For a story to be heard, it needs to be told. Who is permitted to tell stories, who feels empowered enough to take the stage to do so and who we trust to tell the ‘true’ story is closely related to their perceived social status. It is through storytelling that there is a power attributed to the teller of the story; they yield the power to define the things, people and events they speak about. It is through the narrative generated by these stories that our perception of the object of the story can be altered. It is through the marginalization of people that we in turn also marginalize voices, reserving our understanding of truth to a singular Western scientific understanding.
The Day It Rains Jellyfish Part III: On re-evaluating value investigates the assignment of social and political value to human beings, and questions its relation to the power hierarchy that is embedded within knowledge production, story telling and truth-building. To go towards a different understanding of value, we need to overthrow the values that are installed upon us by dominant culture and undermine the patterns that shape our understanding of value. Power influences the ways in which we perceive the truth through allowing only those with the most privileged identity to become tellers of truth while rejecting the proposition of alternative stories. By contesting this monopoly in truth-telling, the exhibition proposes to re-assign value as a form of solidarity.
The artists in this exhibition (re-)tell stories about immigration, exotification, classism, colonialism and the rise of far-right politics, in an attempt to undermine the politics of knowledge production that are based on unjust hierarchies within social value. They look at value structures that are both based on real-life tendencies and imagined worlds that are rooted in the patterns of the collective current and past. On re-evaluating value stands for tearing down oppression embedded in contemporary systems and rebuilding our perception of each other and the world though promoting pluriform storytelling and knowledge production.
In Van Abbehuis, some works are installed that bring together artists from different centuries. The works remain in place and unfold as an ongoing dialogue, where each piece responds to what came before and influences what follows.
This approach can be traced back to the leaded glass work by Toon Berg, installed in the Billiard room in 1926. Like a house holding traces of its previous inhabitants, Van Abbehuis carries past stories, gestures, and uses. Each artist leaves something behind, adding ongoing contributions, materials, and forms that move through the building and reappear across the space. The collection accumulates over time and is connected to its history as well as its current context, so that revisiting earlier works is just as important as establishing new projects.
In 2025, Tom Marioni accumulated in this narrative with the work Café Wednesday through his work The Act of Drinking Beer With Friends is the Highest Form of Art. Mira Dayal responded by transforming the concrete floor; and during a benefit weekend, Cem A. installed Angry Peace Flag on the flagpole. In 2026, Olivier Goethals created the installation Duif. Through this work, he makes an intervention that interconnects both the role of the host and the visitor, responding to the historic entrance like a silent host.
