#paoletta holst

[paradiseisinthemind]

Paoletta Holst

THE DIM LIGHT OF A SINGLE HANGING LAMP, 2024

"Paoletta Holst focuses on colonial architecture and residential culture in Indonesia, which she engages as a PhD candidate in Architecture and Urban Planning at the University of Ghent. She combines a scientific approach with an artistic method, as she believes this creates space for new narratives that break open the dominant, one-sided view of the colonial past.

Dissecting the Colonial House is part of this research. In this installation, Holst shows how the layout of rooms in colonial architecture stemmed from the Dutch colonists' fear of living in a foreign country. Holst makes this visible in a spatial scenography that refers to the mosquito net: a symbolic object that serves to keep unwanted quests out, vet due to its transparent material, does not obstruct the view of the outside world. Combined with a video work, historical documents, and a model home, the installation brings a colonial house to life.

In this way, Holst reveals the context of historical structures and how they continue to influence the present. What do buildings tell us about power relations in the world? Who is in charge in the public space and how do people offer resistance?"

[lewisossokoh]

I am delighted to participate in some portraits made by Chrystel Mukeba for the exhibition STYLE CONGO, Heritage & Heresy at Civa in Brussels.

Also these images will be part of an installation at Yser station at Brussels in collaboration with Kanal Pompidou.

The works in the exhibition challenge and destabilize the canonical histories and colonial roots of this legacy. By examining the marks of colonization in the city of Brussels and in the Congolese urban landscape, they present a decolonial resignification of private and public spaces, and seek to rewrite the margins of history at the center.

FROM 17/03 to 3/09

ADDRESS CIVA

Hermitagestraat 55 1050 Brussels

Curators Sammy Baloji, Silvia Franceschini, Nikolaus Hirsch, Estelle Lecaille

With the participation of Judith Barry, Rossella Biscotti, Peggy Buth, Ayoh Kré Duchâtelet, Jean Katambayi, Johan Lagae & Paoletta Holst, Chrystel Mukeba, Daniela Ortiz, Ruth Sacks, Traumnovelle

With a selection of works by Victor Horta, Ernest Acker, Victor Bourgeois, Joseph Caluwaers, Jean-Jules Eggericx, Paul Hankar, Georges Hobé, Henry Lacoste, René Pechère, Fernand Petit, René Schoentjes, Gustave Serrurier-Bovy