Leen Hammenecker & Rosa Schützendorf

“Much like a bridge, a book, a hand or a gift establish a link, from HERE to THERE. Building a bridge between islands means establishing a dialogue. This is my take on investing in the notion of an archive and this is what my practice aims to obtain.” – Laure Severac

One year ago, Laure Severac (1986-2023), artist, fashion designer, teacher of knitwear at the Royal Academy of Fine Arts and mutual friend of Leen and Rosa, lost her life in an accident. In the days following this disruption, Laure's friends and intimates felt a shared urgency to come together. During their residency, these spontaneous rituals will guide the way for an exploration of practices that can continue to connect the bereaved across time and space. By revisiting the interconnectedness in the spirit of Laure’s practice of reciprocity and the gift, her archive that lives on in others can be expressed in new forms.

The overarching ritual during this residency (for something, rather than someone) is the act of ‘timelining’, a community effort of placing objects, emotions, actions and interactions next to each other, allowing new constellations and meanings, new memories and gifts (as portals) to be shared. While inviting all those connected to join in this ritual of sharing timelines, the residency opens up space for collective archive making with/for the dead and the living. By activating their living archives, a new archive emerges - an archive of the possible, of imagination, wild and unstoppable.

Leen Hammenecker (1974) is a dramaturg and art professional with a background in mediation and experience in developing artist-driven methods of transformative coaching. In her coaching practice she holds a particular interest in focussing on the idea that wants to come into the world, and its clearest expression into a work (of art), backing and protecting its life force side by side with the artist/maker.

Rosa Schützendorf (1991) is a visual artist and costume designer. Through her work threads an ongoing practice of listening and sensing, grasping the subtle subjectivities of bodies and the unconscious layers and representations of images. Drawing from this, her creations materialize the transformation of bodies while twiddling with naturalness and alteration in all possible dimensions.