Saudade: An Intersection of Art and Archives
Traveling Group Exhibition
Organized by the Expatriate Archive Centre
2018–2019

Twelve Twelve Gallery
The Hague, Netherlands

Atrium
City Hall
The Hague, Netherlands

Boekenhandel Dominicanen
Maastricht, Netherlands

Rotterdam City Archives
Rotterdam, Netherlands

In 2018, the Expatriate Archive Centre celebrated its 10th anniversary as an independent foundation. To mark this milestone, the EAC launched Saudade, an art project showcasing collections acquired by the EAC over the past 10 years. Saudade is a Portuguese word meaning profound longing for something or someone beloved and absent. Since the EAC collects letters, diaries, photographs, and other representations of expat life, these emotions are often represented in the EAC’s collection.

The EAC invited 10 artists who drew inspiration from individual collections in the archive. Each of them worked with a variety of media, including porcelain, gold, rubber, wood, oil and acrylic paints, photography, textiles, and printing. The final artworks were fitted together in the iconic travelling suitcase. The suitcase used for this exhibition was previously owned by EAC’s co-founder Judy Moody-Stuart, and for many years, it travelled with her around the world. It is a reminder of the precious things — both tangible and intangible — that expatriates take with them when they move to a new place.

Alongside the exhibition, the EAC published the book Saudade: An Intersection of Archives and Art. The book has conversations with each artist, images and descriptions of their art pieces, archival pieces that inspired them, essays from historical and artist perspectives, and the full story of the celebrated suitcase.

The Saudade exhibition was on display across multiple locations. It first opened at the Twelve Twelve Gallery in The Hague in 2018. The exhibition then travelled to other cities and was showcased in Maastricht at the Boekenhandel Dominicanen, the Rotterdam City Archives and the Atrium The Hague.

Saudade was made possible by the generous support of Mondriaan Fonds, Stroom Den Haag, and Twelve Twelve Gallery. Special thanks to The Hague Royal Thai Embassy.