differentiaL i ConograPhyThe objective of Shelter 07 was to draw attention to the history of the dutch city
of harderwijk. To achieve this goal, the genealogical significance of the name harder-
wijk, ‘an elevated place offering a safe shelter to refugees in troublesome times’, serves as
the point of departure for this exhibition in public space. The genealogical significance
makes notions such as safety and freedom inextricably bound to harderwijk’s history.
But how did that connection arise? To investigate that question further, eight artists
were invited to produce artistic research projects related to a number of significant
locations for the history of harderwijk. The artists were asked to develop specific
proposals, underscoring the above problematics in an artistic form. interestingly, in
their research projects, a number of related issues and topics emerged.
Jeanne van heeswijk extensively investigated the historical archive of the city of
harderwijk. Based on that investigation, Van heeswijk developed a series of wallpapers
placed on the bricked- up windows of old houses around the church square, retelling
last century’s lingering tales: about the symbolic poet Rimbaud, who lost his identity
as a poet during his stay in harderwijk and vanished in the grand myth of the foreign
legion; about the first big stream of (Belgian) refugees who found temporary shelter
during World War i in camp harderwijk; and about the circulating rumours of missing
passports popping up during the transformation of the azC (Refugee Centre) Jan van
nassaukazerne into luxury condominiums, as proof of the search for shelter in a new,
safe identity for its former inhabitants.
in order to understand site specificity as a medium, lara almarcegui employed an
archaeological method eliciting that which precedes space, i.e. the granting of room.
on the Blokhuisplein, a historical location renowned for its straightness and power,
she created a fallow field presenting a temporary autonomous zone as a dysfunctional,
Figure 19.2 hito steyerl, DeriVeD, 2008.