Across the exhibition, technology appears not as future, but as condition — embedded, felt, and already altering what it means to be physical, connected, or alive.

Concluding a conceptual trilogy, Roaring Into Being marks the final phase of ESC 2034 evolving study into digital futures, tracing a trajectory from subtle machine-nature interactions to a world shaped almost entirely by technology.

Organized by 0-1
0—1 is a contemporary nomadic curatorial platform that moves how it needs to — tech-aware, a bit restless, and always asking why. Since 2017, it has been shaped by artists who keep things in motion — not there for fixed ideas of what art is supposed to be. No walls, no permanent fixtures, stubborn curiosity, and the need to say something that matters.

Andrea Samory

After-images of the internet turn into icons and myths, stripped of context and rebuilt as bodies. Using 3D sculpting/printing with SFX and hand casting, screen-born ideas arrive with weight and skin. Soft sheen and clean outlines carry a bruise: growth that swerves, entropy you can touch, hubris smiling back. Small cuts of “flesh” act as beacons for empathy inside a synthetic swell. Andrea Samory tests how little figuration is needed for recognition to spark, and how virtual cues steer an old nervous system.

David Bowen

Wind draws lines, water keeps time, plants send voltages, and insects mark positions. David Bowen builds instruments that turn these cues into motion: cameras and sensors route signals to motors, and cause and effect remain readable. Projects span cloud-played piano, plant-driven machete, and a fly-guided revolver; the source leads, the mechanism follows. Technology functions as environment here, shaping what comes forward in the scene. The work is observation turned kinetic: small rules, clear chains, and the world composes directly.

Maxime Lechêne

Working where object design brushes sculpture, Maxime Lechêne lets function lead the form — the part says how it wants to be shaped. Industrial culture is the dictionary: machined tolerances, body panels, components that look right because they work. He maps how objects claim stripped-down urban space, how use writes itself as a trace, how desire follows utility. Lately the studies circle airflow as a collaborator — forms tuned to currents, surfaces that adjust rather than force their way through.

Egosito

Egosito choreographs mechanics, not music — simple actuators, careful timing, sound born from contact. At the core is friction: brush, scrape, tap, and the loop tightens until the tension is audible. He pairs tenderness with hazard: soft tool against hard spines, letting wear, scuffs, and tiny failures become part of the meter. What matters isn’t volume but pressure: how close you can get before the touch turns, and how a machine holds that edge without breaking it.

Sophia Gatzkan

Looking at the body as a changing system, Sophia Gatzkan treats technology as part of its tissue. Casts, shells, and found components meet in cold, precise builds yet feel warm to the touch. Materials harden into skins; prosthetic cues become forms that question who gets to count as whole. Enhancement reads as desire and support, alongside pressure to integrate technology into the self. Writing and performance move through the practice, so ideas and objects travel together. She looks for ways to inhabit machine logic while keeping the charge of being animal.

Johannes Thiel

Through industrial logic and algorithmic rules, Johannes Thiel builds forms that could be tools, yet they behave like bodies. Soft robotics and pneumatics move in measured cycles; pseudo-technologies stand in for working machines; they simulate function to let feeling lead. Often, he returns to closed circuits of air and water, to parts that suggest protection and access at once, to hybrids that feel independent of origin. Files, toolpaths, and assembly read as image, and acetone-smoothed skins hold a clinical shine. His prototypes age into artifacts, devices into species, design into behavior.

Lotta Stöver

Sensor rigs, code, images, and text work side by side, forming a small lab built for close attention. Data works as material, refined until the structure comes through. Lotta Stöver works with custom circuits and compact software, treating technologies as social actors and keeping prototypes open so ideas and tools evolve together. Error and reduction are part of the practice; what digitization removes becomes a link. Writing sits alongside electronics as an instrument. The work asks how tools decide what counts as natural, social, or other than human, and turns procedure into place: points become contour; then belonging follows form. Here, measurement becomes a way to be.

