Mario Klingemann, The Butcher’s Son, 2017, Giclee printon paper, 80x57cm

Helena Sarin, AI Candy Store, 2018, Fine art print on paper, 20x20cm

David Young, (b38, 4016,16) from Learning Nature series, 2018, Fine art print on paper, 30x30 cm

Harold Cohen, Arnolfini Series, 1983, Plotter drawing, 60x80cm

Obvious, Portrait of Edmond de Belamy, 2018, Inkjet print on canvas, 70x70cm

Roope Rainisto, Emergent Culture from Excessize series, 2022

Spread from Morehshin Allahyari's portfolio in Foam Magazine #66

Foam
Magazine
#66 Missing 
Mirror


our annual print edition

From Innovation to Art: The History of AI Images

During Faking History, speakers will reflect on Panta Rhei, a project in which artist Daan Paans calls into question the assigned value of historical artifacts.

Alongside the artist himself, Martin Berger (curator Middle and South America at Museum of Ethnology, Leiden) and Saba Askary (researcher in the field of classical historiography and contemporary art) will introduce their unique perspectives to the discussion. Daan Paans will speak about his project and artistic practice in conversation with curator Mirjam Kooiman (Foam).
PROGRAMME
<ul>
<li>19.00 &ndash; 19.15 Spoken Column by Martin Berger</li>
<li>19.15 &ndash; 20.00 Daan Paans in conversation with Mirjam Kooiman</li>
<li>20.00 &ndash; 20.20 Lecture by Saba Askary</li>
<li>20.20 &ndash; 20.30 Questions &amp; discussion</li>
</ul>
<a href="/book-a-visit/public/faking-history/21-02-2019">&gt; Tickets</a>
ABOUT FOAM 3H: DAAN PAANS - PANTA RHEI In the opening scene of Indiana Jones &ndash; Raiders of the Lost Ark (1981), the fictional archaeologist Indiana Jones manages to obtain the coveted Golden Idol from a hidden temple deep in the Peruvian jungle. This magical film prop is based on a pre-Columbian statuette from the Dumbarton Oaks Museum in Washington, that allegedly represents the Aztec goddess Tlazolteotl. Research has revealed that this figurine is not pre-Columbian after all, but was most likely produced in Europe or Asia in the nineteenth Century. Paans was captivated by the confusion between replica and original, and how the museum assigned value to this object.&nbsp;The artist continued this cultural mutation in a kind of visual version of &lsquo;Chinese whispers&rsquo;: based on photos, Paans let artisans from various countries created a new replica, transforming the sculpture. Paans visualised&nbsp;how our interpretations change imperceptibly over time and questions the value we assign to artworks and historical artefacts.
<a href="/museum/programme/daan-paans">&gt; Exhibited at Foam 3h until 24 February 2019</a>
The project Panta Rhei by Daan Paans was developed with support from the Mondriaan Fund.
The Foam 3h exhibitions are made possible with support from the Gieskes-Strijbis Fund, the Van Bijlevelt Foundation and Kleurgamma Fine-Art Photolab.
Foam is supported by the BankGiro Loterij, De Brauw Blackstone Westbroek, Foam Members, Gemeente Amsterdam, Olympus and the VandenEnde Foundation.
ABOUT SABA ASKARY Saba Askary is an Iranian born, U.A.E raised curator active in the fields of classical historiography and contemporary art in Amsterdam. Askary first received a BFA from OCADU in Toronto, CA and further achieved her post-graduate in History and Art World Practice from the University of Glasgow and Christie&rsquo;s Education. Currently Askary is Content and Development Manager at Unseen Platform.
&nbsp;
ABOUT MARTIN BERGER Martin Berger is curator Middle and South America. His research interest lies in global flows of people and objects, indigenous forms of representation, (ethnographic) museums and collections histories, and popular culture. Berger studied Latin American Archaeology and Ethnography at Leiden University and obtianed his PhD in 2016. Since then, he has curated numerous exhibitions all over the world.

