The roundness of loss

At some point in life, everyone faces loss. How can we keep a deceased loved one close to us? Curator and writer Hanne Hagenaars explored this question in her acclaimed 2023 book, ‘The Roundness of Loss’. Through artworks, Hagenaars examines the various ways in which someone can continue to live on after a loss. While writing the book, it became clear that the absence of a loved one is easier to bear when you feel connected to a larger whole – when you believe in more than ‘nothing’ (whether in life after death, a soul, a God, or seeing the world as a vast energy field). Spirituality became an integral thread running through the book.

Death leaves those who remain behind feeling lonely, filled with grief and often struggling to find the words to talk about it. How do you ensure that you don’t lose someone entirely? How can you keep them – or yourself – alive?

This poignant and inspiring group exhibition presents over sixty contemporary artworks by more than thirty Dutch and international artists, exploring themes of loss, memorialisation and, most significantly, the concept of ‘living on’ after loss. Alongside the exhibition, the museum is developing a special local programme focusing on grief and mourning.

This exhibition is being created in close cooperation with curator Hanne Hagenaars.

Doina Kraal, The Survival of the Faintest, 2009, foto Peter Cox, collectie kunstenaar

Header: Marenne Welten, Kitchen (detail), 2013, oil on canvas, 35 x 30 cm, from the Tegenboschvanvrede collection