Other Photographic Matters

zes kunstenaars op het snijvlak van fotografie en beeldende kunst
six artists at the intersection of photography and visual art.

Kunstenaars / Artists:
Birgit Matschullat, Els Kocken, Godelieve Krekelberg, Jasmijn Duterloo, Jessica Scholtes en Mariëlle Gebben.

Expo:
21 t/m 30/11/2025

Beschrijving Expositie Nederlands:
Other Photographic Matters is een groep van zes kunstenaars die opereren op het snijvlak van fotografie en beeldende kunst. Eens per jaar treden ze als groep naar buiten. De groep bestaat uit Birgit Matschullat, Els Kocken, Godelieve Krekelberg, Jasmijn Duterloo, Jessica Scholtes en Mariëlle Gebben.

Alle zes studeerden af aan de Fotoacademie in Amsterdam en bouwden daarna een eigen autonome praktijk op. Binnen de groep krijgt fotografie uiteenlopende betekenissen. Soms is het een vertrekpunt dat zich vertakt naar sculptuur, installatie, video of werk op papier; soms juist de uitkomst van een proces waarin verschillende disciplines samenkomen. Wat hen verbindt is een gedeelde nieuwsgierigheid, de bereidheid om te experimenteren en de wil om voorbij de grenzen van de fotografie te gaan.

De leden van Other Photographic Matters reflecteren samen op hun werk, maar bij de inrichting van de tentoonstellingen zorgen ze ervoor dat het werk van iedere kunstenaar zijn eigen karakter en autonomie behoudt.

Description of Exhibition
Other Photographic Matters is a group of six artists operating at the intersection of photography and visual art. Once a year, they come together to present their work as a group. The members are Birgit Matschullat, Els Kocken, Godelieve Krekelberg, Jasmijn Duterloo, Jessica Scholtes, and Mariëlle Gebben.

All six graduated from the Photo Academy in Amsterdam and went on to establish themselves as independent artists. Within the group, photography takes on different roles: for some it is the starting point for explorations that lead to sculptures, installations, videos, works on paper, or interactive pieces; for others it is the final outcome of a process that engages multiple media. What unites them is a shared curiosity, a readiness to experiment, and a commitment to moving beyond the boundaries of photography.

The members of Other Photographic Matters reflect on their work together, but in the design of their exhibitions they ensure that each artist’s work retains its own character and autonomy.

Waiting Field

Waiting Field is an exhibition of immersive video installations by four emerging artists exploring the intersection of cinema and visual art. Like a field shaped by time and subtle shifts, the exhibition reflects on waiting – as a condition, a space, and a method –where images and meanings slowly take form.

Featuring works by Alexandra Pavlovskaya-Lokchine, Kimia Khedri, Michał Kucharski, and Lyy Raitala.

Opening: Friday, 6 June from 19:00 to 23:00
Exhibition hours: from Saturday 7 June to Tuesday 10 June, 13:00-19:00 and Wednesday, 11 June, 13:00-16:00

The title Waiting Field refers to a space that is both literal and metaphorical – a place shaped by time, transformation, and anticipation. The exhibition reflects the temporal nature of video and the quiet tension of waiting: for meaning, for resolution, for something to emerge.Working in the undefined space between film and visual art, each artist approaches video not just as a storytelling device but as a sculptural, spatial, and conceptual medium. Their works explore the thresholds between reality and fiction, absence and presence, stillness and movement.

Kimia Khedri (b. 2003, Tehran, Iran) is a visual artist based in The Hague. She investigates disorientation, memory, and the invisible connections between identity and place.

Alexandra Pavlovskaya-Lokchine (born 2002 in Moscow, Russia) is a visual artist and cinematographer based in the Hague and in Paris. She captures suspended moments — foggy landscapes, deserted alleys — where time feels paused and memory lingers.

Michał Kucharski (born in 1997 in Krakow, Poland) is a visual artist based in The Hague, working primarily with videography and photography. With his work, he approaches the medium as a sculptural object, examining how narratives unfold through space and tension.

