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House of the Future III: Fertile Grounds

Group Exhibition

OpenArtExchange presents the group exhibition, House of the Future III - Fertile Grounds featuring works by six contemporary artists. We warmly invite you to the opening on Saturday, November 8th at 3 PM at OpenArtExchange, Hoogstraat 85 Schiedam. 

The exhibition will be on view until Saturday, December 20th, 2025. 

Project House of the Future 

In June 2025, OpenArtExchange launched its House of the Future Project - a program dedicated to imagining the world of tomorrow, with the challenges and possibilities it represents. Through a series of exhibitions and events, we explore the city of the future as a vibrant, sustainable, and diverse space. Fertile Grounds marks the third and final chapter in this exploration, turning our attention to our roots and common heritage. 

House of the Future III - Fertile Grounds

In Fertile Grounds, we ask: what roots sustain us, and how can we cultivate them for the future? What do we inherit from the past, and what do we leave behind for generations to come? Through the works of six contemporary artists, Fertile Grounds explores the delicate balance between tradition, nature, morality, and transformation. Sanda Amadou and Yao Metsoko invite us to reflect on our relationship with the natural world, drawing on ancestral knowledge, sacred landscapes, and mythic forces that guide sustainable living. Sapate Doudou and Tchif Tchiakpe probe moral and social values, blending abstraction, figuration, and symbolism to confront injustice, dualities, and the harmonies that bind communities together. Freddy Tsimba transforms remnants of conflict into poetic sculptures, prompting us to consider the legacies we leave behind and how the lessons of yesterday can nourish the futures of tomorrow. Anna Nunes van den Hoven examines the intersections of tradition, gender, and inclusion, reimagining spaces for women and girls and opening pathways for equitable, imaginative, and just futures. Fertile Grounds encourages reflection on heritage, memory, and the ways we can cultivate a world that is vibrant, resilient, and fertile for generations to come.


Participating Artists 

Sanda Amadou (1978)

Benin

Sanda Amadou’s work explores the connection between humans, nature, and the sacred, rooted in the nomadic Fulani tradition. Using a semi-abstract visual language, he evokes sacred forests and ancestral wisdom, reminding us that nature’s cycles can guide the societies of tomorrow. In Fertile Grounds, his work calls for a renewed respect for ecological and spiritual balance as the foundation of a sustainable future.


Sapate Doudou (1982)

Angola

Sapate Doudou blends abstraction and figuration in dreamlike compositions that confront social and moral questions. Using vivid colors and symbolic forms, he explores empathy and the search for inner balance admist the world's chaos and violences. In Fertile Grounds, his works urge us to reflect on the values that sustain our shared humanity.

Yao Metsoko (1965)

France/Togo

Yao Metsoko's works seeks to bridge the visible and invisible, the material and spiritual. For Fertile Grounds, he presents La Pyramide de la Vie — a monumental installation inspired by Togolese Asafo traditions. Through wood, clay, and glass, he explores life, diversity, dialogue, and spirituality as the roots of harmony. His work invites us to rediscover our humble place within the living ecosystem.


A. Nunes van den Hoven (1993)

Portugal/Netherlands

Anna Nunes van den Hoven explores gender, ecology, and tradition through painting and sculpture. Drawing from fieldwork in São Tomé, she creates spaces where women and girls reclaim visibility and agency. In Fertile Grounds, her work reimagines tradition as a source of care and inclusion, sowing the seeds for more equal and imaginative futures.


Tchif Tchiakpe (1973)

Benin

Tchif Tchiakpe’s abstract and symbolic paintings express the rhythm and energy of life through lines, shapes, and color. In his recent figurative works, Tchif explores balance between light and darkness, chaos and harmony. Within Fertile Grounds, his work becomes a meditation on moral and spiritual balance, addressing humanity's contradictions as a path for renewal and hope.


Freddy Tsimba (1967)

DRC

Working with found materials such as bullet casings and scrap metal, Freddy Tsimba transforms remnants of conflict into powerful sculptures of life and renewal. His art speaks of memory, resilience, and the traces we leave behind. Through his Found Objects series, Tsimba links past, present, and future, questioning the imprints we leave for generations to come.