Closed Cycles, 2025
project collaboration Non Linear Narrative and Interior Architecture and Furniture Design
For NWO Life 2025, the Dutch Research Council (NWO) partnered with the Royal Academy of Art (KABK), The Hague, inviting first-year students from the master Non Linear Narrative and fourth-year students from the bachelor Interior Architecture and Furniture Design to engage with the NWO research programme Closed Cycles. This programme explored the transition to a circular economy through the interplay of water, agriculture, energy, and biodiversity. In collaboration with seven scientists from the NWO network, students created material experiments and compelling narratives that explore how scientific research is collected, evaluated, and communicated. The exhibition Closed Cycles brought together 14 of these unique, interdisciplinary perspectives and was on display again from 1 to 8 July 2025 at Paradise, The Hague.
student participants: Silvia Bovo, Anna Brescianini, Fabianna Flores Sanchez, Sasha Goloborodko, Tash Harris, Cecilia Iaconelli, Marina Maschek, Maria Mombers, Luca Oosterloo, Ellen Owens and Claire Santen; project supervision in collaboration with Martijn Bal, Lada Hrsak, Maartje Nevejan, Evaline Schot, Niels Schrader, belit sağ and Jos Wendrich; exhibition design: Shapeshifters and Spacebenders
Exhibition view. – Photos by Roel Backaert
Bezuinigingen by Sasha Goloborodko.
Speaking Soil by Tash Harris and Marina Maschek.
Flyber by Maria Mombers.
Visitors at the Closed Cycles exhibition.
Roots of Change by Anna Brescianini and Fabianna Flores.
We Will Outlive You by Luca Oosterloo.
Visitors at the Closed Cycles exhibition.
How Can We Reimagine Concrete as a Dynamic, Active or Living Material? by Ellen Owens and Claire Robin Santen.
Insects on the Menu? A Visual Exploration of Food, Science and Collective Imagination by Silvia Bovo and Cecilia Iaconelli.
Suraya Latul and Julius Dusch in conversation with visitors.