Lyy Raitala (1999) is a Finnish lens-based artist living in the Netherlands. She constructs surreal, fragmented scenes drawn from everyday life, using humor and subtle interventions to destabilize the familiar.

Together, these works form a shared terrain – a waiting field – where the moving image becomes a site of reflection, transformation, and encounter.

Graphics and poster by Lucy Gengler.

With thanks to Amarte Fonds

Pi Quartet: contemporary music concert at Quartair

On Sunday, June 1st, Quartair receives Pi Quartet for their debut concert.

Based in The Hague, Pi Quartet is a half-American, half-Dutch string quartet dedicated to neo-classical, contemporary, and experimental music. Composed of Leah Plave (cello), Lidwine Dam (viola), Leslee Smucker (violin), and Hoei Lien The (violin), the ensemble formed out of a shared passion for multidisciplinary performance and curiosity for music beyond the traditional canon. The name Pi, referencing the mathematical symbol π, symbolizes unity, harmony, and infinite potential as well as the quartet’s sensitivity to space and context in performance.

Program:
Caroline Shaw – Entr’acte
Arvo Pärt – Summa
Philip Glass – Strijkkwartet nr. 5
Osvaldo Golijov – Tenebrae

Entrance:
Regular €22.17
Students € 13.78

Tickets on: www.eventbrite.com/e/tickets-quartets-quartair

Visit also: www.piquartet.nl

Coloured Connection: from Maya Textile to Multimedia Art

An exhibition displaying a rich collection of Mayan textiles in dialogue with installation works by Miriam L’Herminez. Curated by Marina Manger Cats

From 17 to 25 May 2025
Opening times: from Wednesday to Sunday, from 13:00-17:00
Lecture: A Tapestry of Diversity, Saturday 17th May, from 15:00 to 16:30
Poetry reading: Sunday 18th May, from 15:00 to 16:30
Hoogtij Den Haag: Friday 23 May, open until 23:00
Finissage: Sunday, 25th May at 16:00, screening documentary “Tapestries of Light, Life and Community” & discussion

Coloured Connection juxtaposes highly colourful textiles, traditionally woven and embroidered by indigenous Guatemalan women with the contemporary approach of artist Miriam L’Herminez. The large collection on show displays the traditional blouses known as ‘Huipiles’ and other garments that were made mainly in the 1970s, 1980s and 1990s by indigenous Maya women, coming from different villages of Guatemala. The textiles, true pieces of art, bear specific colours, patterns and characters and come from private collections.

The weaving culture is passed down from mother to daughter for centuries, and forms an important part of the Maya identity, with the technique itself, as well as the patterns and symbols, that stem from pre-Columbian times and Mayan mythology. Here, the Maya’s cosmovision plays an important role, whereby humans are not central to the world, but are part of the nature around them. Maya weaving was also a kind of hidden language and cultural expression, where values and identity could be preserved despite oppression by the Spanish conquistadores and destruction of ancient Maya books and other cultural expressions. Maya weaving is now suffering under the influence of globalisation, commerce and machine reproduction, with special weaving knowledge and its own culture and values being lost.

The extraordinary Guatemalan Maya weaving inspired Dutch multimedia artist Miriam L’Herminez to create works using textiles and other materials, with an eye for the special, Guatemalan indigenous culture and identity. In doing so, she seeks a connection between our culture and that of the Maya, exploring the fragility of people, culture and materials in a special way. She embraces the universal, the human, without giving it a precise face.

