https://koenhauser.com Koen Hauser Mon, 13 Jul 2026 11:47:22 +0000 https://koenhauser.com en https://koenhauser.com/home Mon, 29 Jun 2026 09:51:22 +0000 Koen Hauser https://koenhauser.com/home https://koenhauser.com/Tiresias-et-la-Porte-Doree Mon, 29 Jun 2026 10:01:53 +0000 Koen Hauser https://koenhauser.com/Tiresias-et-la-Porte-Doree Tirésias et la Porte Dorée <img width="660" height="462" width_o="660" height_o="462" data-src="https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/939b0428dae07730176315302c3c88860ef8ff9f894dfa794d33ee58de6dcbe5/Tiresias-exhibition--landscape.jpg" data-mid="250358048" border="0" src="https://freight.cargo.site/w/660/i/939b0428dae07730176315302c3c88860ef8ff9f894dfa794d33ee58de6dcbe5/Tiresias-exhibition--landscape.jpg" /> 1 The façade of the Palais de la Porte Dorée in Paris, built for the Exposition Coloniale of 1931, is ornamented wiht a monumental relief by sculptor Alfred Janniot. A central allegorical figure, surrounded by smaller human forms and figurines representing the peoples and riches of the French colonial empire. The relief presents itself as an ode — to civilisation, to progress, to France as an ordering power. But it can also be read as a visual language of appropriation: bodies and cultures arranged according to the maker's gaze, presented as self-evident.&nbsp;2 The images made by Lennart Nillsson on human life before birth are world famous. Published for the first time in 1965 in LIFE Magazine, they shaped the way we envision life before birth. What was less known at that time is that almost all photographs where made with dead embryo’s and foetuses.&nbsp; <img width="384" height="512" width_o="384" height_o="512" data-src="https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/5d4580f03a92b89e9a85bbfcd4ebfccf3b20db1ce9f175a4e971c1fc6b8ca068/lifemagazine.jpg" data-mid="249898710" border="0" src="https://freight.cargo.site/w/384/i/5d4580f03a92b89e9a85bbfcd4ebfccf3b20db1ce9f175a4e971c1fc6b8ca068/lifemagazine.jpg" /> 3 The images of Nilsson have been referenced in earlier projects, such as Epitaphium︎︎︎ and Diorama Mechanica︎︎︎. &nbsp; Tirésias et la Porte Dorée Tirésias et la Porte Dorée (2026) was made as a plaster relief of two by three metres with a structure related to that of the monumental relief on the façade of the Palais de la Porte Dorée in Paris1: a central allegorical figure, surrounded by smaller forms. Those forms are embryos — drawn from the photography of Lennart Nilsson2, reversed into negative relief. Hollows, impressions, absence. The beginning of life rendered as that which is not. The central figure is Tiresias — the mythological seer who was blind yet saw, who had been both man and woman, who had crossed the boundary between life and death. He is composed here from fragments: Saint Ursula with the maidens seeking shelter beneath her cloak, the seductive upper body of an Asian dancer figure, the suggestive shoulder line of a dress by Fong Leng, and the face of the artist himself, bearing the bar used in medical photography to ensure anonymity. That bar is not modesty. It is an acknowledgement. The maker knows from experience that every representation is subjective — that in showing, he also orders, interprets, appropriates. Yet he chooses to show regardless, because the alternative is worse: if one remains silent, if one leaves these beings to invisibility, they are not thought. Their form dissolves into the absence of any image. Tiresias sees what photography does — and places himself, blindfolded, in the image as the one least able to do so without consequence. <img width="3574" height="2502" width_o="3574" height_o="2502" data-src="https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/0b7147723409386134e762a8ffb78d35bff52a5df48f2f89f23e1242620091f6/tiresias.jpg" data-mid="249957306" border="0" src="https://freight.cargo.site/w/1000/i/0b7147723409386134e762a8ffb78d35bff52a5df48f2f89f23e1242620091f6/tiresias.jpg" /> https://koenhauser.com/Animulae Wed, 01 Jul 2026 06:40:49 +0000 Koen Hauser https://koenhauser.com/Animulae Animulae <img width="2791" height="3721" width_o="2791" height_o="3721" data-src="https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/7d226d3c4160e60a5274b5dca546aaa87377041fba9ff1b850748e0bdb5c08b2/lavendel.jpg" data-mid="249957336" border="0" src="https://freight.cargo.site/w/1000/i/7d226d3c4160e60a5274b5dca546aaa87377041fba9ff1b850748e0bdb5c08b2/lavendel.jpg" /> <img width="2250" height="3000" width_o="2250" height_o="3000" data-src="https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/a3f76ee189e696f0dd4d7ff3f07afb42bf47945667ff6db9da072f0d17e6de6f/groen.jpg" data-mid="249957337" border="0" src="https://freight.cargo.site/w/1000/i/a3f76ee189e696f0dd4d7ff3f07afb42bf47945667ff6db9da072f0d17e6de6f/groen.jpg" /> <img