Universal Language: Concrete Composure
Groepstentoonstelling
Date: 25 September 2026 – 3 January 2027
Location: Stroom Den Haag
Opening: Friday 25 September
This autumn, Stroom Den Haag presents Universal Language: Concrete Composure, bringing together four international artists — Oladélé Ajiboyé Bamgboyé, Domingo Castillo Flore, Victoria Keddie, Aslı Nur Mahmutoğlu and Rodrigo Ochigame. Through voices and images, cultural objects, pop songs and computational systems, their works explore how language is made, learned and transformed — and what happens as humans, AI and machines increasingly learn from one another.
Museum objects take on a digital life, algorithms become poets, and familiar voices and pop songs take on unexpected meanings. In Unmasking IV, Oladélé Ajiboyé Bamgboyé challenges how cultural objects are interpreted, represented and claimed through digital technology. Rodrigo Ochigame turns to an early poetry algorithm to expose the cultural assumptions embedded in computational systems. Victoria Keddie traces the subtle ways voices influence and adapt to one another, while Aslı Nur Mahmutoğlu’s REAL KARAOKE playfully unsettles the familiarity of pop music, allowing unexpected meanings to emerge.
Together, these works reveal communication as something constantly in motion — between bodies and technologies, histories and cultures. This feels particularly urgent at a moment when translation software, predictive text and AI increasingly shape how we speak, write and understand one another. Rather than embracing the promise of seamless communication, Universal Language: Concrete Composure turns to the gaps and frictions within it: moments of translation, misunderstanding and encounter where meaning can shift and something new can emerge.
The title Concrete Composure points to this tension. Language may promise something universal, yet it is always grounded in particular bodies, places, technologies and histories. The exhibition invites audiences to experience language as something we continually make and remake together — shaped by technology, but never fully determined by it. What might a universal language be if, rather than making us all speak the same way, it creates space for another voice?
Networks of Embodiment
Universal Language: Concrete Composure is part of the Stroom’s Networks of Embodiment programme. In which themes such as language, technology, collective learning, and the relationship between humans and computational systems take centre stage.
The exhibition is accompanied by a public programme of tours, artist talks, performances and workshops. Visit our website and social media for updates.
On Friday, 25 September, Hoogtij takes place from 19:00 to 23:00. Stroom is also taking part: our opening starts at 18:00 and continues into the evening. We are organising an additional program around the exhibition. More information about the program will follow soon.