About the artist
Miriam L’Herminez is a visual artist, trained as a doctor. She draws inspiration from themes such as diversity, connection and people-to-people conversation. An important source for her work is a 15-year stay as a doctor in Malawi, Zimbabwe and Tanzania. During her work, she was touched by barriers that can emerge unintentionally within human interactions. Cultural differences, language and emotional codes sometimes prove unbridgeable. Where do we find each other through the differences?
L’Herminez takes the colourful Mayan textiles to explore forms of connection across cultures and celebrate diversity. Visit: www.lherminez.com

Lecture: Guatemala, A Tapestry of Diversity

On Saturday, 17 May, Maria Veronica Sajbin, advisor to INGUAT on Indigenous Populations, spoke about the richness of Guatemala’s weaving cultures. This lecture was made possible through the collaboration with INGUAT, the Guatemalan Institute of Tourism and with simultaneous translation by Valeria Guzman.

Poetry reading

On Sunday, 18 May, we received Mirjam Musch reciting poems from her own work and from Guatemalan poets (in Spanish and Dutch). Guatemalan guest speakers recited poems by Guatemalan Maya women (in Spanish, Kaqchikel and English) including poems by Rosa Chavez, Negma Coy, Irma Nimatuj, and Javier Payeras.

Mirjam Musch is a Dutch writer and poet who worked in Guatemala. Migration, resilience, and the possibility of finding beauty and connection in the midst of disruption are central themes of her work. Her Poetry collections are Bloedlijn ; Voces entre dos orillas-Stemmen tussen twee oevers ; Encuentros – Gedichten op reis; Steggy y el Meteorito.. Visit also: www.mirjammusch.com

Negma Coy is a Kaqchikel Mayan artist. She works in the community to ensure the art and knowledge of the Maya communities continue to flourish. She is a writer and poet, painter, backstrap-loom weaving instructor, and cultural promoter. Books she has published include: XXXK’, I Am an Owl, Canvases of Inheritance, On the Shores of Fire, Tz’ula’ – Guardians of the Roads, and the Kikotem Collection – Kaqchikel Stories, Tales, and Poetry.

Finissage 25 May: film screening at 16:00
Tapestries of Light, Life, and Community in Guatemala

The film weaves together the stories of women who have led legislative initiatives, shaped national policies, fought for human rights, built collective movements, and created spaces for art and activism—all in the pursuit of peace, justice, freedom, and a life without fear. Their journeys reveal that the strength of their communities has been the key to their transformation. The screening was followed by a short discussion.

For those who missed it, but are interested in the documentary, watch here: www.nobelwomensinitiative.org

Photos by Carel de Groot

About the curator
Marina Manger Cats grew up in Guatemala and worked there later as a doctor at community level. She and her mother collected ‘huipiles’ and other textiles over the years. Marina brought together artworks from other private collections to give a broad picture of Guatemalan weaving art in this exhibition. She comments that often people visiting Guatemala, whilst touring the ‘hotspots for tourists’, hardly have time for, nor are introduced to the many aspects of Mayan culture. They may see women in Mayan clothing on the streets, but they miss the crucial role of women in weaving, with their incredible creativity and mathematical skills, learned at an early age, with a lot of counting and puzzling involved. The tourists are often not aware of the deep meaning, cultural identity and heritage that lies behind the weaving designs, nor the social functions of the weaving itself.

Although the huipiles are sold at affordable prices to tourists, it may take months of work to make just one. Weaving not only contributes to the family income but also contributes to mental health, due to the meditative focus required in the process, weavers tell us. Therefore, Manger Cats hopes to strike the public’s curiosity and enthusiasm about the beauty, complexity, and background of textile work and its meanings: the heritage of Mayan culture, the link to Mayan mythology of the designs, and the role of this textile production in guarding Mayan identity and cosmovision in today’s globalized world.

Donations and income from the sale of L’Herminez’ artworks and postcards benefit weaving schools for girls and young women (through the Guatemalan organisation AFEDES/MNT) to preserve Maya weaving as cultural heritage.

Supported by the Embassy of Guatemala and Instituto Guatemalteco de Turismo (INGUAT).

[seventeen frequencies] ArtScience Preview

From April 11th to 13th, 2025, the graduating class of the ArtScience Interfaculty will present [seventeen frequencies], a three day exhibition taking place at two locations, Quartair and Paradise (Groenewegje 136).

