OPEN LETTERS 2026 — “Ev şîwen û şahî tew’eman in” by Ibrahim Kurt

On view: Monday 6 July – Wednesday 5 August
Opening: Friday 10 July, 18:00
Next week we will install the fourth Open Letter of 2026! We proudly present “Ev şîwen û şahî tew’eman in / These sorrows and festivities are twins” by Ibrahim Kurt.

The Open Letter moves through multiple layers of belonging: from the intimacy of family and the embroidered objects of the home, to the terrain of his birth village Qele and Kurdish identity as a whole.

You are welcome to join us on Friday 10 July at 18:00, to celebrate the opening together!

Ibrahim will be joined by Milo Sharafeddine  from Al Mahabba Publishing House  in conversation about the work behind his Open Letter, created during his time at the ARCUS Artist in Residence Program in Ibaraki, Japan, in 2025. The two will discuss the themes and context of the work, their current collaboration, and Al Mahabba’s latest print on speculative Lebanese iconography, which will be available at the event, alongside an assortment of objects the artists have brought from home and elsewhere, tangible companions to a conversation about abstract images of home.

Ibrahim Kurt was born in Qele, and is currently living in The Hague. His work is rooted in fragmented diasporic memories. Within his projects are memories of his home village and the tradition woven into its people, its houses, and its soil. The shape and fabric of Ibrahim’s work is an ode and a reflection of the labor that constructed his childhood and family life.

Milo Sharafeddine is a Lebanese illustrator, and one half of Al Mahabba Publishing House with Jana Assaad. Al Mahabba, or دار المحبة للنشر, an art collective and alternative publishing initiative based in Den Haag. Working across text, image, object, and program, they seek to experiment with the format of publication, guided by curiosity to create transformative and collaborative works.

Open Letters is an annual project offering artists and writers in The Hague a platform to share urgent and vulnerable messages.