Room with doors
1888 - 2020

Photographic 5-tych
Textile prints, 166 x 250 cm each

It was not possible to enter or leave the school unnoticed. The former classrooms were connected through a line of open doors, making each room interlinked and accessible to a clergyman who “sees through” the building and monitors all movements of pupils from one point of view. Influencing behaviour through the idea of being watched, the architecture of this “hallway-panopticon” is an educational system in itself. It teaches students how to conduct in response to this all-pervading observation.

Blueprint of the school building (1888), scan from Nederland naar School: Twee Eeuwen Bouwen voor Veranderend Onderwijs, NAI Uitgevers, (Rotterdam, 1996)

Room with doors (1888-2020) is part of the solo-exhibition
This Creaking Floor and All the Ceilings Below,

FOTODOK & Casco Art Institute: Working for the Commons,
Lange Nieuwstraat 7, Utrecht (NL)
06.03.20 - 14.06.20