Save the date: What Knots Knot Knots

The project is an initiative of Noorderlicht and was developed in collaboration with archive and cultural institutions in the North of the Netherlands. What Knots Knot Knots is on view from 26 June 2026 at VHDG in Leeuwarden, Herinneringscentrum Kamp Westerbork in Drenthe, and Wall House #2 in Groningen. Each location has its own opening.

North-Netherlands has its own colonial past, but little is said about it. Yet there are many stories from Groningen, Friesland, and Drenthe that are connected to one another. In the seventeenth century, Frisian universities and mapmakers worked for the VOC and the WIC. Ships from Groningen sailed to Ghana to trade enslaved people. In the eighteenth century, Jan Albert Sichterman, VOC director in Bengal, lived in Groningen. He made a great deal of money and used it to build a large house on the Ossenmarkt. He also collected many objects. Part of his collection can still be seen today in the Groninger Museum. In the twentieth century, Moluccan KNIL soldiers and their families came to the former camp Westerbork. Labour migrants also came to Friesland to work in agriculture and industry.

Archives do not preserve everything. Some stories disappear or remain unknown. Artists approach archives differently from historians. They ask questions about what is and is not preserved, and connect stories in new ways. The eight artists conducted research in local archives and spoke with people from the surrounding communities. For the project they made photography, videos, installations, and a large mural. Each artwork is connected to a specific place and community. The works make difficult and often hidden stories visible and open to discussion.

The title What Knots Knot Knots comes from a phrase by Donna Haraway: "it matters what knots knot knots." ¹ By this she means that the way you connect things to one another determines which story you are able to tell. The project therefore does not tell one single grand narrative about the colonial past. Instead, it places different local stories from multiple centuries side by side. In this way, it becomes clear how these histories are interconnected.

Noorderlicht developed this project because it is important to give attention to this history in Noord-Netherlands as well. The project is also the beginning of a longer collaboration between organisations in Groningen, Drenthe, and Friesland to further research and bring visibility to this past.

¹ Donna J. Haraway, Staying with the Trouble: Making Kin in the Chthulucene (Durham: Duke University Press, 2016), pp12: "it matters what knots knot knots."

Opening: Saturday 27 June 2026
VHDG, Leeuwarden
Cihad Caner, Jori(k) Galama & Thato Toeba 

Opening: Saturday 4 juli 2026
In Drenthe, Koos Breukel and Ana Guedes present work that moves around memory and family history. From personal and historical perspectives, they explore how colonial structures and migration stories continue to resonate in the present.

Opening: Sunday 5 July 2026
In Groningen, Ofri Cnaani and Yeb Wiersma present work that examines the relationship between institutions, bodies, and ecology. Their practices question how knowledge is produced and how human and non-human worlds are interconnected.

Koos Breukel is one of the most renowned portrait photographers in the Netherlands. His work explores the relationship between photographer and subject, placing intimacy and proximity at the core of his artistic method.

Cihad Caner is a visual artist living and working in Rotterdam. His research-driven practice focuses on the politics of image-making through video, photography, music, motion capture, and CGI, with attention to representation, language, marginalization, and alterity. He was a resident at the Rijksakademie (2021–2023) and has exhibited at Kunstinstituut Melly, EYE Filmmuseum, Akademie der Künste Berlin, and İstanbul Modern.

Ofri Cnaani is an artist and researcher working at the intersection of performance, media, and institutional critique. Her practice investigates data and coloniality in cultural institutions, somatic knowledge, and performance as a critical tool. She is a research fellow at the Amsterdam School for Cultural Analysis and a visiting scholar at TU Wien. Her work has been shown at Tate Britain, the Metropolitan Museum of Art, MoMA PS1, Kiasma, and the Venice Biennale.

Jori(k) Amit Galama is a filmmaker, writer, and visual artist. After completing a propaedeutic year in philosophy at the University of Amsterdam, they graduated from the Image and Language department at the Gerrit Rietveld Academie and the Netherlands Film Academy. Their work revolves around embodiment, queer ecology, and the relationship between the individual and closed communities.

Ana Guedes is a multidisciplinary artist living and working between the Netherlands and Portugal. Her practice combines sound, video, installation, and performance, drawing from a fragmented family archive and its political connections to Europe’s colonial and postcolonial past. She was a resident at the Jan van Eyck Academie and completed an MA in Artistic Research at the Royal Conservatoire The Hague and the Royal Academy of Art The Hague.

Faisel Saro is a visual artist living and working in Groningen. Of Surinamese-Caribbean descent, he was born in Willemstad (Curaçao) and raised in Paramaribo, where his grandfather was a shaman. At a young age, he emigrated to the Netherlands. He studied at Academie Minerva in Groningen (2013) and developed a practice centered on black-and-white line work, social sculpture, and psychogeographic installations, in which historical layers, the body, and spiritual traditions from the Winti religion converge. His work Keloid is part of the permanent collection of the Groninger Museum. In 2023, he created Genius Loci, an 11-by-30-meter installation for the Noorderzon Festival in Groningen. His involvement in What Knots Knot Knots is primarily connected to the finissage; his position within the publication is yet to be determined.

Thato Toeba is an artist, lawyer, and social science researcher working between Maseru (Lesotho) and Amsterdam. They work with mixed-media photomontage and assemblage, examining how Black life is represented and manipulated in historical and contemporary archives. Toeba was a resident at the Rijksakademie (2023–2025) and received the FNB Art Prize in 2025. Their work is included in the collections of Autograph London and the Victoria and Albert Museum.

Yeb Wiersma is a multidisciplinary artist living and working in Amsterdam and Arpino (Italy). She studied at the Gerrit Rietveld Academie and continued her studies at the Jan van Eyck Academie. Her practice explores the migrating relationships between interconnected subjects, with a focus on the body, ecology, and the boundary between human and non-human.

Finissage: 29 & 30 August 2026, Noorderlicht
The publication What Knots Knot Knots will be presented during a festive finissage weekend at Noorderlicht, Akerkhof 12 in Groningen. Groningen-based artist Faisel Saro will create a mural especially for this occasion at Noorderlicht, bringing all the stories together. The publication, like the campaign, is designed by Bart de Baets.

What Knots Knot Knots is a project by Noorderlicht with and through the following partners: 
CAMPIS 
Herinneringscentrum Westerbork 
Groninger Archieven 
Groninger Museum 
Universiteitsmuseum Groningen 
VHDG

Noorderlicht is made possible by the Gemeente Groningen, Provincie Groningen, and Provincie Friesland.

What Knots Knot Knots was co-realized with the support of the Gemeente Leeuwarden, the Mondrian Foundation, and Drenthe Province.

Musoke Nalwoga & Roosje Klap, in collaboration with Koen Bartijn