<div class="sidebar__content">Event info 
Thursday 21 February 2019 19.00 - 20.30 hrs PRICE &euro;7,00 regular rate &euro;5,00&nbsp;<a href="/about/memberships" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Foam Fan</a>/<a href="/about/memberships" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Club</a>/<a href="/about/foam-fund" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Fund</a> *including&nbsp;museum admission
 LANGUAGE English</div>

Faking History

Spanish artist Laia Abril (1986) is the fourteenth winner of the Foam Paul Huf Award. With her work, Abril tells intimate stories that evoke uncomfortable and hidden realities and often deal with inequality between the sexes and oppression of women.

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Chastity Belt, 2019, On Rape

Shrinky Recipe, 2019, On Rape

Laia Abril On Rape: A History of Misogyny, Chapter Two

Mooncake, Foam Café, Amsterdam

Spread from Chinees-Indisch Stickeralbum

Cahier for Benjamin Li's In Search of Perfect Orange - Chinese Version

Chinese version

Liz Johnson Artur - of life of love of sex of movement of hope, 2021

In Search of Perfect Orange. About the work of Benjamin Li

, an exhibition that features work from Dutch photographers who captured the consequences of the German occupation during the 1944-45 ‘famine winter’ in Amsterdam. 

De verborgen camera van fotograaf Cas Oorthuys, mei 1945

Twee vrouwen op de terugweg van een hongertocht begin 1945

Illegale opname vanuit fietstas van commandopost Kriegsmarine, genomen vanaf het Emmaplein de Emmalaan in, Amsterdam, 1944

Afsluiting Jodenbuurt bij de Waag, Nieuwmarkt, Amsterdam, 1941

“The exhibition The Underground Camera captures the hunger and hardship in Amsterdam during the final year of World War II, but also sheds light on the untold stories behind the images, offering fresh perspectives.”

De Ondergedoken Camera

Aby Fulani

Aspromonte - Guilty Grounds, 2023

The barrel – Guilty Grounds, 2023

Silent Chronicles. About the work of Steffi Reimers

Foam proudly presents the solo exhibition 

by Hiền Hoàng, which encourages a multi-sensory reflection on the connection between humans and nature. Her practice is deeply shaped by interdisciplinary collaborations with scientists and technologists which reveal the ambivalent role of technology as both a means to understand nature and a force that distances us from it. 

Scent from Heaven, Still from the Film No. 3, 2023

A new best life, 2021

A scan from the Photo album of the artist's late aunt.

Made in Rice, backstage from the left video, 2021.

Lidar-Mesh from the experiment, 2024

Hiền Hoàng - Garden of Entanglement

A still from Wild Encounters, 2023

"At a certain point I lost track of you. 
They make a desolation and call it peace. 
when you left even the stones were buried: 
the defenceless would have no weapons." 

"When the ibex rubs itself against the rocks, 
who collects its fallen fleece from the slopes? 
O Weaver whose seems perfectly vanished, 
who weighs the hairs on the jeweller’s balance?"

"If only somehow you could have been mine, 
what would not have been possible in the world?" 

‘In the lake the arms of temples and mosques are locked in each other’s reflections.  
Have you soaked saffron to pour on them when they are found like this  
centuries later in this country  
I have stitched to your shadow?’ 

How to Love a Tree: Wild Encounter. About the work of Hira Nabi

Page 144-145 in Foam Magazine #64: EXTREMES.

Page 138-139 in Foam Magazine #64: EXTREMES

Page 142-143 in Foam Magazine #64: EXTREMES

Presenting Foam Magazine #64: EXTREMES—The Environmental Issue

Time to change perspective.

