What Knots Knot Knots

What Knots Knot Knots 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, Groninger Museum (location Wall House#2) and Noorderlicht 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), 12: "It matters what matters we use to think other matters with; it matters what stories we tell to tell other stories with; it matters what knots knot knots, what thoughts think thoughts, what descriptions describe descriptions, what ties tie ties."

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.

Thato Toeba is an artist, legal scholar, and social science researcher, working between Maseru (Lesotho) and Amsterdam. Their work encompasses mixed-media photomontage and assemblage, through which they examine 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 held 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.

Opening Friday 26 June 2026, Artist talk Saturday 27 June 2026
VHDG
Naauw 6-8, Leeuwarden

Artists: Cihad Caner, Jori(k) Galama & Thato Toeba 

In Leeuwarden, Cihad Caner, Thato Toeba, and Jori(k) A. Galama present new work focused on representation, identity, and the workings of archives. Working across a range of media, they explore how images, stories, and histories are shaped, and who remains visible within them, or hidden from view.

Opening Saturday 4 juli 2026
Herinneringscentrum Kamp Westerbork
Oosthalen 8, Hooghalen

Artists: Koos Breukel and Ana Guedes

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
Groninger Museum, location Wall House #2
 A.J.Lutulistraat 17, Groningen

Artists: Ofri Cnaani and Yeb Wiersma

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. 

Noorderlicht junior director Ino and his mom Marlot made a minidocumentary about the colonial past of the North of the Netherlands, which will also be on show at the Wall House #2.   

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.

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.

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