On/t/schuld

On/t/schuld is an exhibition about the impact of a family history shadowed by WWII collaboration. The exhibition explores how descendants live with the burden of a hidden past. Using historical context, poetry and photography, the result invites you to look beyond right or wrong.

A central theme in this exhibition is the poetry of Boris Wanders. His grandfather collaborated with the Germans in WWII and was imprisoned in Veenhuizen after the war. Through his poems, Wanders gives voice to the heaviness he feels and breaks the silence in his family. His partner, Judith Lechner, uses photography to capture how difficult it is to confront the family history.

The exhibition is designed as a maze in which you follow the process of breaking the silence. Would you dare to look a wrong past in the eye? An intimate and contemplative setting is created by allowing uninterested visitors a detour around the exhibition, revealing only silhouettes through the semi-transparent fabric. From the dark war history, you move through increasingly lighter spaces that ultimately lead to a "clearing in the woods." The layers of textile become progressively lower toward the center, giving you an increasingly broader perspective.

The swampy atmosphere of the exhibition, with photo backdrops, puddles, plants, and sounds, is a reference to the local peat swamp along the road that Boris’s grandmother frequently cycled to visit grandfather in prison. The swamp is a place where secrets and feelings sink away, simmer, and are preserved, until one decides to start digging.