Foam Magazine #64 Extremes - The Environmental Issue Cover: Abundance, 2023

On Transience – The Ebb & The Flow

From the Archive:  Establishing Eden by Persijn Broersen & Margit Lukács

Installation shot Mid-Air, Blommers & Schumm

Mid-Air t-shirts by Blommers & Schumm in Foam shop

Studio Visit: Blommers and Schumm

Shine, 2024

Riverside Scene, 2021

Nap, 2021

Albany, Georgia, 2021

Untitled (Two Girls Embrace), 2021

A Glint of Possibility, 2022

Flotation, 2022

Test of Time: Tyler Mitchell

From the series What's Ours © Myriam Boulos

From the series Revolution © Myriam Boulos

From the series Tell The Trees To Smile © Myriam Boulos

From the series Sexual Fantasies © Myriam Boulos

From the series Ongoing War © Myriam Boulos

From the series Post Explosion © Myriam Boulos

Foam Talent now: Myriam Boulous

Communion, 2024. From the series This Isn't Divide and Conquer

The Silk Road, 2022. From the series This Isn't Divide and Conquer

A Dream From Childhood, 2023. From the series This Isn't Divide and Conquer

In a Mine, 2023. From the series This Isn't Divide and Conquer

Escape, 2022. From the series This Isn't Divide and Conquer

Foam Talent x Deutsche Börse Photography Foundation: acquisition of Aaryan Sinha's project

by Ajamu X. On this festive evening, we will explore what it means to archive from Black queer perspectives together with the artist and guest speakers 

. No traditional panel, but a rhythmic, instinctive curated programme filled with space for encounter, nuance and vulnerability.

During this event, artist JeanPaul Paula will show a performance that is physical, concentrated and ritualistic in nature, with the body acting as both a sculptural and political medium.

Ajamu X and JG Basdew, November 2024

JeanPaul Paula, 2025

Bete van Meeuwen, 2025

Black Queer Archiving: Questioned at the Intersection, 2025

Opening Ajamu X - Us in the Frame

From the series: Argania: Lack of Information Is My Family History

MAryam Touzani

Bullets Have No Borders

On Our Radar: Bullets Have No Borders  by Ebrahim Alipoor 

About Cultuur Ferry

exhibitions & programme

plan your visit

about us

see more

Cultuur Ferry

Preservation is Power: AI in the Archive

Come and visit our beautiful canal garden during 

. Foam is happy to join this annual botanical event in Amsterdam, which opens a series of canal gardens, both private and institutional, to the public. Take this opportunity to enjoy our restored garden, which is normally not open to the public. The Foam Café will serve delicious coffee, tea and a variety of sweets.

Open Garden Days play a vital role in keeping historic gardens accessible. Grand old trees, rare plants, beautiful garden houses and both classic and newly landscaped gardens can be admired in the secluded plots, which are rarely, if ever, open to the public.

Tuin

Experience art both within the museum and beyond its walls. In the garden, a selection of seven works by renowned German photographer Karl Blossfeldt will be on view, inviting reflection in dialogue with nature. Adjacent to the garden, visitors can explore our newest exhibition Garden of Entanglement by Hiền Hoàng.

Open Garden Days 2025

Slowly and Then All at Once

Test of Time: Tim Clark

Depredations, from the photobook Radiations of War, 2025, by Yana Kononova. Courtesy the artist.

Test of Time: Daria Tuminas

 weaves together several historical routes: that of his mother, growing up in Botswana after escaping the Apartheid regime of South Africa with her parents. That of his great-uncle, Zephania Mothopeng, the anti-Apartheid activist, imprisoned on Robben Island. And that of his grandfather, and his love for music, inspiring Makepe to pursue a creative career.

What at first glance may appear as a personal family narrative, in fact reveals the painful, racist and discriminatory political history of South Africa and the remnants of its colonial regimes. The series unfolds as a multi-dimensional, visual journey along these historical paths, touching on land dispossession, activism and colonialism.

includes striking portraits of his close relatives, sometimes re-enacting historical scenes, documentary photographs of important landmarks, as well as documents from Makepe’s family archive. Accompanying the visual material is a playlist of music, curated by the artist himself—connecting the work beautifully through the shared love for music. 