width="2250" height="3000" width_o="2250" height_o="3000" data-src="https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/a13034874a40c11f9c967ac201d34df975c99a853f549c26e4a240acefe280ed/rood.jpg" data-mid="249957339" border="0" src="https://freight.cargo.site/w/1000/i/a13034874a40c11f9c967ac201d34df975c99a853f549c26e4a240acefe280ed/rood.jpg" /> <img width="2250" height="3000" width_o="2250" height_o="3000" data-src="https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/34508ba0c1c02435f390b7bdfb95bb65454862333cf33a3df4613e909b7dc7b3/geel.jpg" data-mid="249957340" border="0" src="https://freight.cargo.site/w/1000/i/34508ba0c1c02435f390b7bdfb95bb65454862333cf33a3df4613e909b7dc7b3/geel.jpg" /> 1 In European painting and sculpture from the Renaissance onward, the putto — the little angel — is a familiar ornamental motif: the round, cheerful child's body that populates clouds, adorns altars, and accompanies tomb monuments. The putto stands for innocence, for the heavenly, for the soul that has departed the earth. Decoration and symbol at once — and precisely for that reason, rendered almost invisible through familiarity. 2 The title Animulae refers to a poem attributed to the Roman emperor Hadrian (76–138 CE), preserved in the Historia Augusta as his dying words; Animula vagula blandulaHospes comesque corporiQuae nunc abibis in locaPallidula rigida nudula,Nec, ut soles, dabis iocos. Loosely: "Little wandering, coaxing soul, guest and companion of the body, to what places will you now go — pale, stiff, naked — no longer joking as you used to?" The poem is known for its intimate, almost playful tone toward death — a farewell to the soul as something small, fragile, and faintly mischievous, rather than solemn or triumphant.&nbsp; AnimulaeThis installation consists of are nine coloured putti1 covered in papier-mâché, each based on a historical medical photograph of a sick, deformed, or deceased child. The forms have been translated into relief and painted in pronounced decorative colours. These Animulae2 (2026) hang on the wall as putti populate a vault. The use of colour is deliberate. Its cheerfulness stands in tension with the origin of the form — not to conceal, but to make visible a tension that was always already there. In the original tradition, the putto was never merely a cheerful child: it was also a little soul, a body that died too young and thereby earned heaven. The decorative form and the tragic content were intertwined from the outset. These nine putti carry that history with them — as ornament, as commemoration, and as a reminder of what lies behind the motif. <img width="3240" height="2268" width_o="3240" height_o="2268" data-src="https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/603259d23d9d8a76e5cc4a5cd3d6908d652550d6c2007c7358b02611165df74f/Animulae.jpg" data-mid="249957319" border="0" src="https://freight.cargo.site/w/1000/i/603259d23d9d8a76e5cc4a5cd3d6908d652550d6c2007c7358b02611165df74f/Animulae.jpg" /> https://koenhauser.com/Le-Choeur-des-Mascarons Mon, 06 Jul 2026 09:23:49 +0000 Koen Hauser https://koenhauser.com/Le-Choeur-des-Mascarons Le Chœur des Mascarons <img width="1801" height="1261" width_o="1801" height_o="1261" data-src="https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/9e804a5db180d929f1da6ab264a0d7a6d4326933ed113ebc31fe4756b54e887a/Mascarons.jpg" data-mid="250124988" border="0" src="https://freight.cargo.site/w/1000/i/9e804a5db180d929f1da6ab264a0d7a6d4326933ed113ebc31fe4756b54e887a/Mascarons.jpg" /> 1&nbsp;A mascaron is an architectural ornament in the form of a human face—grimacing, contorted or intensely expressive. Since the Renaissance, mascarons have adorned façades, bridges, fountains and gateways. They guard thresholds, ward off evil and mark the passage between outside and inside, between the familiar and the unknown. Their expressions are never neutral: they stare, grimace and warn. Le Chœur des MascaronsLe Chœur des Mascarons (2026) consists of nine concrete heads, each derived from a black-and-white portrait of a child with a medical condition. Through a process of 3D modelling, the photographs have been translated into relief and cast in concrete, giving the faces the weight and permanence of stone. The choice of the mascaron is not merely decorative but structural. In their own time, these children were photographed as medical cases, as deviations from the norm, as objects of scientific observation. The mascaron reverses that position: the face that was once examined now becomes the guardian. The child who was once an object becomes the keeper of the threshold. Nine faces, nine thresholds. Together they form a choir—not of voices, but of gazes. <img width="1439" height="1920" width_o="1439" height_o="1920" data-src="https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/f62afbdb73137754ce91c5f2ade31fecaab741427c461e7852af2a96b1f0e71b/marcaron5.jpg" data-mid="250366129" border="0" src="https://freight.cargo.site/w/1000/i/f62afbdb73137754ce91c5f2ade31fecaab741427c461e7852af2a96b1f0e71b/marcaron5.jpg" /> <img