mastodon 4.8.0-nightly.2026-10-06
Without the stories of the past, we would not have the stories of today.
From June 26 to August 31, Noorderlicht presents What Knots Knot Knots across Friesland, Drenthe, and Groningen. An art project exploring our colonial past and the ways these histories continue to shape the present. What if the history of the Northern Netherlands turns out to be larger, more international, and more relevant than we think?
Today is Keti Koti.
On 1 July, we mark the abolition of slavery in the former Dutch colonies. It is a day of remembrance and celebration.
We believe it is important to make space for stories that have long been overlooked. Art can help us look at the past in different ways and open up conversations about how that past still affects life today.
That is why we continue to make space for these stories, today, and beyond.
What if the city itself were an archive?
Cihad Caner works with video, photography, CGI, and motion capture to explore how images shape the way we see the world.
‘’My research began with a particular interest in the city's gable stones, which can be read as fragments of a public archive dispersed throughout the urban landscape. ‘’
His work will be on view from 26 June at VHDG in Leeuwarden.
Due to the extreme weather conditions forecast for 26 June, we are postponing the opening of What Knots Knot Knots at VHDG Leeuwarden until 4 July.
Opening Friesland
Location: VHDG, Leeuwarden
Date: Saturday 4 July 2026
Time: 16:00–19:00h
What does a cow tell us about colonial history?
Jori(k) Amit Galama is a filmmaker, writer, and visual artist. Their work revolves around embodiment, queer ecology, and the relationship between the individual and closed communities.
https://noorderlicht.com/en/whats-on/wkkk-2
Their work is on view at VHDG Leeuwarden until August 30.
THINKING HANDS
Technology is taking over more and more of what we do, but what do we lose along the way?
Thinking Hands is about the knowledge that lives in the body: in making, in touching, in feeling. The exhibition brings together photographers and image-makers who ask what shifts when technology increasingly takes that over. Knowledge that can't simply be digitised. What does the body know that the mind doesn't?
13 September 2026
THEA, Niemeyer, Paterswoldseweg 43, Groningen
🎉 We have a new Children's Director!
During the opening of What Knots Knot Knots in Groningen, Ino symbolically passed the cap to Hannah. In the new school year, she will take over as our Children's Director!
Hannah is looking forward to making our exhibitions more accessible and easier for children to understand.
Thank you, Ino, for your dedication and enthusiasm over the past year. And Hannah: we're looking forward to working with you!
📷: Tim van der Kuip
How do you portray a history that still echoes through the present?
“Camp Schattenberg was one of the reception sites for demobilised KNIL soldiers and their families. According to the Dutch government, they would be able to return to their homeland after about six months, but that hope gradually disappeared. I wanted to give this part of Dutch history the attention it deserves.”
Read more about Koos Breukel: https://noorderlicht.com/en/wkkk
Vacature: Noorderlicht zoekt een nieuwe kinderdirecteur 2026/2027!
Ben jij 10-12 jaar, dol op kunst & technologie, en woon je in Groningen? Noorderlicht zoekt een nieuwsgierige jonge denker die meehelpt aan onze nieuwe tentoonstellingen en projecten! 🚀
📅 Start: september 2026
✏️ Solliciteer vóór 15 mei
➡️ Meer info & meedoen: https://noorderlicht.com/updates/vacature-kinderdirecteur-2
Prime Minister Rob Jetten visited the Westerbork Memorial Center, where attention was given to the stories of this remarkable place, from the Holocaust to the Molukkan residential settlement Schattenberg.
Together with director Bertien Minco, he also visited the outdoor installation Kinderen van Schattenberg by photographer Koos Breukel, part of What Knots Knot Knots.
What Knots Knot Knots opens this coming Saturday, 4 July, and will be on view until 30 August 2026.
📷: Sake Elzinga
FULLY BOOKED: Portfolio sessions with Roosje Klap
Are you a photographer, lens-based artist, or visual creator looking for personalized advice to present yourself more strongly? In these 1-on-1, 20-minute portfolio sessions, Roosje Klap (Director of Noorderlicht) gives you tailored feedback on your work.
📅 May 15th & June 19th
⏰ Available times:
16:00-16:20
16:20-16:40
16:40-17:00
📍 Where? Noorderlicht, Groningen
Sign up: sent an e-mail to yvonne@noorderlicht.com
📷 : Daniek Snijder
Are you a photographer or lens-based artist in the Northern Netherlands and would you like to be part of a growing network that is stronger together? Join us for the next PhotoSalon on Friday, July 3, at Noorderlicht!
Opening Groningen 🪢
On Sunday, 5 July, What Knots Knot Knots opens at Wall House #2. Will you join us?
Opening Drenthe 🪢
Join us on Saturday, 4 July for the opening of What Knots Knot Knots at Herinneringscentrum Kamp Westerbork.
Join us at Noorderlicht and get ready for Groningen Pride! 🌈
On Friday 19 June we’re hosting Alphabet Soup: an evening of meditation, drawing, soup, and (queer) community.
Free entry, everyone is welcome. Will you join us?