Sentlhane, 2022, from the series We Didn't Choose to be Born Here

Monna Wa Mmino III, 2020, from the series We Didn't Choose to be Born Here

Re A Hlopela Tombstone Unveiling from the series We Didn’t Choose to be Born Here, 2019

Archival footage from the series We Didn't Choose to be Born Here

Hippolytus Mothopeng [left] (1958), from the series We Didn't Choose to be Born Here

Hippolytus Mothopeng Citizenship, from the series We Didn't Choose to be Born Here

The Metronome Swing Orchestra in Botswana (1966), from the series We Didn't Choose to be Born Here

Garden, 2022, from the series We Didn't Choose to Be Born Here

The Aunt I Almost Had, 2021, from the series We Didn't Choose to be Born Here

Wait, 2021, from the series We Didn't Choose to be Born Here

Kgomo Tsaka Deile Kae, from the series We Didn't Choose to be Born Here

Kereke, 2019, from the series We Didn't Choose to Be Born Here

Sello, 2021, from the series We Didn't Choose to be Born Here

Martha and Hippolytus Mothopeng (1982), from the series We Didn't Choose to be Born Here

Robben Island University, 2020, from the series We Didn't Choose to be Born Here

Mama Mo Metsi, 2019, from the series We Didn't Choose to be Born Here

Under Surveillance, 2021, from the series We Didn't Choose to be Born Here

Thero Makepe

records the artist’s personal search for her heritage. With little to no information about her family history, MAryam Touzani sets off on a journey tracing the story of her Moroccan ancestry and multicultural upbringing. 

Using her teeth—carriers of one’s unique genetic encoding—as a starting point, MAryam Touzani photographs and assembles all the pieces of evidence she can collect: from dental X-rays and passport images, to her father’s death certificate and colonial maps omitting her ancestor’s region of origin. In her investigation where answers do not seem to come straightforward, photography becomes a poetic tool, allowing Touzani to reconstruct her past, in order to imagine her future.  

The title refers to the scientific name of the argan tree, one of the oldest existing trees growing in the Sous valley in southwestern Morocco. Traditionally, the fruits are processed into argan oil by women from the local Amazigh community. As an Amazigh woman, but born and raised in The Netherlands, MAryam Touzani uses the symbol of the argan tree to trace back her roots and honour her female ancestors. 

Smile

Denture

From the series Argania: Lack of Information is my Family History

If I take care of you, will u stay with me for a lifetime

Go fix it

From the series Argania: Lack of Information Is My Family History

Laugh MAryam laugh

Land of Afrika

Teeth bus stop

Behind the Abri

Traceable

After encountering the powerful texts of psychiatrist Frantz Fanon on the fight against colonial injustice, a series of questions emerged inside Issam Larkat’s mind. Who was Frantz Fanon and how did he become a crucial figure in the liberation of Algeria, as well as the broader movement of decolonialisation? How relevant are his words after seventy years? And, which questions would Fanon have asked in today’s society? 

Frantz Fanon (1925-1961) was an important figure in the global struggle against colonialism during the 1950s, also known under the adopted Islamic name Omar Ibrahim, and recognised for his publications 

(1961). Born on the Caribbean island Martinique, under French colonial rule, Fanon educated as a psychiatrist in France. After the Algerian Revolution in 1954, he joined the National Liberation Front and continued to fight for the freedom of many African nations, including Algeria, until his death in 1961.

Inspired by the profound legacy of Fanon’s visionary ideas, Issam Larkat’s series 

pays a tribute to his thinking by using a distinct style that combines photographs, archival images and hand-made drawings. Larkat cleverly translates his questions into critical collages that depart from his own experience in Algeria, yet simultaneously speak to the universal struggle against injustice and (neo-)colonialism, connecting the shared identities of Algerian, African and Arab people. 

From the series Frantz Fanon, Me, and The Questions

Issam Larkat

from the series Las Flores Mueren Dos Veces

 is a personal exploration of loss, grief and reconciliation following the death of the artist’s father. Through various tools of digital creation and manipulation, Cristóbal Ascencio created a poetic exploration of his personal memories, altering family photos and recreating the last garden his father worked on.  

Fifteen years after his father passed away, Cristóbal Ascencio learned that his death had been a suicide. The last words of Margarito’s farewell letter stated: “Forgive me and communicate with me.” This new piece of information triggered Ascencio to revisit the images, places and memories connected to his family history.  

