49m², jaar 9, lente 2025 | Observation van Rick Abelen

From 21 March to 21 June 2025, Rick Abelen was guest artist at the 49m² in Zaartpark. His stay culminated in a manifesto – written and spoken – reflecting on freedom and connectedness in relation to the housing crisis.

He also created a photo series of ten images centred on the castle in the air he built at the start of his working period. Originally conceived as a carefully designed intervention, the structure began to take on a life of its own during the observation period. It transformed from a concept into an entity with a will of its own, and the 49m² became a free state in which even the imagination itself was able to escape the rules.