In Make Yourself at Home, Van Abbehuis takes center stage as a place where history, imagination, and creativity converge. The former residence of the Van Abbe family, with its herringbone floors, 1920s décor, and wood-paneled rooms, still bears traces of its residential past. Since being donated to the Municipality of Eindhoven, Van Abbehuis has grown into a hybrid space where encounters take place, and the site is continually re-experienced.

Through a timeline of photographs, newspaper articles, films, and installations, the story of Van Abbehuis’s history is told: from the Van Abbe family and their relationship to their collection, to the contemporary artists who now work there. Florian de Visser investigates vanishing smoke rituals and Eindhoven’s industrial history; Lilia Scheerder’s silent film recounts the roaring twenties, the period in which Van Abbehuis was built; students from TU/e design an “artist in residence”; and Rogier Walrecht’s installation references family life in the billiard room.