Raquel van Haver paints with oil, tar, chalk, ash and bottle caps—but above all, with memory. Her work uncovers the missing links in our collective histories: from the Cape Verdean community in Rotterdam to personal tales of migration, belonging, and everyday life.

The real libraries of the world are kept by the storytellers of communities. Only the stories that are remembered survive.

— Raquel van Haver

In this video, Van Haver takes us into her layered process. Before the paint touches the canvas, she listens. To voices. To silence. To stories that live in memory, not in books.

Poster

All Directions

This artwork is part of the exhibition All Directions. In this exhibition you discover more about identity and happiness, about crossing borders and being forced to flee, about saying goodbye and coming home. Read more about All Directions.