Kunsthuis SYB

Think of the resistance in the Second World War. How many of the images that now spring to mind come from a Dutch film or from an exhibition you once saw in one of the 25 national war and resistance museums? An entire generation has grown up with images of the war and the resistance that have been selected and edited to some degree. Including the artist and writer Pieter Paul Pothoven (1981). From 26 March – 7 May, he will be working in Kunsthuis SYB on a story about a generation of brothers and sisters whose lives are still influenced by the Second World War, even though they were born in the 1980s. One continues to seek out the war; the other wants nothing to do with it. All are marked by the legacy of their grandfather Wim; a laureled resistance fighter, yet also a man with a reprehensible shadow life that turned out to be incompatible with the prevailing image of the righteous, male war hero. Wim died as an outcast.

In Peter Paul Pothoven’s work, the object is central as a tangible, silent witness of a history that speaks to the imagination, but simultaneously keeps escaping our grip. In his latest project, De Familie Kool, the artist and writer explores through means of fiction, film and installation, the personal histories of a generation that has grown up in the shadow of an ambiguous resistance fighter. On 4 and 5 May, Pieter Paul will present the (interim) results of this project at Kunsthuis SYB. Later in 2015, the artist will conclude the project with a book that will be produced and published in collaboration with the Jan van Eyck Academie and Kunsthuis SYB.

Pieter Paul Pothoven (1981) studied at the Gerrit Rietveld Academie and Parsons The New School of  Design (New York). He is currently at the Jan van Eyck Academie in Maastricht.