In an attempt to answer his father’s final request, he digitally recreated a collection of plants based on his father’s instructions as well as an immersive garden, where the plants function as a bridge between past and present. Using different digital techniques, such as ‘data bending’, photogrammetry and 3D modelling, Ascencio plays on the idea that our memories are manufactured, manipulated and corrupted over time.  

Margarito, from the series Las Flores Mueren Dos Veces. Data bending on archival photography.

Nacer, from the series Las Flores Mueren Dos Veces. Databending on archival photography.

Bromelia, from the series Las Flores Mueren Dos Veces. Digital photography and photogrammetry

Wedding, from the series Las Flores Mueren Dos Veces. Databending on archival photography.

Letter, from the series Las flores mueren dos veces

Monstera Deliciosa, from the series Las Flores Mueren Dos Veces. Digital photography and photogrammetry

Burial, from the series Las Flores Mueren Dos Veces. Data bending on archival photography.

Birthday, from the series Las Flores Mueren Dos Veces. Databending on archival photography.

Tagetes Erecta, from the series Las Flores Mueren Dos Veces. Digital photography and photogrammetry

Lucha Libre, from the series Las Flores Mueren Dos Veces. Databending on archival photography.

from the series Las floren mueren dos veces

Cristóbal Ascencio

history

From Innovation to Art:
The History of AI images

Faking History

Laia Abril On Rape: A History of Misogyny, Chapter Two

In Search of Perfect Orange
About the work of Benjamin Li

The Underground Camera

Silent Chronicles
About the work of Steffi Reimers

Hiền Hoàng
Garden of Entanglement

How to Love a Tree: Wild Encounters
About the work of Hira Nabi

On Transience – Theme Text Foam Magazine #64: EXTREMES–The Environmental Issue

Establishing Eden by Persijn Broersen & Margit Lukács

Studio Visit: Blommers & Schumm

I Can Make You Feel Good by Tyler Mitchell

Myriam Boulos: Foam Paul Huf Award Winner 2025

Foam Talent x Deutsche Börse Photography Foundation: acquisition of Aaryan Sinha's project This Isn't Divide and Conquer

Opening Ajamu X Us in the Frame

MAryam Touzani

Bullets Have No Borders by Embrahim Alipoor

Cultuur Ferry

Open Garden Days 2025

Test of Time: Slowly and Then All at Once by Andy Sewell

Test of Time: Depredations by Yana Kononova

Thero Makepe

MAryam Touzani

Issam Larkat

Cristóbal Ascencio

history

From Innovation to Art: The History of AI images

Faking History

Laia Abril On Rape: A History of Misogyny, Chapter Two

In Search of Perfect OrangeAbout the work of Benjamin Li

The Underground Camera

Silent ChroniclesAbout the work of Steffi Reimers

Hiền Hoàng Garden of Entanglement

How to Love a Tree: Wild EncountersAbout the work of Hira Nabi

On Transience – Theme Text Foam Magazine #64: EXTREMES–The Environmental Issue

Establishing Eden by Persijn Broersen & Margit Lukács

Studio Visit: Blommers & Schumm

I Can Make You Feel Good by Tyler Mitchell

Myriam Boulos: Foam Paul Huf Award Winner 2025

Foam Talent x Deutsche Börse Photography Foundation: acquisition of Aaryan Sinha's project This Isn't Divide and Conquer

Opening Ajamu X Us in the Frame

MAryam Touzani

Bullets Have No Borders by Embrahim Alipoor

Cultuur Ferry

Open Garden Days 2025

Test of Time: Slowly and Then All at Once by Andy Sewell

Test of Time: Depredations by Yana Kononova

Thero Makepe

MAryam Touzani

Issam Larkat

Cristóbal Ascencio

From Innovation to Art:
The History of AI images

In Search of Perfect Orange
About the work of Benjamin Li

Silent Chronicles
About the work of Steffi Reimers

Hiền Hoàng
Garden of Entanglement

How to Love a Tree: Wild Encounters
About the work of Hira Nabi