I Remember - by Mirthe Berentsen & Martin La Roche Contreras

I Remember
by Mirthe Berentsen & Martin La Roche Contreras
curated by: Inez Piso

Beautiful Distress House, Ms. van Riemsdijkweg 41A, 1033 RC, Amsterdam-Noord

October 2 through January 8, 2022

Martin La Roche and Mirthe Berentsen found each other in a search for words. They both participated in the artist-in-residence programme from Beautiful Distress at the psychiatric department of the Kings County Hospital in New York, where they were confronted with the limitations of language. Their journey resulted in this exhibition that deals with the subjective value of memory, questions the constructability of language and translates memories, texts and even words into tangible objects.

Martin La Roche shows work that emerged from the workshops he gave at the Kings County Hospital. He asked the participants to share their experiences, traumas and thoughts through constrained writing and visual exercises. One of them was the renaming of different paint samples with personal associations. Some of these relabelled monochromes are presented in a larger format in the exhibition. He also shows mapped objects he gathered during his time at the hospital within a constellation of the many different collections dominating his practice.

With a background in writing, this is the first time Mirthe Berentsen has translated her practice to physical artworks. Using her personal memories of clearing out her parent’s house after their deaths as a point of departure, she photographed the process of throwing away the domestic residues of a life. All the while, questioning the value of the objects we choose as companions during life. These pictures are presented together with replicas of the discarded objects, executed in ceramics and felt, with the help of Roads, an organisation dedicated to the societal inclusion of people with psychiatric challenges.

In the exhibition, the personal memories and subjective associations of the artists become part of a collective experience. This translation into the collective domain takes place in a sandbox where visitors are welcome to sit down and play with the artworks from the exhibition. This installation is a free interpretation of the Jungian sandplay therapy developed by psychoanalyst Dora Kalff in the 1950s. During this therapy objects are freely placed in a sandbox to create new narratives and overcome trauma, especially when it seems impossible to translate emotions into words.

* To meet the needs of all our visitors, we offer a reduced sensory stimulated experience, weighted objects and earplugs, (sign language) interpreters can be requested and the space is barrier free.

This project is made possible with the generous support of the Mondriaan Fonds and Amsterdamse Fonds voor de Kunst and collaborations with ROADS, the Charles Nypels Lab (Margriet Thissen) of the Jan van Eyck Academie, Studio Zoë Claire Miller and graphics by Dongyoung Lee.

Floor plan and list of works

A. Mirthe Berentsen & Martin La Roche, Sandplay, 2021
Wooden sandbox, 4 x 5 metres.

B. Martin La Roche, String to short to be saved collection, 2014 - ongoing
Objects from the artist’s archive.

C. Mirthe Berentsen, Debris. It is forbidden by Maldivian law to collect coral, shells or sand from the Maldivian waters, 2021
Two shells made of felt, in collaboration with participants of Roads De MeerStek in Hoofddorp.

D. Mirthe Berentsen, The right to be forgotten, 2015-2021
Four pictures on polyplate (made with an iPad Air 2 owned by Sensire Thuiszorg) behind sandblasted glass depicting the selected remains of the artist’s parental home.

E. Mirthe Berentsen, The right to be forgotten, 2021,
Ceramics made in collaboration with participants of Roads Ateliers in Haarlem and studio Zoë Claire Miller in Berlin.

F. Mirthe Berentsen, The right to be forgotten, 2021
Five stories printed on perforated A4 paper.

G. Schatkamer*
Collection of fake jewelry based on a similar hidden room at Kings County Hospital, Brooklyn, New York.

H. Martin La Roche, Mondays Bulletin Board, 202
Remains of the collages, made with found art magazines, that were weekly presented by the artist during his stay on one bulletin board at the Kings County Hospital.

I. Martin La Roche, Gamma colours, 2021
12 Silkscreen prints of renamed paint samples by a therapy group at Kings County Hospital.