Opening hours:
Friday, April 11 from 7PM to 11PM
Saturday, April 12 from 12 to 10PM
Sunday, April 13 from 10AM to 6PM

Participating artists from ArtScience exhibiting at Quartair:
Omer van Soldt @vogonxpoetry
Laura A Dima @lauraadima
Anaïs Lossouarn @anaislossouarn
Jedrek Eltman @jedrek.eltman
Lola C. Brancovich @lolachevyy
Anne Zarske @anne.zarske
Tom de Kok @didymus.artist
Charlotte Roschka @corcarlotti
Levi Kramer

The ArtScience Interfaculty offers an interdisciplinary bachelor’s and master’s programme that fosters curiosity driven research as an approach for the making of art. The programme considers art and science as a continuum and promotes the development of new art forms and artistic languages. The ArtScience Interfaculty is embedded in both the Royal Conservatoire and The Royal Academy for Fine Arts in The Hague, The Netherlands. Read more on: interfaculty.nl

Proximity Music: ‘Fluid Anatomy’ by Ioana Vreme Moser

During Rewire Festival (April 4-6), once again Quartair will host the joint exhibition program by iii, Proximity Music: Echoes of Entropy. For this year, iii has selected artist Ioana Vreme Moser to present Fluid Anatomy at our project space.

installation ‘Fluid Anatomy’ by Ioana Vreme Moser. Photo by Dana LaMonda

Powered entirely by water and air, Ioana Vreme Moser’s Fluid Anatomy uses oscillators, valves, pumps, and connecting hoses to create a dynamic analogue installation responding to the environment of Quartair. Taking inspiration from mid-twentieth century “liquid computers” (powered by the flow of liquids), Vreme Moser highlights the beauty and resilience of this alternative computational model to question present-day technological narratives. As the installation passes from one rhythmic pattern to another, the public is invited to walk amongst fragile fluidic bodies and experience the intriguing play of forms and sounds that water and air produce.

Ioana Vreme Moser is a Romanian sound artist interested in hardware electronics, speculative research, and tactile experimentation. In her practice, she uses rough electronic processes to obtain different materialities of sound. She places electronic components and control voltages in different situations of interaction with her body, organic materials, and environmental stimuli. Vreme Moser’s works feature personal narrations and observations on the history of electronics, and their production chains, wastelands, and entanglements in the natural world.

The installation is produced and curated by singuhr projekte, with support of Musikfonds, Bezirksamt Pankow, Berlin. Technical support: Dorian Largen, Jan Rohmer, FabLab.ro. And special thanks for research support: Benjamin Bühling

Proximity Music: Echoes of Entropy presents a series of works that help us understand how chaos and entropy act as forces of creation and catalysts for change while critically examining their impact on our present-day world. Drawing inspiration from the second law of thermodynamics, where entropy signifies the inevitable drift towards disorder, the artists delve into the consequences of these forces on our environment, socio-political systems, and human interactions. Taking these complex and ephemeral relationships as their starting point, the participating artists make chaos tangible by navigating the complex interplay between disorder, chance, and creation. Rather than evoking fear, the works embrace unpredictability and the beauty of uncontrollability. Curated by Yannik Güldner, featuring works by Zimoun, Navid Navab, Natalia (Nika) Sorzano, Ioana Vreme Moser, Coralie Vogelaar, Chris Salter & Marije Baalman, Aura Satz.

Entrance to the Proximity Music exhibition is free. Opening hours: from 12:00 to 20:00.

Proximity Music is the joint exhibition program initiated by iii and Rewire. It seeks to connect music, architecture, technology, ritual, and play through physical experiences engaging with all the senses.

