ANNE is an art project that makes Anne Frank part of our everyday lives and allows people to literally carry her story out into the world. In doing so, a spontaneous, little moment of connection with our history can arise anywhere in public space.
The first edition of ANNE is currently on view at the Anne Frank Zentrum in Berlin. In september 2026, it will be presented at the Embassy of the Kingdom of the Netherlands.
Since 2014, I have contributed to various Dutch and German national commemorative ceremonies. During my two-and-a-half-year artist residencies at the Sachsenhausen Memorial and the Ravensbrück Memorial, I experienced how art can create new forms of remembrance and connect us with our history.
The times we live in today, together with my experiences within the culture of remembrance, have convinced me that we strongly need new ways of remembering what happened in our past. New, easily accessible forms of remembrance that bring these themes into society and into our everyday lives. Small moments that can remind us and that can occur spontaneously, at unexpected moments and places in our everyday lives: on the street, on public transport, on the way to work or school.
Anne Frank has given us, through her diary, a deeply human and tangible perspective on how war, persecution and genocide can unfold. Her words allow us to encounter these realities through the thoughts, fears, hopes and everyday experiences of a young woman.
The starting point of the artwork ANNE is a hand-printed screen print of Anne Frank’s favorite portrait of herself, printed in contemporary colours neon pink and neon red. These deliberately vibrant colours bring Anne out of the black and white and into the here and now.
“I believe Anne would have been very happy with this image.”
Veronika Nahm, director of the Anne Frank Zentrum in Berlin
From here, I developed a way to bring her into our society: the ANNE bag – a deliberately simple form: a bag. Something ordinary, familiar and accessible. An everyday object that can move through the city, travel on public transport, go to work or school, and become part of everyday life.
The ANNE bag – a simple carrier of a powerful story.
The ANNE bag in Amsterdam
The ANNE-bag gives people the possibility to carry Anne’s story into the world, and what happens around that gesture is significant: other people encounter her image along the way — on the street, on public transport, at school or in other everyday settings. For a small moment, they may pause, think and reflect on Anne Frank and her story. It creates a chain of encounters.
Remembering is no longer something that happens only at a memorial or a museum, or only on a particular day. It becomes a small, spontaneous, active moment that can happen anywhere, at any time, in public space.