🕔 17:00 Meditation and drawing workshop with @not_yourguru.1990
🕕 18:00 Soup, drinks & sign-making with @rineauvino / @the.pinkcube
Have you already seen ‘Van ons, voor morgen’ at the Fraeylemaborg? You can still visit the exhibition until the end of the month!
📍 Fraeylemaborg, Slochteren
🕒 Opening hours:
Tue–Fri → 10:00 – 17:00
Sat & Sun → 13:00 – 17:00
Made possible in part by BPD Cultuurfonds and the Mondriaan Fund.
Plan your visit to discover how Groningen can change while still remaining itself.
📷: Sebastiaan Rodenhuis
We warmly welcome Musoke Nalwoga as co-curator for our 2026–2027 programme!
As a curator, writer, and researcher, she focuses on photography and other forms of lens-based media. Her practice moves at the intersection of embodied knowledge, making, archiving, and the political power of images, with particular attention to technology and materiality.
Photo by Jantina Talsma
https://noorderlicht.com/updates/musoke-nalwoga-nieuwe-co-curator-2026-2027
What a fantastic PhotoSalon! Last Friday, our gallery was filled with enthusiastic photographers for an afternoon full of conversations, insights, and new connections. We’d love to take a moment to look back with you 😊
With thanks to Pictoright, DuPho, and Roosje Klap. Photos by Daniek Snijder.
Will we see you next time? Keep an eye on our newsletter, website, or socials for the next edition!
Noorderlicht Advent #19: On the occasion of its 70th anniversary exhibition, we presented a pop-up festival together with World Press Photo at the Niemeyer. By bringing together local photographers, critical thinkers, and audiences, the festival invited participants to explore how photographic images communicate and influence understanding, how they engage with assumptions, bias, and narrative frameworks, and how visual stories help shape society.
📷: Tim van der Kuip
What a beautiful start to ESNS Photo! Last Wednesday, we celebrated the opening of the first edition, together with a warm farewell to Wim Melis. Thank you to everyone who joined us, and especially to our partners and the team who made this possible ❤️
Today, the exhibition can still be visited until 18:00, on Saturday from 12:00–18:00, and on Sunday from 12:00–17:00. Can’t make it at those times? No worries! Between 19 and 24 January, we’re open by appointment.
📷: Lucas de Wit
Noorderlicht Advent #21: Today is the very last day to see ‘Rauw Vermogen’. The exhibition opened alongside the premiere of the World Press Photo anniversary exhibition at the Niemeyer and later moved to our gallery. Together with seven emerging photographers from the North, we explored Groningen as it is today and as it might be in the future.
📷: Tim van der Kuip
#noorderlichtadvent #digitaladvent #countdowntochristmas #decemberstories
Reminder: opening ESNS Photo on 14 January
Next week, the ESNS spectacle takes over the city once again. This year, for the first time, we bring music and photography together in ESNS Photo. We present the work of three photographers and their perspective on music. Nick Helderman, Niels Knelis Meijer and Jantina Talsma look as if they are listening and invite you to do the same.
📅 14–18 January 2026
Opening: 14 January, 15:00
Farewell reception Wim Melis: 14 January, 16:30
Noorderlicht Advent #17: At De Proef, ‘Machine Entanglements’ revealed new relationships between humans, machines, and the landscape. What if plants push back against human interventions in nature? 🌱 What if the animal speaks, the algorithm listens, and the landscape responds?
Artwork: Susanne Kriemann, Umberto Diecinove
Photo: Hanne van der Velde
#noorderlichtadvent #digitaladvent #countdowntochristmas #decemberstories
Selected by Noorderlicht: Academie Minerva & FMI Graduates
Each year, Noorderlicht selects a graduate from Academie Minerva or the Frank Mohr Institute who works with lens-based media and whose work demonstrates experimentation, urgency, and a distinct vision on the relationship between image, society, and technology.
This year, Emma Stranáková has been selected for her work Sorela Archív: hand-sewn smocked objects that transform archival images into three-dimensional works.
Noorderlicht Advent #22: New Digital Mirror essay online! 📖 In “To what is left rootbound in emptied ground,” Lilian Anneloes weaves personal observations of gardens and landscapes with a historical analysis of how the taming of so-called “untamed” nature went hand in hand with systems of control and colonisation.
Read the full essay now on our website.
Prefer it on paper? The Machine Entanglements catalogue is available in our webshop.
Noorderlicht Advent #24: As the year comes to rest, we would like to thank everyone who looked, listened, questioned, and thought along with us: makers, partners, and visitors. It has been a beautiful biennial year which we celebrated with many visitors across the three northern provinces. We wish you happy holidays and look forward to what will unfold in the new year✨
📷: David Vroom
#noorderlichtadvent #digitaladvent #countdowntochristmas #decemberstories
Noorderlicht Advent #18: After thirty-five years of involvement with Noorderlicht, head curator Wim Melis is stepping down from the organization he helped build from the very beginning. Last month, Paulien Dresscher sat down with him for an interview.
