Friday and Saturday 12–24h
Sunday 12–22h
Art is our first language. Throughout the year, Het HEM presents a range of temporary art programmes as well as more permanent art installations.
May 7 – 25
There is always music to listen to at Het HEM, with programmes focused on experimental ways to create, present and experience music in the building through listening sessions, live shows, and musical artis-in-residence initiatives.
Come by for a drink and a bite, wine and dine at one of our restaurants Zanini, Bois or get a sandwich at Bakery Solinger,. With good wether we suggest you settle down on our sunny terrace on the Costa del Zaano.
Het HEM loves books. During your visit, come lose yourself in the library's rich selection or discover new favourites in the SANZ Shop.
Situated in a former munitions factory, Het HEM is a new home for contemporary culture.
The building's industrial design and our experimental art programme bring ambience and meaning to every event.
The Great Decline (2019)
The Great Decline, 2019
125 x 214 x 8 cm, Printed circuit boards (PCB), various seeds
Biodiversity is decreasing at a dangerous speed among both animals and plants. With the development of gene banks in seed vaults and time capsules, an attempt is made to safeguard the survival of as many species of plants as possible. In 2008, the Svalbard Global Seed Vault opened in Norway, where spare copies are stored of all seeds that are contained in gene banks elsewhere in the world, a kind of extra backup in case of a regional or worldwide catastrophe.
The work The Great Decline by Maarten Vanden Eynde shows the floor plan of the Svalbard Global Seed Vault, visualised as a copper memory chip, on which a large variety of seeds, collected from different parts of the world, have been placed. Its design is reminiscent of a lukasa, an ancient memory device that was used by the Mbudye council in the Luba kingdom – nowadays part of the Democratic Republic of Congo – to record topographical and historical knowledge about political events, important people, places and mythical migration routes.