width="1440" height="1920" width_o="1440" height_o="1920" data-src="https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/e27243ff5ffc977d6a6f6c82fdcf60334b52299a37e90378f7c15cc45d5209e9/mascaron2.jpg" data-mid="250366132" border="0" src="https://freight.cargo.site/w/1000/i/e27243ff5ffc977d6a6f6c82fdcf60334b52299a37e90378f7c15cc45d5209e9/mascaron2.jpg" /> <img width="1440" height="1920" width_o="1440" height_o="1920" data-src="https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/d0527b05190b5653579b9d91b858d0759e11a21f4d08b752f82315344e13fd1d/mascaron3.jpg" data-mid="250366135" border="0" src="https://freight.cargo.site/w/1000/i/d0527b05190b5653579b9d91b858d0759e11a21f4d08b752f82315344e13fd1d/mascaron3.jpg" /> <img width="1440" height="1920" width_o="1440" height_o="1920" data-src="https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/05932d5244ae27fc48b4cb317312aacffa9027c4f9bbcfaffd9831dc72f8301c/mascaron4.jpg" data-mid="250366137" border="0" src="https://freight.cargo.site/w/1000/i/05932d5244ae27fc48b4cb317312aacffa9027c4f9bbcfaffd9831dc72f8301c/mascaron4.jpg" /> <img width="1440" height="1920" width_o="1440" height_o="1920" data-src="https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/3dae6e8808c90fd919c90ed16992d7876074bba850b58d2be9b082ff1e79e6d1/mascaron6.jpg" data-mid="250366139" border="0" src="https://freight.cargo.site/w/1000/i/3dae6e8808c90fd919c90ed16992d7876074bba850b58d2be9b082ff1e79e6d1/mascaron6.jpg" /> <img width="1440" height="1920" width_o="1440" height_o="1920" data-src="https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/5715e336c1845262c49239d6cf45fa8d2c477aded54e6ddb95698fba05a81916/mascaron7.jpg" data-mid="250366141" border="0" src="https://freight.cargo.site/w/1000/i/5715e336c1845262c49239d6cf45fa8d2c477aded54e6ddb95698fba05a81916/mascaron7.jpg" /> <img width="1440" height="1920" width_o="1440" height_o="1920" data-src="https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/0bd1cfb227e3db9aaab203195a56fa04c487e8796e3d97f84c362f582b9fc32f/mascaron8.jpg" data-mid="250366142" border="0" src="https://freight.cargo.site/w/1000/i/0bd1cfb227e3db9aaab203195a56fa04c487e8796e3d97f84c362f582b9fc32f/mascaron8.jpg" /> <img width="1440" height="1920" width_o="1440" height_o="1920" data-src="https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/33cbe44430348fedbdd29244669982714489413f210f0af89af9d335fec3c8ff/mascaron9.jpg" data-mid="250366150" border="0" src="https://freight.cargo.site/w/1000/i/33cbe44430348fedbdd29244669982714489413f210f0af89af9d335fec3c8ff/mascaron9.jpg" /> <img width="1440" height="1920" width_o="1440" height_o="1920" data-src="https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/21ebf51e30a6c105cb26e51625560d3c7a0e986ec1b87f30ad073c29cc8e62de/mascaron1.jpg" data-mid="250366130" border="0" src="https://freight.cargo.site/w/1000/i/21ebf51e30a6c105cb26e51625560d3c7a0e986ec1b87f30ad073c29cc8e62de/mascaron1.jpg" /> https://koenhauser.com/Loculus-Cyclopis Mon, 06 Jul 2026 07:19:04 +0000 Koen Hauser https://koenhauser.com/Loculus-Cyclopis Loculus Cyclopis <img width="2500" height="1750" width_o="2500" height_o="1750" data-src="https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/8e8d4da6342279eaf6fe41600ec6b6ae5b38f4aa6b461d004ad70b61c4192424/loculus-wall.jpg" data-mid="250123861" border="0" src="https://freight.cargo.site/w/1000/i/8e8d4da6342279eaf6fe41600ec6b6ae5b38f4aa6b461d004ad70b61c4192424/loculus-wall.jpg" /> 1 A stereoscopic photograph consists of two images with a slight parallax, creating the illusion of depth when viewed with a stereoscopic viewer. <img width="2500" height="1202" width_o="2500" height_o="1202" data-src="https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/12f1eeba81872ce1fcad2544f24890a52e12044e928f4a699de93da9de96327f/stereomoon.jpg" data-mid="250123881" border="0" src="https://freight.cargo.site/w/1000/i/12f1eeba81872ce1fcad2544f24890a52e12044e928f4a699de93da9de96327f/stereomoon.jpg" /> 2&nbsp;A loculus is a niche in a catacomb or columbarium—a rectangular recess in stone, just large enough to hold a single body or an urn. The title of this work refers to this architecture of preservation: the intimate burial chamber, an individual compartment within the larger order of death. Loculus CyclopisThis relief brings together three different stereoscopic photographs1. The first is an image of a child&nbsp; on a papier-mâché moon—a whimsical studio prop that appeared in photographic studios throughout the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, evoking fantasy and innocence. The second is an anatomical photograph of an opened skull, exposing its interior to scientific observation, reducing the child to a specimen. On the far right appears an astronomical photograph of the moon itself: cold, cratered and uninhabitable. These disparate images are brought