Walking down Boekhorststraat in The Hague, you might notice the neon sign with BUTTCLEANERS R US. If you look a little further, you will see a room full of butt cleaners. There is no sanitary shop hidden behind it, but there is a very special exhibition that you can visit for free.
From 18 April to and with July 9th 125 see you at 1024 namely the work of Ghita Skali: an Amsterdam-based artist of Moroccan background who challenges the world with her humorous work. Everything revolves around hygiene in this exhibition: how crazy or normal is the way you wash your buttocks?
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This is how the shop window looks in the dark | Photo: Maarten Nauw
Joep is looking for a watering can
In the building on Boekhorststraat you experience the space as a completely new world with every performance . With Naturally, Ghita Skali’s exhibition, it’s like walking into a bidet shop. Complete with neon lighting to give the products extra attention. But whoever enters the room is confronted with Joep de Jong – a market man looking for a watering can for his tulips.
The artist has made a video portrait of Joep and his search for a watering can. The character Joep wants to water his tulips, but all watering cans are sold out. In the video, Skali introduces Joep in a funny way to other purposes for using a watering can.
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The video portrait by Ghita Skali | Photo: Maarten Nauw
Power and Hygiene
Ghita Skali drew inspiration for this exhibition from archive videos from the colonial era. Here she saw how power relations exist around themes such as hygiene: that settlers looked down on the indigenous population and how they brushed their teeth, for example.
What we find normal is strange for other groups and vice versa. So what is ‘normal’ is actually something cultural. That’s why Ghita wants to challenge the idea that there is a normal way of brushing your teeth or cleaning your ass, because who decides what is clean or normal?
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Choose your favorite one and pick it up for free after the exhibition | Photo: Maarten Nauw
Take home your favorite butt cleaner
With her work, Skali challenges power relations in a light-hearted and funny way. She studied in France and has previously exhibited in Antwerp, Paris and Amsterdam. The exhibition in The Hague is extra special. You can take an ass cleaner home with you! In this way 125 and Ghita hope to make you more familiar and comfortable with a different way of doing things, to go out at home to try!
Reserve your favorite butt cleaner during your visit and get it after the exhibition (July 9 1646) for free. A visit to 1024 is always free. You will find the building on Boekhorststraat 125 in the heart of The Hague. From the street you walk into the building, where you always end up in a new world. The property is also wheelchair accessible. From 18 April to July 9 2023 you can see the work of Ghita Skali here. Keep an eye on the website to stay informed about other events and exhibitions.
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