Shop To Let

In collaboration with Arno Boey, we embarked on an artistic project with the students of Campus Kompas, a secondary school, where they were invited to create new publicity boards reflecting their ‘home language’ and personal interpretations of what ‘home’ means to them. Through images, signs, and text in various languages, the students sought to engage passers-by on Gallaitstraat in an intercultural dialogue, making visible the diversity of voices in the neighborhood. 

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Since 2022, as part of our residency at Gallait 80, Arno Boey and I have been leading the project Shop to Let with the students of Campus Kompas. While exploring Gallaitstraat, the students uncovered traces of old shops and façade advertisements from times past—symbols that brought the interior life of these buildings to the public eye. These advertisements once acted as badges, offering a glimpse of what lay behind the walls.

Inspired by these light panels, we developed the idea to create a new collection of advertisements, but this time reflecting the languages spoken by the students in their homes. The billboards now display words and phrases from their ‘home languages,’ marking a shift from the private, hidden language of the home to a visible, public declaration on the street. Where these languages are usually confined to the spaces behind façades, they now fill the street with their presence, creating a vibrant intercultural dialogue.

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Equipped with disposable cameras, etching tools, and microphones, the students documented what "home" looks and feels like to them. They captured not only images of their homes but also the sounds and stories that define these personal spaces. The project asked them to reflect on their identities and the stories they want to bring forward from behind their façades, revealing what resonates inside their homes and what they wish to share with the outside world.