Mensen zoals wij - Nour-Eddine Jarram en Henk Chabot

From October 24, 2026, to March 7, 2027, the Chabot Museum presents *People Like Us*. In this exhibition, the work of Nour-Eddine Jarram (Casablanca, 1956) and Henk Chabot (Sprang-Capelle, 1894–Rotterdam, 1949) enters into a dialogue for the first time. Despite differences in time, background, and visual language, both artists share a deep commitment to vulnerable fellow human beings. Their work touches upon current themes such as migration, freedom, identity, and human dignity.

Although originating from different historical contexts, the oeuvres of Jarram and Chabot exhibit remarkable formal and substantive similarities. Both artists depict fellow human beings in distress: fleeing oppression and violence, or otherwise vulnerable. Chabot did this poignantly during the war years 1940–1945, in paintings of refugees, people in hiding, and prisoners. Today, Jarram focuses on the current issues of migration, the refugee crisis, and the position of people seeking a safe living environment. Since 2015, he has used news photos and images from social media, among other sources, as a starting point for watercolors in which people on the run and young people searching for identity take center stage.

Jarram's visual language is nourished by his experience between Islamic visual culture and Western European painting. In paintings, drawings, and watercolors, he constantly balances these different traditions and histories. Where Chabot depicted the disruption of human existence during the Second World War, Jarram focuses on contemporary experiences of displacement and identity. In doing so, the exhibition mirrors historical experiences of war and displacement against current societal issues surrounding migration, exclusion, and polarization.

For the exhibition, paintings by Chabot have been selected based on formal and thematic similarities to work Jarram has created over the past ten years. These are combined with approximately forty to fifty paintings, watercolors, and drawings by Jarram, including ensembles in which his stylistic versatility becomes apparent.