Saudade – An Intersection of Archives and Art

Did you know? Next year the Expatriate Archive Centre (EAC) celebrates its 10th anniversary!

It’s been ten years since the founders registered the EAC as an independent archive and published The Sourcebook. So we thought that to celebrate ten years of the EAC we would publish another book. But not just any book–a book documenting a very special project designed to expand the way the archive can be used and show us our collection from a new perspective.

Introducing Saudade: An Intersection of Archives and Art. We have invited ten different artists to each choose a piece from our collection and use it as inspiration for an art piece. In keeping with our expat theme, all of the art pieces will have to fit into our iconic archive suitcase.

Five of the artists live internationally and five reside in The Hague. However, several of the artists in The Hague also have international roots. The artists are Euf Lindeboom, Janne van Gilst, Masaaki Oyamada, Thomas Nondh Jansen, Natalie McIlroy, Carla Wright, Christopher Squires, Kevin Andrew Morris, Monique Prinsloo, and Nico Angiuli. Natalie McIlroy, a Scottish artist who works out of The Hague, is the Artistic Director for Saudade, as well as one of the artists. Fonds Mondriaan recently agreed to fund the project, and we are also seeking funding from various other sources.

The artists have all chosen their archival pieces, and are blogging about their artistic journey on the Saudade website, eacanniversary.com, which also contains information and up-to-date announcements. The suitcase, art, and book will be on display at the Twelve Twelve Gallery in The Hague from April 10-15 2018, and then go on tour to archives and book stores throughout the Netherlands, from the Rotterdam City Archives to Boekhandel Dominicanen in Maastricht. If your institution is interested in hosting Saudade next year, please contact the EAC at pr@xpatarchive.com.