You can read the full interview on our website: https://noorderlicht.com/en/updates/wim-melis-vijfendertig-jaar-kijken
On Wednesday, January 14, at 16:30h, Noorderlicht invites everyone to the gallery to look back on this period together with Wim.
📷: Philip Apagya
Can bodies remember what archives forget?
Ofri Cnaani works at the intersection of performance, media, and institutional critique.
“Systemic violence is not only recorded in archives or institutions; it can also be carried through bodies, habits, pain, breath, posture and nervous systems.”
Her work will be on view on 5 July at Wall House #2 (Groninger Museum) and, by appointment, from 6 July onwards at Noorderlicht in Groningen.
noorderlicht.com/en/wkkk
Opening Friesland 🪢
We invite you to join us on Friday, 26 June for the opening of What Knots Knot Knots at VHDG in Leeuwarden.
From trillions of tiny organisms to major political questions about land and extraction: come (re)discover the peatlands at Noorderlicht 🌱🔥
On Friday 30 January at 19:00h, Noorderlicht opens the exhibition Het Veenmoeras – The Irish Peatlands through the Female Gaze.
📅 On view from 30 January – 13 February 2026
📍 Noorderlicht Gallery, Akerkhof 12, Groningen
Register via RSVP: https://noorderlicht.com/en/whats-on/het-veenmoeras
Image: Tina Claffey, Frozen Sphagnum, 2018 (detail)
Noorderlicht Advent #20: In the former Niemeyer factory, once a proud symbol of Groningen’s industrial progress, ‘Machine Entanglements’ also explored the shadow side of technological innovation. What if technology is not merely a tool for acceleration, control or extraction, but also a chance to repair, reconnect, and unearth forgotten histories?
Artwork: Thomas Nolf
Photo: Tim van der Kuip
#noorderlichtadvent #digitaladvent #countdowntochristmas #decemberstories
Last Thursday, we opened Het Veenmoeras on Vlieland at Brouwerij Fortuna.
What began as a collaboration during Machine Entanglements is now growing into a recurring space for photography and lens-based media on the island.
Thanks to everyone who joined us, come rain or wind!
Het Veenmoeras, featuring work by Tina Claffey & Bo Scheeringa, is on view until September 1, 2026.
After 35 years, head curator Wim Melis is bidding farewell to Noorderlicht. From the very beginning, he helped shape and build the organisation. Last month, Paulien Dresscher spoke with him about photography, context, and the importance of coherence in a world saturated with images.
https://noorderlicht.com/en/updates/wim-melis-vijfendertig-jaar-kijken
On Wednesday, January 14, at 16:30h, Noorderlicht invites everyone to the gallery to look back on this period. Please email rsvp@noorderlicht.com to register.
📷: Philip Apagya
PHOTOSALON IS BACK!
A space for northern image-makers to connect, learn, and be part of a growing community! Join us at Noorderlicht for an afternoon focused on authorship, rights, and representation.
👀 More programme details on our website
📍 Noorderlicht, Akerkhof 12, Groningen | 16:00–18:00hrs
📩 RSVP via yvonne@noorderlicht.com
Bo Scheeringa | Het Veenmoeras – The Irish Peatlands through the Female Gaze
What happens when centuries-old turf cutting collides with climate policy and environmental legislation?
Those who wish to delve into this landscape and the questions it raises are welcome to join the opening on Friday 30 January at 7:00 PM at Noorderlicht. The exhibition can be visited until 13 February.
Registration for the opening is available via this link: https://www.eventbrite.ie/e/launch-of-het-veenmoeras-the-irish-peatlands-through-the-female-gaze-tickets-1980076081863
We are very happy to welcome Dorine Schreurs as business manager of Noorderlicht.
Dorine has worked for many years in the field of arts and culture and in securing the funding that makes major cultural projects possible. In the past, she has been active as a strategic advisor, business manager, and head of development at a wide range of cultural institutions.
📷: Jantina Talsma
ESNS Photo 2026 🎸 presenting… NICK HELDERMAN
For Nick Helderman, it all began with a camera in his hand and music in his system. As a tour photographer he stood close to the artists, and there he found his intuitive way of seeing, where light and colour seem to talk to each other.
👉 See his work at ESNS Photo 2026, 14–17 January at Galerie Noorderlicht.
What is the Noorderlicht team reading, watching, listening to, and playing this summer? We asked everyone to share a favourite book, a good podcast, a film or series, and an album they can’t get enough of.
A list of personal summer recommendations, then. For your holiday, a long train journey, a rainy afternoon, or simply a quiet evening on the sofa. Maybe you’ll discover something new!
https://noorderlicht.com/en/updates/favorieten-van-team-noorderlicht
Noorderlicht Advent #23: In the autumn of 2025, we celebrated 70 years of World Press Photo at Noorderlicht with ‘What Have We Done? Unpacking Seven Decades of World Press Photo’, an exhibition that invited us to pause and reflect on images from the past and how their meanings continue to shift. What do these photographs tell us today, and how might we re-read their stories today?
📷: Tim van der Kuip
#noorderlichtadvent #digitaladvent #countdowntochristmas #decemberstories