together in Loculus Cyclopis2 (2026), constituting a sarcophagus panel, cast as a relief and finished with bronze, oxidation and wax. The composition is structured by the arched outlines of the original stereoscopic cards—the curved edges of the photographic prints once mounted onto cardboard. In stereoscopy, these arches framed the viewer’s field of vision and reinforced the illusion of depth. Here, however, only one half of each stereoscopic pair remains. No longer producing spatial illusion, the arches instead echo the rounded forms of the tomb, the loculus and the architecture of burial itself. The viewing window becomes a burial chamber. What remains is a some kind of monument —not carved in stone, but assembled from images that were never meant to belong together. <img width="3318" height="1303" width_o="3318" height_o="1303" data-src="https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/523b74dd2b50b6e201abea3815dcda63662c419d8f2efd6ba0380944463fa877/loculuscyclopis.jpg" data-mid="250123851" border="0" src="https://freight.cargo.site/w/1000/i/523b74dd2b50b6e201abea3815dcda63662c419d8f2efd6ba0380944463fa877/loculuscyclopis.jpg" /> https://koenhauser.com/Degeneratives Mon, 13 Jul 2026 11:47:22 +0000 Koen Hauser https://koenhauser.com/Degeneratives Degeneratives <img width="1920" height="1359" width_o="1920" height_o="1359" data-src="https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/99509362cb786e2b3ebe8cc0cbef8f20cca8840c3102e9f982dff27b92202fb1/cradle-f.jpg" data-mid="250368921" border="0" src="https://freight.cargo.site/w/1000/i/99509362cb786e2b3ebe8cc0cbef8f20cca8840c3102e9f982dff27b92202fb1/cradle-f.jpg" /> 1 The title Cradle (2026) refers to sudden infant death syndrome, sometimes referred to as the cradle of death: the unexplained dying of a child in its sleep, in the safest place there is.2 Generative fill is a function in image-editing software that completes or replaces missing or selected parts of a photograph based on what the algorithm expects. The machine looks at the context and confabulates: it invents what could be there, plausible and photorealistic, but never actually seen. 3&nbsp;In Greek mythology, Galatea is the ivory statue that the sculptor Pygmalion made so perfect that he fell in love with it. At his plea, Aphrodite brought the statue to life. Galatea is the form that becomes living — or that always carried life within it, waiting for recognition. DegenerativesWhat the images in this series have in common, is that their representational qualities have been comprimised through the use of digital techniques. For The Cradle1&nbsp; (2026) I repeatedly applied the function of generative fill2 to a found interior photograph. Through this process I witnessed how the original image changed over time, the way memories in our brain shift shape each time we retrieve them. With every step, the image moved further from its photographic origin. I call the process degenerative fill: not generative but corrosive, a steady unmooring from the logic of what once was. The algorithm confabulates just as undisturbed as the sleeping world that does not see what happens when a child dies in its sleep. The process and the subject are the same: something losing its form slowly, unnoticed, and without discernible cause.The Miscarriage of Galatea3 (2026)&nbsp;presents a modernist exhibition building, the type that in the 1950s radiated progress and feasibility, in which a mass of cloths and fabrics falls downward. The movement is at once outpouring and unfolding. Within the folds, suggestions of bodies are visible: forms that are human without fully becoming so, anatomical without being nameable.&nbsp; The spectacle of the world's fair and the silent space of the operating room lie uncomfortably close together here. Both are places where something is put on display. Both require an audience that undergoes without intervening. The Miscarriage of Galatea was generated by artificial intelligence on the basis of so-called prompts — words translated by the algorithm into images. That fact, too, is part of the work: an image as a translation of a translation, made by a machine that does not know what life is — and that has nonetheless brought forth something that gestures toward it.