Museumnacht - Forever Ours
COW Galerie/ Museum of Beautiful Distress, Amsterdam, NL, 2026.
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A curated photography and exhibition by Cow Galerie with the archival work of Maddie Potocnik and 15 writers.

What we share online no longer belongs to us. Despite privacy statements and copyright laws, a simple click contributes what used to be yours, to the public domain. These bits of our existence; a foot, a cat, or an accidental appearance in the background of someone else’s photo, continuously outlive our intent. Literal pieces of ourselves are immortalised online, existing in contexts we never chose. These fragments form a collective archive of all that we have digitally ever been. How strange it is, that you are everlastingly being seen, sorted and remembered.

This exhibition is an ode to the work of Maddie Potocnik, who has dedicated thus far over 6 years of her life collecting and archiving orphaned visual fragments. Sourced mainly from American marketplace website Craigslist, Potocnik explores the significance of digital agency. This has accumulated to an archive of over fifteen thousand images. With the focus on the visual aesthetics of images that are simply not meant to be aesthetic,

“Forever Ours” entails a small selection of Potocnik’s archive, focussing on real living lives, subjected to the everlasting digital realm.

Archive / Artwork: Maddie Potocnik
Writers: Andra Radu, Camille Perry, Sana Lopez, Bennett Smith, Scarlet Topley. Sam Yoon,Toshihiro Moteki, Miguel Soll, Havana Xeros, Raina El Ouafi, Vin Nguyen, Charlotte Bendrey, Jade Xuan Ton That, Prathigna Yerakala, Linn Berkvens, Diana Andrei & Paloma Jauncey Mckim

Curation: Loïs de Muijnck