As a succession of experiences that satisfy our needs and cause the poetry of sensations to fade, our daily lives can seem drenched in the banal and mechanical. Yet through careful observation, these everyday souvenirs can become rich, unique, and singular sensations worthy of being cherished and held onto. Such reflections attempt to capture memories through our senses, and thus through our entire being, transforming them into vessels of the authentic and deeply personal. Like Proust’s madeleine, these sensations are often evoked by objects that recall their (often hidden) stories: a piece of furniture, a color, a space, a form …

The exhibition at the Van Abbehuis, titled In Search of …, is inspired by the Proustian exploration of memory and investigates the countless fragments of our forgotten experiences. Artists and designers are invited to experiment and create new works using everyday objects as a starting point. Through processes of deconstruction and transformation, folding, twisting, pulling, stretching, enlarging, and burning, they reshape these objects, giving new form to their shapes and colors in order to evoke the vibrations and souvenirs they contain, thereby revealing their inherent poetry. A spatial and temporal tension unfolds, where each created piece of furniture testifies to the enduring power of the souvenir and invites us to rediscover the extraordinary within the ordinary.

Like a madeleine steeped in tea on a Sunday morning, visitors are invited to experience the interaction between memory and recollection.

—Marie Hugny