The Couch has been wrapped in plastic to protect it from dust while it’s in holiday mode. We are pausing all publishing activities while we are exploring possibilities for a future home for The Couch. Meanwhile, you can unwrap it to enjoy our previously published content and art commissions – and to stay in touch.

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art commission

Mbombo: Dream Echoes by Sondi

Wherever they stood it came, suddenly and simultaneously: refusal, refusal, refusal. And in a gust they collapsed into sleep.

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director's commentary

video

Director's Commentary: Our songs were ready for all wars to come by Noor Abed

Noor Abed   

Choreographed scenes based on documented folktales from Palestine.

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music

Rosanna Graf & Trần Uy Đức – I heard Tribalica 11 First, then it got more playful And More Clean

Rosanna Graf    Trần Uy Đức   

Hanoi-based, self-taught musician Trần Uy Đức pairs up with multidisciplinary artist Rosanna Graf to make a video clip.

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music

Arash Akbari & Spekki Webu – Veiled Fluxes

Arash Akbari    Spekki Webu   

A new track and video clip from an artistic match made in heaven

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art commission

Molly Palmer: Amulet

We tend to think that our perception is linear, but in fact it is radically fragmented. We blink, we turn our heads, we travel at extraordinary speed. Our vision is interrupted and held inside devices that open endless tunnels to other locations, images, maps and information.

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art commission

Remco Torenbosch: Artillerie Inrichtingen, Bandung (1923-1950), 2024

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essay

When fear rules — a conversation about silence in the Dutch art world

Lieneke Hulshof   

A conversation with Mirjam Westen, Tina Farifteh and Maurits de Bruijn on the current possibilities of talking to each other as a society – through visual arts – about the ongoing genocide in Palestine.

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essay

Traces of past lives: an attempt at capturing balloons

Iris Cuppen    Martin Groch   

“Can I write about the balloon without attaching too much weight to it? Or is a balloon just a balloon; enough said?”

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virtual nap space

essay

Take what you’re owed // Fugitive Dreams

Marly Pierre-Louis    Sondi   

Imagine falling asleep whenever and wherever – this is love, I think, this is freedom.

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virtual nap space

essay

Productively Unproductive

Arne Willée    Milo Sharafeddine   

Arne Willée rescues idleness from its morally dubious past and presents it as a needed, critical resource.

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on hosting

column

The Guest at Work

helena grande    Geke Zaal   

Twice a day you walk up a mountain to connect to the internet, check your matches on Hinge, and text the girl you like from your language class back in the country you live. 

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broadcast

Until Liberation

Learning Palestine Group   

In this contribution, we broadcast the 12-hour radio programme Until Liberation parts I and II, which include lectures, interviews, book presentations, talks, storytelling, music, songs, poetry and chants, alongside other audio material collected from different online platforms including collaborations with Radio Alhara. The material weaves together times, struggles and sounds from the 1970s to today.

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essay

A neon palindrome, lessons from the crouching man

Charlie Jermyn    Mel Keane   

“In the name of contemporary art, Spain has finally embraced the whitewash technique of the iconoclasts.“

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smut

Officially, nothing happened

Laura Biziou    Naomi Hettiarachchige–Hubèrt   

“Somewhere in my head, I’m still their unicorn.”

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fiction

Ötza and the Open-Ended Becoming of the World

Levi van Gelder    Mitchel Peters   

Confessions of a Cryodesiccated Fanfiction Entrepreneur From the Neolithic.

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essay

Cyberpunk Diaspora

Shirley Au    Kongkee   

Reconciling with Hong Kong in Kongkee’s “Dragon’s Delusion”

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essay

Where the Magic Happens

Katherina Gorodynska    Geke Zaal   

I find a room in the basement and a room in the attic and while sifting through these rooms, I realise that the room of my dreams has always been a room to work in.

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mystics

music

Singing To The Machine: Orpheu The Wizard

Orpheu The Wizard    Rustan Söderling   

This mix by Orpheu The Wizard consists of a selection of songs loosely revolving around the themes of Mystics of the Chthulucene. First up in a new mix series, where artists, selectors, and music geeks connect sounds to a broader and recurring artistic research theme that weaves through The Couch.

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director's commentary

video

Director's Commentary: Femke Hears a Who by Clementine Edwards and Alexander Iezzi

Clementine Edwards    Alexander Iezzi   

Femke from Brabant explores life in Rotterdam, attracting the detritus of memories and encounters like a magnet as they go. For this Director’s Commentary, Clementine Edwards and Alexander Iezzi have written a voiceover for a previously voiceless video.

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mystics

essay

Escape From the Internet

Eleni Maragkou    Milo Sharafeddine   

“Remember when on the internet no one knew you were a dog?"

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fiction

I Become You

Isa Mazzei    Hussein Shikha   

“I love your face. I guess if I had to look at it every day, it wouldn’t be the worst.”

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mystics

podcast

Future Artefacts Episode 4: David Blandy

Future Artefacts FM   

For the fourth episode of our collaboration with Future Artefacts FM, hosts Nina and Niamh talk with David Blandy. While revisiting his work, they explore the ends of multiple worlds, from family illness, the foundations of a political system shattering and the end of a 17 year old magical gaming world, Asheron’s Call.

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art commission

Exit Night, Enter Light

A digital zine created by the first-year master's students in Contextual Design at Design Academy Eindhoven

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mystics

video

Air

Milo Sharafeddine   

Nonlinearity is not just a collision of times, but an indifference to time

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mystics

essay

Dasha’s Kitchen: My magical grilled cheese sandwich recipe

Dasha Ilina    Naomi Hettiarachchige–Hubèrt   

Dasha Ilina tricks the search algorithms that might read her essay about algorithmic surveillance into thinking it’s just a recipe for a grilled cheese sandwich.

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art commission

Asa Horvitz: Ghost

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