Once every two years, the Foundation Kunst in De Heilige Driehoek (‘Art in the Heilige Driehoek) organises a biennial of international stature. This special art route is situated in the area called De Heilige Driehoek, in Oosterhout, in the province of North Brabant. It is the only place in the Netherlands where a combination of three active monasteries can still be found. The unique monastery area is a source of inspiration for modern art exhibitions. The fourth biennial is called ‘A Deeper Shade of Soul’ and is curated by curator Nanda Janssen and assistant curator Véronique Baar. The h3h biennial 2025 will take place from 21 June to 3 August 2025.
Curator Nanda Janssen discovered that the three monastery communities in De Heilige Driehoek (The Holy Triangle) are veritable treasure troves filled to the brim with all sorts of immaterial valuables, from the values and principles underpinning monastic life to the area’s thrilling history. The monasteries can be a source of inspiration for outsiders – not just from a religious point of view, but also in the way of life, philosophy and attitude they exhibit. She sees the nuns as feminists avant la lettre, and the communities as exponents of sustainable living before the term was even invented, living on long-term “cathedral time” as they do. There also aren’t many people so radically unaffected by the herd mentality and the whim of the day. In our age of hardening discourse, it’s refreshing to see them stand up for the defenceless and the vulnerable.
Given the richness of the source material, the 2025 biennial won’t be based around a single central theme, in a break with prior editions. Instead, curator Nanda Janssen takes a kaleidoscopic approach. Three lines are intertwined, embodying a connection between religion, art and life. Inspiration and finding meaning will be the main tenets of this biennial. And how could they not? These two things are the core business of monastic communities, after all. This basis is subsequently interwoven with another pair of lines: monastery life and the histories of the monastery and convents, while drawing a connection to society and the challenges of the present time. Under this approach, the art becomes a materialisation of the soul of De Heilige Driehoek.
Nanda Janssen is a curator, art critic and Intendant visual arts for the Embassy of the Kingdom of the Netherlands in France. She is assisted by Véronique Baar, art historian and working in the (semi)public domain. Janssen and Baar worked together on, among other things, the integration of art in the metro stations of the Amsterdam North-South line.