The Delay, The Wait, The Repeated Sequence
Group exhibition
Location: IJveer 65
On show from: December 7th, 2024
The Delay, The Wait, The Repeated Sequence shares various interpretations on waiting. The exhibition contemplates the time we spend waiting, and considers the potential of time that seems to have stopped. What is there to be gained when we take time to rest and prioritize care – both for ourselves and for others? Is this where we might find the solution for pressing social issues, or does waiting keep us in a state of slumber?
Across the ferry, works can be found by artists Joakim Derlow, Julia-Beth Harris, Minhu Jun, Özgür Deniz Koldaş, Ramón Jiménez Cárdenas and Sophie Schreurs. Many of the works are interactive, offering multiple ways to spend your waiting time on the ferry. A zine in which additional interpretations of the theme are shared, written by Yasmine Ben Abdessalem, Remmelt Bot, Thierno Deme, Rowan Stol and Kübra Terzi, can be read in the waiting room of the ferry.
What meaning do you assign to time spent waiting?
Artworks
1. Ramón Jiménez Cárdenas
On the trail of non-human peregrinations
The hammock does not have a singular origin story, but originates in several places worldwide. Variety mostly comes from the different weaving techniques that are used to create them. This hanging seat was introduced on boats in part to reduce seasickness.
Various non-human entities have been woven into the hammocks in this exhibition. Ramón Jiménez Cárdenas was inspired by gourds like the squash – a vegetable that migrated on its own across the ocean between different continents.
Ferry passengers are encouraged to take place in the hammock on their journey, amid all other human and non-human travelers with whom they share the space. Each is on their way to their own destination, moving between different locations and ways of being. How does your environment and the way you can use it influence your journey?
With thanks to Kara Noble & Blise Orr.
2. Joakim Derlow
Settlers
“We came here for nothing
No promise – No gain
Gestoord was the gesture
The south was the same
However,
while the others were destined
I came to remain
waiting not idle
embracing the drain
Seasons passed
without a reveal
The hope sought slumber
My geist is now sealed
(sigh)
This might not mean much
to the one rushing about
but,
that soapy
and endearing
smell of what you just had!
From mouth, to bowels and back
The ballast,
it comes from the past
You leave that warmth with me
and so I crave more
Left alone, unnoticed
from shore – to shore”
Time has passed, and gotten murkier and darker. Uncertainty is in the air. In response to these unsettling circumstances, several characters have nested on this ferry, cocooning themselves while waiting for better times.
As they are isolating from the world outside, they are changing form. They shield themselves from the outside world with only a small breathing hole, a snorkel, or a hidden set of eyes allowing them to peek outside from time to time, checking to see if things have changed yet. Should we join them in their waiting state, or instead focus on providing a better place for them to make their re-entrance?
How might time spent waiting change us, for better or worse? Though Joakim Derlow’s characters should be left undisturbed, they also offer a glimpse into what might happen if we wait too long for things to change. Take a look, for example, at the molten figure that has become one with a seat in the ferry’s waiting room. Do you dare to sit down in this place?
With thanks to Cambium Meubels, Maartje van Deursen & Olle Stjerne.
3. Sophie Schreurs
Onderstroom / Undercurrent
What are you thinking of? Where are you going? What are you waiting for?
We don’t take enough time to ask ourselves simple questions about what we are doing and how this affects how we feel. Sophie Schreurs wants to redirect our attention to our bodies by triggering different senses.
This installation works as a tool to bring your deepest thoughts to the surface. While you look across the river IJ, she asks a question that ferry passengers can answer by talking into the mouthpiece. Answers will be digested in the tube, which debouches into the water. Here, the thoughts are released again.
The installation activates by bending the mouthpiece in front of your mouth. Answers that will be spoken into it will be anonymously documented in a video where only your mouth is in frame. The different responses that will be recorded in the exhibition, will be processed in a video work that we still need to wait for.
4. Julia-Beth Harris
All Things Envisioned
In All Things Envisioned, written and performed by Julia-Beth Harris, the listener is taken to their Dream Space. The meditative text guides you along a series of steps to create a moment for rest, while Harris simultaneously addresses the societal value of rest. How much time do we make for rest, and who has the ability to do so? Harris was inspired by Tricia Hersey from The Nap Ministry. Hersey’s book Rest is Resistance presents rest as a form of resistance against the systems that exploit and dehumanize us, and because of that, focuses on the importance of rest for Black women in particular.
You can listen to the text in full when riding the ferry between Central Station and NDSM. This way, you consciously dedicate your time on the ferry to rest and reflection.
Listen to the text here:
5. Studio Salt, Pepper and Peace
The visual identity for this exhibition was created by Studio Salt, Pepper and Peace (Minhu Jun and Özgür Deniz Koldas). It can be seen on the walls and windows of the ferry, as well as in the zine that can be read as you travel.
The design contains references to the passing of time – both on and off the ferry. This invites you to think about all the ongoing processes that are happening all around you, which you may overlook in your day-to-day life. Where do you recognize the passing of time in your surroundings, and what result is waiting on the other side of that?
The zine can be read while waiting for the ferry to reach its destination, similarly to how waiting rooms often have a collection of papers and magazines to spend your time with. In this way, the inside of the ferry temporarily transforms into a waiting room.
Colofon
Exhibition by
Amsterdam Ferry Festival
Exhibition and zine design
Studio Salt, Pepper & Peace (Minhu Jun & Özgür Deniz Koldaş)
Participating artists
Ramón Jiménez Cárdenas
Joakim Derlow
Julia-Beth Harris
Minhu Jun
Özgür Deniz Koldaş
Sophie Schreurs
Writers
Yasmine Ben Abdessalem
Remmelt Bot
Thierno Deme
Thomas Grommers
Rowan Stol
Kübra Terzi
Curator
Rowan Stol
Reading list
– Baraitser, Lisa. Enduring Time. Bloomsbury Academic, 2017.
– Eichhorn, Kate. ‘Enduring Time by Lisa Baraitser’, Feminist Theory 2020, Vol. 21(4) 517–524.
– Khosravi, Shahram (ed). Waiting: A Project in Conversation. transcript Verlag, 2021.
– Khosravi, Shahram. ‘Waiting bodies in dictatorial and bordering regimes’, The Funambulist, Issue 36: They have clocks, we have time, 2021, p. 46-49.
– Wright, Stephen. ‘Time without Qualities: Cracking the regime of urgency’, in Angela Harutyunyun, Kathrin Horschelmann, and Malcolm Miles (eds), Public Spheres after Socialism. Intellect Books, 2009.
Language
This exhibition was made together with various contributors who alternately speak English and Dutch. The exhibition and zine therefore include texts in both English and Dutch.
Photography
Petra Katanic
