As part of HOOGTIJ #85, The Grey Space hosted the unveiling of Tanto y Más, a mural by Lou Vives developed during his spring residency here at The Grey Space. The project marked the outcome of a period of research and artistic production in which Vives further developed and reoriented his practice.

Drawing inspiration from the evacuation of a Spanish museum, the mural explored themes of disappearance, preservation, and transformation. Fragments emerged and dissolved across the work, evoking the lingering traces of what cannot be fully removed. Through processes of decay and restoration, Vives reflected on the often-unseen afterlives of museum collections and the shifting conditions under which artworks are preserved, displaced, and recontextualized.

Central to the work was the concept of accidentia—the incidental and contingent—and its relationship to lived experience and artistic form. Rather than functioning as fixed representations, the images within the mural became sites of transformation, continuously negotiating between memory, loss, and reinvention.

The opening was accompanied by two performative readings by visual artists and writers António Manso Preto and Tild Greene, who responded to the mural through language and live performance. Curator Sanneke Huisman moderated a conversation between the artist and audience, creating space for collective reflection on the themes explored within the work.

Lou Vives is a visual artist whose practice explores memory, material transformation, and the shifting meanings of cultural artefacts. Through drawing, painting, installation, and site-specific interventions, he investigates the ways images persist, deteriorate, and acquire new contexts over time. His work often engages with archives, museum collections, and historical narratives, uncovering the unstable relationship between preservation and disappearance.

Tanto y Más was developed during a Open Space residency at The Grey Space, providing the artist with time and space for experimentation, research, and production. The project culminated in a public presentation as part of HOOGTIJ #85.

The residency was supported by the Municipality of The Hague, Stimuleringsfonds, and Stroom Den Haag.