NoorderlichtDec 24
Noorderlicht Advent #24: As the year comes to rest, we would like to thank everyone who looked, listened, questioned, and thought along with us: makers, partners, and visitors. It has been a beautiful biennial year which we celebrated with many visitors across the three northern provinces. We wish you happy holidays and look forward to what will unfold in the new year✨

📷: David Vroom

#noorderlichtadvent #digitaladvent #countdowntochristmas #decemberstories
NoorderlichtDec 23
Noorderlicht Advent #23: In the autumn of 2025, we celebrated 70 years of World Press Photo at Noorderlicht with ‘What Have We Done? Unpacking Seven Decades of World Press Photo’, an exhibition that invited us to pause and reflect on images from the past and how their meanings continue to shift. What do these photographs tell us today, and how might we re-read their stories today?

📷: Tim van der Kuip

#noorderlichtadvent #digitaladvent #countdowntochristmas #decemberstories
NoorderlichtDec 23

Noorderlicht Advent #23: In the autumn of 2025, we celebrated 70 years of World Press Photo at Noorderlicht with ‘What Have We Done? Unpacking Seven Decades of World Press Photo’, an exhibition that invited us to pause and reflect on images from the past and how their meanings continue to shift. What do these photographs tell us today, and how might we re-read their stories today?

📷: Tim van der Kuip

#noorderlichtadvent #digitaladvent #countdowntochristmas #decemberstories

NoorderlichtDec 22
Noorderlicht Advent #22: New Digital Mirror essay online! 📖 In “To what is left rootbound in emptied ground,” Lilian Anneloes weaves personal observations of gardens and landscapes with a historical analysis of how the taming of so-called “untamed” nature went hand in hand with systems of control and colonisation.
Read the full essay now on our website.
Prefer it on paper? The Machine Entanglements catalogue is available in our webshop.

#noorderlichtadvent #digitaladvent #countdowntochristmas #decemberstories
NoorderlichtDec 21
Noorderlicht Advent #21: Today is the very last day to see ‘Rauw Vermogen’. The exhibition opened alongside the premiere of the World Press Photo anniversary exhibition at the Niemeyer and later moved to our gallery. Together with seven emerging photographers from the North, we explored Groningen as it is today and as it might be in the future.

📷: Tim van der Kuip

#noorderlichtadvent #digitaladvent #countdowntochristmas #decemberstories
NoorderlichtDec 21

Noorderlicht Advent #21: Today is the very last day to see ‘Rauw Vermogen’. The exhibition opened alongside the premiere of the World Press Photo anniversary exhibition at the Niemeyer and later moved to our gallery. Together with seven emerging photographers from the North, we explored Groningen as it is today and as it might be in the future.

📷: Tim van der Kuip

#noorderlichtadvent #digitaladvent #countdowntochristmas #decemberstories

NoorderlichtDec 20
Noorderlicht Advent #20: In the former Niemeyer factory, once a proud symbol of Groningen’s industrial progress, ‘Machine Entanglements’ also explored the shadow side of technological innovation. What if technology is not merely a tool for acceleration, control or extraction, but also a chance to repair, reconnect, and unearth forgotten histories?

Artwork: Thomas Nolf
Photo: Tim van der Kuip

#noorderlichtadvent #digitaladvent #countdowntochristmas #decemberstories
NoorderlichtDec 20

Noorderlicht Advent #20: In the former Niemeyer factory, once a proud symbol of Groningen’s industrial progress, ‘Machine Entanglements’ also explored the shadow side of technological innovation. What if technology is not merely a tool for acceleration, control or extraction, but also a chance to repair, reconnect, and unearth forgotten histories?

Artwork: Thomas Nolf
Photo: Tim van der Kuip

#noorderlichtadvent #digitaladvent #countdowntochristmas #decemberstories

NoorderlichtDec 19
Noorderlicht Advent #19: On the occasion of its 70th anniversary exhibition, we presented a pop-up festival together with World Press Photo at the Niemeyer. By bringing together local photographers, critical thinkers, and audiences, the festival invited participants to explore how photographic images communicate and influence understanding, how they engage with assumptions, bias, and narrative frameworks, and how visual stories help shape society.

📷: Tim van der Kuip

#noorderlichtadvent #digitaladvent #countdowntochristmas #decemberstories
NoorderlichtDec 18
Noorderlicht Advent #18: After thirty-five years of involvement with Noorderlicht, head curator Wim Melis is stepping down from the organization he helped build from the very beginning. Last month, Paulien Dresscher sat down with him for an interview.

“For me, the essence of photography exhibitions is not just in selecting images, but in providing context, telling coherent stories, and bringing together the work of different creators, ideally working in different styles, into a narrative that transcends fleeting impressions. This is how you can make sense of the stream of images that comes at us.”

You can read the full interview on our website.

On Wednesday, January 14, at 16:30h, Noorderlicht invites everyone to the gallery to look back on this period together with Wim.

📷: Philip Apagya

#noorderlichtadvent #digitaladvent #countdowntochristmas #decemberstories