Full info: instrumentinventors.org/agenda/proximity-music-echoes-of-entropy

Drawing Inventions

From February 27 to March 16, Quartair will present Drawing Inventions 2025. The forty-seven participating artists have followed the Drawing Inventions Academy, a master program guided by Arno Kramer, Caren van Herwaarden and Marisa Rappard. In this masters, artists are encouraged to reflect on their owns and each other’s works and make new steps in their development. The works of this exhibition have been selected under the supervision of Arno Kramer, visual artist and advocate of drawing art as an autonomous discipline in the Netherlands.

Opening on March 1st, 16.00 –18.00
Hoogtij on March 7th, 19.00–23.00
Finisage on March 16, 16.00 – 18.00

Opening hours: Thursday to Sunday, between 12.00 and 18.00

Participating artists: Ana Rocha, Anja Sijben, Anna J van Stuijvenberg, Anne-Marie Joosten, Carien Vugts, Cindy van Woudenberg, Dick van Dijk, Egbert Jan Brink, Esther Eggink, Gerard Pouw, Godelieve Smulders, Hellen Abma, Helma Mostart, Hils Robbé, Ike Smitskamp, Inge van der Storm, Ingrid Pasmans, Iris Frerichs, Jeroen Paalvast, Josė Krijnen, Kai Kuper, Lea Adriaans ✝, Maja Badnjević, Mara Liem, Marie-Josée Comello, Marieke Smink, Marielle van den Bergh, Marijke Breuers, Marijke de Pous, Marike Hoekstra, Marjolein Spitteler, Mark Schalken, Marly Hendricks, Michiel Knaven, Monique van Stokkum, Nelleke Bosland, Rita Rutten, Sander Wiersma, Sarah Linde, Sonja Hillen, Sophie Mastenbroek, Susana Mulas Lastra, Teodora Ionescu, Thea Zweerink, Tienke Zijlstra, Ursula Metzler, and Wilma Stegeman.

Drawing Inventions 2025 (detail) at Quartair, The Hague from Feb 27 to March 16, 2025

Tabaria Café: A Year in Exile

Tabaria Café is a pop-up café bridging past and present, aiming to honour and preserve Palestinian culture. Tabaria Café began as a dream of resistance, rooted in the history of exile and the fight for liberation. One year later, it has become a space of solidarity, community, and hope for Palestinians and the SWANA diaspora in the Netherlands.

From Friday, February 7th through Sunday 9th, each day from 1 PM – 6 PM, Quartair created a space for gathering and reflecting on what Tabaria Café has been built together, sharing its journey, and the ongoing struggle for justice and liberation.

We were honored to feature Maisara Baroud, a talented Gazan artist, whose mural from his collection ‘I’m Still Alive’ will be part of the exhibition. Through timelines, stories, and art, we honor the resilience of the past and the hope of the future.

I’m still alive, reproduction of mural series by Gazan artist Maisara Baroud

The centre piece of the exhibition was a mural reproduction of Gazan artist Maisara Baroud from the collection I’m Still Alive. Contorted bodies are illustrated in various states of being, from a calm figure whose stillness is about to be disrupted by missiles in the background, to figures whose pain of loss is expressed in dispositions of death and grief. Despite being forced to move his family ten times, Baroud continues documenting the destruction happening around him. The title I’m Still Alive is a testament to his resilience and resistance against a genocidal occupation.

Our deep thanks to the volunteers who painted it Quartair.

Program:

Feb 7
Broadcast on how to preserve Palestinian heritage Radio
Intuitive Embroidery / Tatreez workshop (14.00-17.00)
Evening: The Bonfire Diwan: Storytelling inside/outside, recorded by radio (18.00-20.00)

Feb 8
Crochet workshop (all day)
Evening: Film screening: Bye bye Tiberia/Jenin Jenin/Arna’s Children (17.00-18.30)

Feb 9
Collective Brunch (13.00-15.00)
Music evening (17.30-18.30)

*A Year in Exile:* Intuitive Embroidery / Tatreez workshop at Quartair

The program also included on-going Learning Palestine: 12-hour radio programme; a reading corner, a craft corner, and letter writing: dedicated to palestinian political prisoners.