&nbsp; <img width="1920" height="1352" width_o="1920" height_o="1352" data-src="https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/cb13bd01fc6bfac79ff323065d1fa5e4057aaba8a098e2025e8baab9a1b671d3/cradle.jpg" data-mid="250368691" border="0" src="https://freight.cargo.site/w/1000/i/cb13bd01fc6bfac79ff323065d1fa5e4057aaba8a098e2025e8baab9a1b671d3/cradle.jpg" /> <img width="1920" height="1352" width_o="1920" height_o="1352" data-src="https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/a629cc86bfb8261d8032aeb7bf3a0d02d3ea4fd4b6de5a669561c907bca78ec0/galatea.jpg" data-mid="250368679" border="0" src="https://freight.cargo.site/w/1000/i/a629cc86bfb8261d8032aeb7bf3a0d02d3ea4fd4b6de5a669561c907bca78ec0/galatea.jpg" /> https://koenhauser.com/Per-Formae Sun, 29 Mar 2026 12:43:46 +0000 Koen Hauser https://koenhauser.com/Per-Formae Per Formae <img width="1920" height="1440" width_o="1920" height_o="1440" data-src="https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/e1888fca55e8951b61f59026af47e0e227b2e0eda8624af48a4b8ef51eaac04c/PerFormae--6.jpg" data-mid="246641185" border="0" src="https://freight.cargo.site/w/1000/i/e1888fca55e8951b61f59026af47e0e227b2e0eda8624af48a4b8ef51eaac04c/PerFormae--6.jpg" /> 1 These works were part of the exhibition Meta Morfose (2026), a duo exhibition with Resi van der Ploeg at the Hooglandse Kamer in Leiden. Per FormaeThese works depart from a simple observation: that unrelated things, when seen together, begin to remember each other. Photographic images were sourced from disparate secondhand books — subjects unrelated by origin, connected by form. Selected for their morphological affinities, each image was translated into a three-dimensional relief, bronzed and oxidized. Here, the act of making becomes inseparable from the act of perceiving — a performative gesture through which form is not simply revealed, but produced. The resulting series suggests a logic of development: stages of growth, transformation, becoming — not as biological fact, but as visual proposition. What emerges is neither taxonomy nor narrative. It is a question about where form resides: in the object, or in the act that brings it into perception. <img width="1440" height="1920" width_o="1440" height_o="1920" data-src="https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/7ddb32b99fe767bc60a2d04650486dbba0ecf2abce9bb53283a0fe006d430838/PerFormae--3.jpg" data-mid="246641188" border="0" src="https://freight.cargo.site/w/1000/i/7ddb32b99fe767bc60a2d04650486dbba0ecf2abce9bb53283a0fe006d430838/PerFormae--3.jpg" /> <img width="1440" height="1920" width_o="1440" height_o="1920" data-src="https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/6b1d2f48ad0a4655aafa75c0b1b98ad046bd870bcc374ef5c577c6c6814341ed/PerFormae--4.jpg" data-mid="246641191" border="0" src="https://freight.cargo.site/w/1000/i/6b1d2f48ad0a4655aafa75c0b1b98ad046bd870bcc374ef5c577c6c6814341ed/PerFormae--4.jpg" /> <img width="1440" height="1920" width_o="1440" height_o="1920" data-src="https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/fd7c07b4fdfe6b4d82b55bd579a86bb56aa7cab42e0e4d1a8789513e1f393053/PerFormae--2.jpg" data-mid="246641189" border="0" src="https://freight.cargo.site/w/1000/i/fd7c07b4fdfe6b4d82b55bd579a86bb56aa7cab42e0e4d1a8789513e1f393053/PerFormae--2.jpg" /> <img width="1440" height="1920" width_o="1440" height_o="1920" data-src="https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/60945c0b69829777db20ac52342196c5182dffe405c4aabbcc81453520d5efa6/PerFormae--5.jpg" data-mid="246641187" border="0" src="https://freight.cargo.site/w/1000/i/60945c0b69829777db20ac52342196c5182dffe405c4aabbcc81453520d5efa6/PerFormae--5.jpg" /> <img width="1920" height="1440" width_o="1920" height_o="1440" data-src="https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/610c6fc0a9430378341e52ef26313422e66bf651f558deabe84932982e334805/PerFormae--1.jpg" data-mid="246641190" border="0" src="https://freight.cargo.site/w/1000/i/610c6fc0a9430378341e52ef26313422e66bf651f558deabe84932982e334805/PerFormae--1.jpg" /> <img width="1920" height="1440" width_o="1920" height_o="1440" data-src="https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/c9e26060edb4f481ee4513b6f692edfd141c92b92342fcd6169fcb8f4cfdc36b/PerFormae--8.jpg" data-mid="246641186" border="0" src="https://freight.cargo.site/w/1000/i/c9e26060edb4f481ee4513b6f692edfd141c92b92342fcd6169fcb8f4cfdc36b/PerFormae--8.jpg" /> <img width="1182" height="888" width_o="1182" height_o="888" data-src="https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/676bb6e7b8a2ab06b230703effaec996b5f71fd52fb38bafe0b6089bef409525/PerFormae--7.jpg" data-mid="246641192" border="0" src="https://freight.cargo.site/w/1000/i/676bb6e7b8a2ab06b230703effaec996b5f71fd52fb38bafe0b6089bef409525/PerFormae--7.jpg" /> https://koenhauser.com/De-Poortwachters Tue, 25 Nov 2025 11:13:57 +0000 Koen Hauser https://koenhauser.com/De-Poortwachters De Poortwachters <img width="961" height="1280" width_o="961" height_o="1280" data-src="https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/87aa71f90f05cf61de64c12935e8d878bb480153c56f59e78c666534cff171b1/IMG_0446.jpeg" data-mid="241064682" border="0" src="https://freight.cargo.site/w/961/i/87aa71f90f05cf61de64c12935e8d878bb480153c56f59e78c666534cff171b1/IMG_0446.jpeg" /> 1 This project was created for the occasion of the exhibition Tussentijd, inspired by the rich history of the school building at the Pieterskerkhof in Leiden.