Participant Presentations: Esther De Soomer, Miriam Hillawi Abraham

Writer-in-residence Esther De Soomer and artist Miriam Hillawi Abraham talk about their artistic practices. Join us at the Jan van Eyck to learn more about their work and research interests.

17:30 CEST
Wednesday, 25 June 2025
Jan van Eyck Academie

Esther will share an excerpt from the novel she’s been developing during her two-month residency. In it, she grapples with the loss of German, one of her mother tongues. In her work, she explores the connection between language loss and Waldsterben, focusing on endangered European forests. Her writing weaves together oral traditions such as folk tales while questioning the words and grammars that shape our very being.

What would it mean to chart the African Sahel in the geography of the night sky? Using methods of abstraction and overlay to work through the tensions of cultural preservation and the willful opacity of sacred orders and spirit worlds (or "non-worlds"), she will present a series of interconnected diagrams and cosmograms. During the presentation we will travel across our shared sky above the Equator, the Northern Celestial Hemisphere, tracing the path of "disobedient stars," drawing new constellations and embracing geocoding errors and planetary distortions.

Image Left: Courtesy of Esther De Soomer
Image Right: Miriam Hillawi Abraham, 2025

Also check out other Arts events in Maastricht, Fine Arts events in Maastricht, Literary Art events in Maastricht.