FOMU Fotomuseum

When the body says Yes is an immersive video installation by melanie bonajo (them/their). bonajo brought together a group of international genderqueer people, many with a bicultural identity, to cast a collective spell in the form of a pleasure-positive camp where “skinship” is celebrated. When the body says Yes is a gentle invitation to let yourself be transported on a journey of discovery.

With this installation artist, filmmaker, sexological bodyworker, somatic sex coach and educator, hug workshop leader, and activist melanie bonajo represented the Netherlands at the 2022 Venice Biennale. The work was commissioned by the Mondriaan Fonds and curated by the team of Orlando Maaike Gouwenberg, Geir Haraldseth and Soraya Pol. The installation is a collaboration with Théo Demans.

For nearly five decades, Magnum photographer Susan Meiselas (US, 1948) has been using her camera to bear witness and to connect with people. Meiselas has travelled the world and focused on a wide range of subjects, from the sex industry to war and human rights violations.

Today, Meiselas is considered to have paved the way for both photography that is politically engaged, systematically documented, reflected on and contextualised, and that which closely involves the subjects in the work.

For 'Grace Ndiritu Reimagines the FOMU Collection', British-Kenyan artist Grace Ndiritu constructs an original photographic universe of paintings, textiles and interior design inspired by female artists O’Keeffe, Modotti and Albers. It represents a radical and holistic reinterpretation of the classic collection exhibition, that uses an extensive wooden architecture as a type of ‘spiritual technology’.

Ndiritu’s photographic installation A Quest for Meaning: Painting as a Medium of Photography (2014) formed the springboard for her exploration of the FOMU Collection and the ensuing exhibition. Ndiritu uses free association to combine photographs and coloured walls. Her surprising amalgams give fresh meaning to works by, among others, Alexandre, Bianca Baldi, Samuel Bourne, Dirk Braeckman, Alvin Langdon Coburn, Lynne Cohen, Gilbert Fastenaekens, Gertrude Fehr, Geert Goiris, Willy Kessels, Rinko Kawauchi, Man Ray, Auguste Salzmann, Filip Tas, Nadine Tasseel and Wolfgang Tillmans.

Join the introductory tour through the exhibition 'Mediations' by Susan Meiselas. The tour starts at 14:00 (until 15:30) and is free of charge when you present a valid entrance ticket.

Join the indroductory tour through the FOMU collection presentation, reimagined by artist Grace Ndiritu. The tour starts at 14:00 (until 15:30) and is free of charge when you present a valid entrance ticket.

A ticket is required to visit the exhibitions at FOMU Fotomuseum.
Get your ticket here.