Pravda Public Programme : Art in Grief
RAAAF
3 March 2023

‘Pravda’, a solo-presentation by interdisciplinary artist and architect, Daria Khozhai, is a deeply personal translation of the public experience of loss and collective trauma - an intimate rumination on the uncertainties of our current times and our future. ‘Pravda’, consists of a 1:1 scale model of her childhood room in Kyiv. The walls of the installation are constructed from countless layers of hand-laid newspapers dated from 1991, the year of the collapse of the Soviet Union and the re-establishment of Ukraine's state independence. Following the Russian attacks on Ukraine, the memory of Khozhai’s first home suffered a traumatic displacement, compelling her to painstakingly recreate her room by revealing the layers of its own history. ‘Pravda’, the title of Khozhai’s exhibition, as well as a historically instrumental newspaper, translates to ‘truth’. Considering questions such as ‘How do you commemorate or memorialize the absent or missing?’, the work incites us to fill the space with our own reflections, memories, and relationships to the past in our present.

To accompany the installation Khozhai and Looiersgracht 60 have invited Prof. dr. Erik Rietveld and Geerteke van Lierop for a lecture, film screening, public interaction titled ‘Art in Grief’. The event takes its title from an ongoing collaboration of the same name between writer, coach and actress Geerteke van Lierop and the founders of RAAAF, Ronald Rietveld and Erik Rietveld. The conversation of ‘Art in Grief’ will explore how visual art can help those in situations of loss or grief regain agency in stressful situations. The project encourages deeper interaction with works of art as a way to help restore and strengthen connection to the external world and access greater possibility and healing.

‘Art in Grief’ will take place on Friday March 3, 2023 from 15:00-16:00 at Looiersgracht 60. Please email us at info@looiersgracht60.org with any questions or to reserve a seat.

RAAAF / Erik Rietveld

Prof. dr. Erik Rietveld is a philosopher of cognitive science and currently working as a Senior Researcher at the University of Amsterdam. Rietveld co-founded RAAAF (Rietveld Architecture-Art-Affordances), an Amsterdam based multidisciplinary architecture firm, with Ronald Rietveld in 2006. RAAAF approaches design through scientific research, spatial experiments and strategic interventions. RAAAF’s work has been published world-wide and exhibited at leading art and architecture biennales and has been awarded the Prix de Rome Architecture 2006, the Rotterdam Design Prize 2011, the Architectural Review Award 2013, the European Prize of Architecture 2017 among others. Looiersgracht 60 presented an immersive installation titled ‘End of Sitting’ by RAAAF in collaboration with Barbara Visser in 2014.

Geerteke van Lierop

Geerteke van Lierop, is an actress, writer and public speaker. She is the author of ‘Een Zee van Glas’ published by Ten Have in 2018, a poetic rumination on loss, despair and mortality. Together with Erik Rietveld she founded the project ‘Art in Grief’ which explores how visual art can help people regain control of their situation after major change or loss. The Art in Grief project includes interviews and lectures about the importance of art in loss and mourning, audio tours of some of the works of RAAAF / Atelier de Lyon, and a short film based on her book ‘Een Zee van Glas’