Cows at a Puddle

Seeing a city as a container of diverse stories - stories embedded in archival images, historical information and the landscape - makes the exhibition Cows at a puddle a site-specific, museum-like project for the city of The Hague. By collecting different viewpoints, both local and non-local, the exhibition attempts to present multiple stories about the city.

The title of the exhibition, Cows at a puddle, is inspired by Gerard Bilders' The Hague School painting Cows at a puddle. Held at Pulchri Studio, a historic venue where the Hague School of Painting flourished and actively shaped the city's artistic landscape, the exhibition explores the dynamic relationship between artists and their surroundings. Just as the Hague School's colour palette was influenced by the city's weather, the artists also played a key role in establishing institutions such as Pulchri Studio and Kunstmuseum Den Haag. By revisiting the history of Hague School painting, the exhibition explores how the city continues to shape artistic practices today and how contemporary artists relate to their surroundings through their work.

In this exhibition, five selected works from an open call are presented alongside two commissioned works curated by the exhibition team. As the selection process of the open call is still ongoing, only the commissioned works are presented here.