&nbsp; De PoortwachtersDe Poortwachters (2025) depicts two children with Down Syndrome as a plasterrelief in a former schoolbuilding. Inspired by the history of the building, and based on an archival photograph from the 1960’s when the building was in use as a school for children with mental disabilities,&nbsp;I applied techniques of depth mapping and 3d printing to create the reliefs. They appear as if they have always been there, contrasting with the historical tendency to hide anything from public sight that deviated from what was considered normal. <img width="1280" height="960" width_o="1280" height_o="960" data-src="https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/07bb7e358321c5a7f063471ae55184d082deed56db2e997b2d165e69215b8fc4/IMG_0462.jpeg" data-mid="241064683" border="0" src="https://freight.cargo.site/w/1000/i/07bb7e358321c5a7f063471ae55184d082deed56db2e997b2d165e69215b8fc4/IMG_0462.jpeg" /> https://koenhauser.com/Theatrum-Mnemosynes Wed, 18 Jun 2025 09:13:45 +0000 Koen Hauser https://koenhauser.com/Theatrum-Mnemosynes Theatrum Mnemosynes <img width="3687" height="2765" width_o="3687" height_o="2765" data-src="https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/dc5d633148cd4bb755cd9c20f4d106f657558917f75983fa7f34e93e4356d04c/IMG_8198.jpeg" data-mid="235622155" border="0" src="https://freight.cargo.site/w/1000/i/dc5d633148cd4bb755cd9c20f4d106f657558917f75983fa7f34e93e4356d04c/IMG_8198.jpeg" /><img width="1280" height="961" width_o="1280" height_o="961" data-src="https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/4611ef5a5b03aab71ff70ba2abbbfe8c3d05f827976b48357df231785faf42e7/Theatrum----2.jpeg" data-mid="235719214" border="0" src="https://freight.cargo.site/w/1000/i/4611ef5a5b03aab71ff70ba2abbbfe8c3d05f827976b48357df231785faf42e7/Theatrum----2.jpeg" /> 1 This project was created for the occasion of the Refresh Amsterdam #3: Imagine the future biënnale in the Amsterdam Museum︎︎︎ (11 july - 30 nov 2025). &nbsp;2 The Amsterdam School︎︎︎ (Dutch: Amsterdamse School) is a style of architecture that arose from 1910 through about 1930 in the Netherlands. 3&nbsp;The project title contains a reference to the Bilderatlas Mnemosyne by Aby Warburg︎︎︎. 4 Eye movement desensitization and reprocessing (EMDR︎︎︎) is a form of psychotherapy designed to treat post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD). Theatrum Mnemosynes Theatrum Mnemosynes is an imaginary theatre—part ruin, part sanctuary—where life’s scars are reimagined as sources of beauty, resonance, and perhaps even consolation. The project draws upon the expressive language of the Amsterdam School, that early 20th-century architecture in which ornament was not mere embellishment, but a vital carrier of emotion, movement, and meaning. The visual material is sourced from historical medical books on pediatrics: photographs of deformities, lesions, microscopic views of cancer cells – images originally burdened with trauma, loss, and clinical detachment. Through processes of repetition, mirroring, and transformation—echoing the logic of ornament—I attempt a kind of visual EMDR: &nbsp;softening, fracturing, and reassembling the images into textures and shapes that hover between attraction and unease.&nbsp; These ornaments are not mere decoration; I consider them quiet vessels of unspoken histories. They exist in the tension between the personal and the collective, the fragment and the whole, where past and present, loss and potential, meet in a single arresting form. In this theatre of memory, the visible and the invisible are woven together, inviting a different way of sensing, of remembering, of seeing. <img width="3687" height="2765" width_o="3687" height_o="2765" data-src="https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/dc5d633148cd4bb755cd9c20f4d106f657558917f75983fa7f34e93e4356d04c/IMG_8198.jpeg" data-mid="235622155" border="0" src="https://freight.cargo.site/w/1000/i/dc5d633148cd4bb755cd9c20f4d106f657558917f75983fa7f34e93e4356d04c/IMG_8198.jpeg" /> <img width="1280" height="960" width_o="1280" height_o="960" data-src="https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/f6230c07bb28cf7a70b75783a04d96f4eb6ccd73b21e76fcf93aa018871932c2/Theatrum----3.jpeg" data-mid="235719215" border="0" src="https://freight.cargo.site/w/1000/i/f6230c07bb28cf7a70b75783a04d96f4eb6ccd73b21e76fcf93aa018871932c2/Theatrum----3.jpeg" /> <img width="1280" height="961" width_o="1280" height_o="961" data-src="https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/6d0b36b684f5e4a1c38a204875938e6a05d21efba6a132307434ccd2c1a0b6e1/Theatrum----5.jpeg" data-mid="235719217" border="0" src="https://freight.cargo.site/w/1000/i/6d0b36b684f5e4a1c38a204875938e6a05d21efba6a132307434ccd2c1a0b6e1/Theatrum----5.jpeg" /> <img width="1280" height="961" width_o="1280" height_o="961" data-src="https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/a6d662d4f5a9a375c422c3bd49dd76e223faab35630b1c6b3e94fd52f97677a1/Theatrum----6.jpeg" data-mid="235719218" border="0" src="https://freight.cargo.site/w/1000/i/a6d662d4f5a9a375c422c3bd49dd76e223faab35630b1c6b3e94fd52f97677a1/Theatrum----6.jpeg" /> <img