Due to the currently very limited access to our exhibition areas during lock down, this exhibition takes place online. In case of any changes, we will let you know via our social media (Facebook / Instagram).
The connecting theme of this online exhibition is the past Corona year with its dilemmas and contemplations.
Two researchers from the University of Twente started a study into how people deal with these new dilemmas and Vrijhof Cultuur joined in with an exhibition of artists who have all been dealing with our changing perspectives in their own individual way.
“Anticipatory Moral Imagination in Corona Times: A Study Based on Drawings”, by Anneke Sools (Psychology) , Yashar Saghai (Philosophy) and Sophie Rodriguez (research assistant) from the University of Twente. A study based on drawing from artist Judith Schepers.
In the wake of the Corona crisis, each of us was confronted to new personal or collective moral dilemmas to which we had not yet been confronted: Should you attend a funeral? Would you recommend the adoption of a policy restricting access to stores or public transportation to people with a vaccine electronic passport?
In this study, we collaborated with illustrator and artist Judith Schepers to create drawings depicting potential dilemmas, from familiar to futuristic, to stimulate imagination regarding moral issues situated in the future and creative ways to deal with those issues. Drawings are rich and ambiguous to enable participants to come up with their own story of what is at stake in each situation and imagine how they would address it.
To investigate these issues, we asked participants from Ecuador, Finland, Greece and the Netherlands four to five questions about each set of moral dilemmas, every three weeks between September and December 2020. How would you respond? What do you see happening in the drawings? Which dilemmas do you spot and what do they mean in your life?
The artists in this (online) exhibition have been chosen for their each different ways of dealing with some Corona-year dilemmas.
* Jozef de Bot (Hengelo) made an online annual report as he does every year. He is a spectator, drawer, painter. He watches and records. Easter fires that are not lit, carnival parades of 2 people, the deceased, sneezes, air conditioners ...
* Margreet Hajee (Deventer) changed (temporarily?) her way of working. Sitting with an embroidery at the breakfast table, looking at the bread that was there, she made the connection ... and started embroidering on bread. It started with texts on bread has now become almost modeling. Bread-clay.
* Grietje Bouman & Iris Poljan (Winterswijk & Zagreb) were in a sort of lethargic state when the lock down was laid upon. During an online chat, the idea grew to send each other some soul-stirs by e-mail every day.
* Cyril Wermers (Enschede) he is a real "people photographer", you see him every day somewhere on the street in Enschede. But during a lock down there is actually nobody on the street... what does that do to the way of photography?
The artists Grietje Bouman & Iris Poljan and Cyril Wermers have made their own book in response to last year, more information about this via their websites.
EXTRA ONLINE EVENT took place on 18 June 2021, by theatresports association Pro Deo. UT students reacted in an online performance through improvisational theatre to some of the moral dilemmas used in UT studies and to the art on display.
