A place where we keep safe what we cherish deeply and value most. A place of caring, of memory and thought, around which we commune, learn and talk – or in which we hide and spend time alone, to find solace in soothing seclusion.

Inside Archive
Rik Dijkhuizen

With Inside Archive, artist and HMK alumnus Rik Dijkhuizen places a monumental yet understated yellow cube on the mezzanine of HMK’s minty green reception area, which explores practices of care within the context of spatial design, archiving, and mental wellbeing. The permanent installation double-functions as a public archive and private hide-out and reflects on the idea of the archive as a living body that needs continuous caring, and living bodies as archives that need caring sanctuaries to withdraw to in times of (personal) peril.

Inside Archive aims to unite two apparently opposing needs in one spatial intervention. The archive, which often remains hidden from sight, is made public by placing it in an accessible structure in the middle of the space, in and around which users gather in close proximity to its contents to exchange thoughts and knowledge. An intimate seat inside the cube offers a place to rest and recuperate in privacy; a temporary escape from a world that is highly individualized and flooded with crises, much like cabins in mountainous landscapes for passing travellers in need of shelter.

Inside Archive invites visitors to relax, rest and talk about, in and around the (institutional and personal) archive and to reflect on physical and metaphorical places for collective embodiment.

Photography: Rik Dijkhuizen