width="1280" height="960" width_o="1280" height_o="960" data-src="https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/701bc71d6ab364992562f08af00595bfc80ac1866df4b1f0b45dedf416c33f9b/Theatrum----7.jpeg" data-mid="235719219" border="0" src="https://freight.cargo.site/w/1000/i/701bc71d6ab364992562f08af00595bfc80ac1866df4b1f0b45dedf416c33f9b/Theatrum----7.jpeg" /> <img width="1280" height="960" width_o="1280" height_o="960" data-src="https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/013bd61cd5630c23a9281151e957237c833ded167fbc76acf23b1ed7efd4190c/Theatrum----8.jpeg" data-mid="235719220" border="0" src="https://freight.cargo.site/w/1000/i/013bd61cd5630c23a9281151e957237c833ded167fbc76acf23b1ed7efd4190c/Theatrum----8.jpeg" /> <img width="1280" height="960" width_o="1280" height_o="960" data-src="https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/f90ddd771fd637f95d6a8a6e7425ff77814d1e138e47152227d04f33ee8f00d6/Theatrum----9.jpeg" data-mid="235719222" border="0" src="https://freight.cargo.site/w/1000/i/f90ddd771fd637f95d6a8a6e7425ff77814d1e138e47152227d04f33ee8f00d6/Theatrum----9.jpeg" /> <img width="1280" height="960" width_o="1280" height_o="960" data-src="https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/f59016145650959fa781d643f6072a3d3ad4d064d3ab96988f8e557926ba2cbc/Theatrum----4.jpeg" data-mid="235719216" border="0" src="https://freight.cargo.site/w/1000/i/f59016145650959fa781d643f6072a3d3ad4d064d3ab96988f8e557926ba2cbc/Theatrum----4.jpeg" /> <img width="1280" height="960" width_o="1280" height_o="960" data-src="https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/bd941617edd44be0524d21259a3b24a302bfda87431d84d0a3c3bc0b36c520a2/Theatrum----10.jpeg" data-mid="235719223" border="0" src="https://freight.cargo.site/w/1000/i/bd941617edd44be0524d21259a3b24a302bfda87431d84d0a3c3bc0b36c520a2/Theatrum----10.jpeg" /> <img width="1280" height="939" width_o="1280" height_o="939" data-src="https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/48b25ecbe87388a070ec867ea3501831bd76abed010fe6edd282488b3797aaab/Theatrum----11.jpeg" data-mid="235719224" border="0" src="https://freight.cargo.site/w/1000/i/48b25ecbe87388a070ec867ea3501831bd76abed010fe6edd282488b3797aaab/Theatrum----11.jpeg" /> <img width="1280" height="961" width_o="1280" height_o="961" data-src="https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/80d336402f9f19fd9b56c39eeb04210cf26e6b683d7a0c62a9f3732fcdce5431/Theatrum----12.jpeg" data-mid="235719225" border="0" src="https://freight.cargo.site/w/1000/i/80d336402f9f19fd9b56c39eeb04210cf26e6b683d7a0c62a9f3732fcdce5431/Theatrum----12.jpeg" /> <img width="1280" height="960" width_o="1280" height_o="960" data-src="https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/420b05a11791aa69cd608d1d4705b7de75966e684553ba94c3a788eca247d222/Theatrum----1.jpeg" data-mid="235719213" border="0" src="https://freight.cargo.site/w/1000/i/420b05a11791aa69cd608d1d4705b7de75966e684553ba94c3a788eca247d222/Theatrum----1.jpeg" /> https://koenhauser.com/Cosmotheoros Sun, 19 Nov 2023 11:33:14 +0000 Koen Hauser https://koenhauser.com/Cosmotheoros The Chronicles of the Stochastic Parrot: Cosmotheoros <img width="2133" height="1524" width_o="2133" height_o="1524" data-src="https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/be02855c31b305e65075fc7d143e6d65f9fb6ecf8a7f1dfff6b2358400289047/Cosmotheoros_installatie1.jpg" data-mid="242067131" border="0" src="https://freight.cargo.site/w/1000/i/be02855c31b305e65075fc7d143e6d65f9fb6ecf8a7f1dfff6b2358400289047/Cosmotheoros_installatie1.jpg" /> <img width="6839" height="4559" width_o="6839" height_o="4559" data-src="https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/71cb83cfaa84c59fd1591e8408f68c7105fa89e5c7c67443c40109a430f273ec/_DSF0747-kopie.jpg" data-mid="242067133" border="0" src="https://freight.cargo.site/w/1000/i/71cb83cfaa84c59fd1591e8408f68c7105fa89e5c7c67443c40109a430f273ec/_DSF0747-kopie.jpg" /> 1 The video is currently screening in the old Observatory of Leiden as part of the exhibition Plants and Planets that combines science and artworks. 2&nbsp;Stochastic Parrot︎︎︎ is a metaphor coined in a famous paper that describes that the large language models used in AI generating do not understand the meaning of the language they process. 