The second in-house exhibition of Grey Space welcomes audiences with an iteration centered on the intricate relationship between queerness and memory.
In its original context, queerness signifies a deviation from an assumed “norm.” As a consequence of this, for years—and still today—understanding and acceptance of queer communities have often been overshadowed by prejudice, imposed morality, and ignorance. These forces continue to place individuals, who experience the world in diverse ways, under harmful and limiting labels.
This exhibition seeks to deconstruct such reactionary emotions by bringing together a selection of artists whose practices recontextualize the narratives and idioms associated with queer communities.
Through memory and transformation as recurring metaphors—expressed in distinct yet interconnected ways—the artists in this second iteration approach queerness as a shared force of transformation. Their works aim to nourish a new common ground of understanding as for the makes, so for the audience.
By questioning the notions of “norm” and “difference,” the exhibition encourages a collective process of remembrance, transformation, education and discovery.
The design for this exhibition was created by Lucas Mainieri Franco and Balázs Milánik.
Featuring works by Derrick Crichlow, Lucas M. Franco, Senka Milutinović, Yi Zhang and Emirhakin.
Derrick Crichlow’s work reimagines how queerness and Black diasporic identity take shape within everyday spaces. Through research-driven design, installation, and objects, he explores how these identities can coexist, proposing alternative spatial realities grounded in conversation, writing, and lived experience.
Lucas M. Franco’s work questions how history is claimed and preserved, centering on self-historicisation and the pull of the archaic. Through graphic and visual practice, he reflects on authorship and what it means for artistic contributions to endure over time.
Senka Milutinović’s work explores media theory, queer narratives, and alternative archival practices. Across formats such as publishing, radio, and collective learning, they rethink how knowledge is produced and shared, bridging the personal and political while imagining structures beyond dominant systems.
Yi Zhang’s work traces what systems exclude, following ecological and more-than-human entanglements shaped by colonial and extractive forces. Working across media and research-based practices, they engage storytelling, material processes, and community-based methods to explore alternative ways of knowing and sustaining.
Emirhakın works across performance, text, video, and installation. He completed an MA in Design at the Sandberg Instituut (2020). His practice poses urgent yet open questions about contemporary politics and the human psyche through bodily experience, arbitrariness, and queer temporalities, often in long-durational performance pieces.
This group exhibition is the result of a recent open call for anyone between 18 and 30 years who is not enrolled into an educational (art) program and is part of a special program of The Grey Space in which we support young artists and makers in their careers.
The project is supported by the Municipality of The Hague,
Fonds 21, Stroom and VSB Fund.
