This might not be the most groundbreaking text, nor the most visually pleasing one - yet it stuck with me from the first time I read it. This text was the accompanying essay for an exhibition I saw at Het HEM, an exhibition space in an old bullet factory in Zaandam, The Netherlands. The space is big and industrial but curator Van Saarloos (who is also the writer of the text) managed to make an open, welcoming and at times intimate exhibition. And for me, they managed to convey this character of openness and intimacy in the essay as well.
The most striking part about this text for me is, that it was one of the first texts I read that really implemented the personal and anecdotes in a curatorial essay in an interesting and thought-through way. In this text, I feel that the personal, the site-specificity and the metaphors are very well implemented and give the essay strength. They helped me to grasp the context and the subject-matter better, which proves to me that the way of writing is supportive to the text. This text gave me the insight that a curatorial text can and may be personal and that this can actually benefit the text as well as the exhibition.
