Project:
Lessons From Departure: Shattered World
A collaborative arts project exploring displacement, transition, and new beginnings in the Netherlands
In January 2026 we started Lessons From Departure. This collaborative arts project aims to explore the lived experiences of people navigating displacement, transition, and new beginnings.
Through portrait photography, recorded conversations, and audio storytelling, the project creates space for personal narratives that are often overlooked: Stories of resilience, uncertainty, hope, and belonging. At its core, Lessons From Departure is about human connection: listening deeply, seeing fully, and honouring individual identities beyond headlines and statistics.
Developed in Amsterdam / North Holland and then shaped in close collaboration with participants, the project documents the emotional landscapes of migration in Europe today. This is not just as a single story, but as many layered, personal journeys.
Interviews:
The Project
Lessons From Departure is shaped by intimate conversations with people whose lives have been profoundly affected by movement, separation, and rebuilding.
Rather than focusing on spectacle or trauma, the project centres dignity, agency, and self-representation. Each participant is invited into a slow, respectful creative process that prioritises trust and collaboration.
These stories form the emotional backbone of the project which then allow individuals to be seen beyond labels, borders, and bureaucracy.
All Posts:
Why This Work Matters:
Across Europe, conversations around migration are often reduced to numbers, policy debates, and abstract language. Lessons From Departure shifts the focus back to people. Their voices, memories, relationships, and everyday experiences.
By creating a growing archive of stories and portraits, the project aims to:
- Humanise complex migration experiences
- Foster empathy and understanding
- Create space for reflection and dialogue
- Preserve narratives that might otherwise remain unheard
The work is not about offering answers, but about creating space to listen.
About the Artist:
Lessons From Departure is initiated and led by Nathan Samuel, an Amsterdam/London-based visual artist, and developed in close collaboration with his studio team and project collaborators.
Nathan’s studio practice blends portraiture, abstraction, psychogeography, and narrative to explore themes of resilience, vulnerability, belonging, and the spaces we inhabit. The wider team contributes across research, production, storytelling, and community engagement — working together to shape the project’s direction and outcomes.
Project Development:
****Update Jan 2026****
The project is currently in its pilot phase, with plans to expand into a broader community-based programme.
Future phases aim to include public exhibitions, installations, publications, and participatory workshops. ie bringing these stories into shared public spaces and opening opportunities for wider dialogue.
Stay Connected:
Selected works, project updates, and behind-the-scenes development will be shared here and on our social media pages as the project evolves.
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