3&nbsp;This video is based on the work Cosmotheoros&nbsp; by Christiaan Huygens︎︎︎. The Chronicles of the Stochastic Parrot: Cosmotheoros Cosmotheoros is a visionary text on possible life on other planets written in 1698 by the great Dutch scientist Christiaan Huygens, also considered as the first science-fiction book in history. For the exhibition Planten en Planeten (Plants and Planets) in the Hortus Botanicus and old observatory in Leiden – curated by Meta Knol and Frans Snik – I created a fictional documentary inspired by the Dutch translation of this book by Daphne Stam (courtesy of uitgeverij boom). With the imaginative power of the technique of AI video generating I brought to life my archive of cut out imagery on popular-scientific topics, such as stones and minerals, plants, animals, space travel, art, medical science and marine life. Using Large Language Models, in a famous paper referred to as Stochastic Parrots, AI confabulated movement and change of shape over time in these old images I offered it. The result presents intrinsically powerful but in essence still unintelligent techniques hallucinating on intelligent life in the universe, underlining the paradigm of space and time: it is impossible to accurately visualize the future before it becomes the ‘now’ in space-time, but in hindsight it always seems to originate from history as we know it. <img width="1920" height="1080" width_o="1920" height_o="1080" data-src="https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/0ce1bf1c38144288e3b337c5ddef3914a91b089f46974744fb9fe633fb072bb4/Cosmotheoros_KoenHauser_2a.jpg" data-mid="227838686" border="0" src="https://freight.cargo.site/w/1000/i/0ce1bf1c38144288e3b337c5ddef3914a91b089f46974744fb9fe633fb072bb4/Cosmotheoros_KoenHauser_2a.jpg" /> <img width="1920" height="1080" width_o="1920" height_o="1080" data-src="https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/b4712b6af218f190e380b3468400d0e459b8961b8bb2a2ceae57c4ad96cdf5ba/Cosmotheoros_KoenHauser_4.jpg" data-mid="227838684" border="0" src="https://freight.cargo.site/w/1000/i/b4712b6af218f190e380b3468400d0e459b8961b8bb2a2ceae57c4ad96cdf5ba/Cosmotheoros_KoenHauser_4.jpg" /> <img width="1920" height="1080" width_o="1920" height_o="1080" data-src="https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/9d5d7b53ead89bf20ee884307a476b61aa9fd82b43b27cd7df65376ef1fe08bd/Cosmotheoros_KoenHauser_8.jpg" data-mid="227838679" border="0" src="https://freight.cargo.site/w/1000/i/9d5d7b53ead89bf20ee884307a476b61aa9fd82b43b27cd7df65376ef1fe08bd/Cosmotheoros_KoenHauser_8.jpg" /> <img width="1920" height="1080" width_o="1920" height_o="1080" data-src="https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/d00f5fba18fe4241ba113428b6df242dd812d876efc804987f5d11be72407a2d/Cosmotheoros_KoenHauser_5.jpg" data-mid="227838683" border="0" src="https://freight.cargo.site/w/1000/i/d00f5fba18fe4241ba113428b6df242dd812d876efc804987f5d11be72407a2d/Cosmotheoros_KoenHauser_5.jpg" /> <img width="1920" height="1080" width_o="1920" height_o="1080" data-src="https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/0b886f0c4b41eb01669c83c9dc4c3fb679d790d0e9f1cd2d9bcfea53491d33c4/Cosmotheoros_KoenHauser_7a.jpg" data-mid="227838680" border="0" src="https://freight.cargo.site/w/1000/i/0b886f0c4b41eb01669c83c9dc4c3fb679d790d0e9f1cd2d9bcfea53491d33c4/Cosmotheoros_KoenHauser_7a.jpg" /> <img width="1920" height="1080" width_o="1920" height_o="1080" data-src="https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/f3ff1bc08dd77f858723642e7dfe5ca28a7e7615ace59171d07cf2619513cbc0/Cosmotheoros_KoenHauser_7.jpg" data-mid="227838681" border="0" src="https://freight.cargo.site/w/1000/i/f3ff1bc08dd77f858723642e7dfe5ca28a7e7615ace59171d07cf2619513cbc0/Cosmotheoros_KoenHauser_7.jpg" /> <img width="1920" height="1080" width_o="1920" height_o="1080" data-src="https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/aafd5422ad0b15bb6b75727dc7af676591f48e71dd04aab19af8aaaf05c0d612/Cosmotheoros_KoenHauser_6.jpg" data-mid="227838682" border="0" src="https://freight.cargo.site/w/1000/i/aafd5422ad0b15bb6b75727dc7af676591f48e71dd04aab19af8aaaf05c0d612/Cosmotheoros_KoenHauser_6.jpg" /> <img width="1920" height="1080" width_o="1920" height_o="1080" data-src="https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/ee15eb806d4df54652cdc12cbf9b1c585bcbe490f370be0ae390761e01a619b2/Cosmotheoros_KoenHauser_3.jpg" data-mid="227838685" border="0" src="https://freight.cargo.site/w/1000/i/ee15eb806d4df54652cdc12cbf9b1c585bcbe490f370be0ae390761e01a619b2/Cosmotheoros_KoenHauser_3.jpg" /> <img width="1920" height="1080" width_o="1920" height_o="1080" data-src="https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/f6929a21edb6e5badec8af283d81ff59c3d12a1a8fa9652d03b176a0682ad5b7/Cosmotheoros_KoenHauser_9.jpg" data-mid="227838782" border="0" src="https://freight.cargo.site/w/1000/i/f6929a21edb6e5badec8af283d81ff59c3d12a1a8fa9652d03b176a0682ad5b7/Cosmotheoros_KoenHauser_9.jpg" /> <img width="1920" height="1080" width_o="1920" height_o="1080" data-src="https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/25c2b1dc89a320a28b45de63bb1eec2b1ee60399f0f3cf1b108cb886c925eed9/Cosmotheoros_KoenHauser_10.jpg" data-mid="227838783" border="0" src="https://freight.cargo.site/w/1000/i/25c2b1dc89a320a28b45de63bb1eec2b1ee60399f0f3cf1b108cb886c925eed9/Cosmotheoros_KoenHauser_10.jpg" />