Ban, Hans van den
Zwanenburg, 1950
Lives and works in Amsterdam
Hans van den Ban has been working on a piece of sound art for Glocal Affairs entitled “Binnenkomen” (Coming indoors). Visitors hear the voices of parents calling their children back indoors in various different languages, for example because dinner is ready, because it’s getting dark or because it’s bedtime. This simple everyday occurrence is not only reminiscent of the light melancholy of summer evenings and the secure feeling of coming home, but also communicates the local connection of names. The names called out somewhere say so much about the population composition, history and culture of that place. At the same time, with “Binnenkomen”, van den Ban is making a statement about the fact that some children are not called indoors in time, or at all.