ODRA publishes a review of a new joint exhibition by the community NoNameForNow and the independent Dutch art space T56 / Zesde Kolonne called “And after that Agent Cooper repeated: There is no place like home”.

The exhibition reflects on how home itself has become dispersed across borders, places, and experiences, reconsidering the familiar meaning of the popular phrase “There is no place like home.” Just as home has become scattered, the exhibition unfolds across multiple locations, bringing together portable objects and video art by seventeen artists.

Luk Sponselee, the curator of the exhibition:

"Since founding 6de Kolonne in 1984, we have believed that international artistic exchange becomes especially important in times of division. This project brought together different cultural perspectives through a shared exploration of home, movement, and belonging. The feeling of being a nomad is universal: it appears across cultures and generations, taking different forms but expressing the same search for a place — physical, emotional, or spiritual — where we can truly feel at home."

The original source of the famous phrase is L. Frank Baum’s “The Wonderful Wizard of Oz” (1900). The main character, Dorothy Gale, says:

"No matter how dreary and gray our homes are, we people of flesh and blood would rather live there than in any other country, be it ever so beautiful. There is no place like home."

PollyT, the curator of the exhibition:

"The project began when I heard Dorothy’s famous line from The Wizard of Oz in its original English and realised it could also mean something entirely different: not that there is no place better than home, but that there is no such place as home at all. That idea resonated with Rem Koolhaas’s reflections on cities as places of transition rather than permanence. I wanted to create a dialogue for those who experience home not as an address, but as a feeling — something we choose, carry with us, and continually reconstruct through movement, encounters, and memory."

For more than a century, the phrase has been understood as a celebration of home — a place of comfort, safety, and return. Later, in the teaser for the second season of David Lynch’s “Twin Peaks,” Agent Cooper records:

In the post-Soviet space, the phrase “There’s no place like home” also carries a particular cultural resonance. A more direct translation of the Russian saying «В гостях хорошо, а дома лучше» would be: “Being a guest is pleasant, but home is better.” In English, there’s a similiar saying “East or West, home is best”.

Personal space, even small and modest, was often highly valued within a society shaped by collective norms. Home could be perceived as a fortress, a private and intimate place where personal boundaries were protected.

The exhibition raises the question in a new way: what if there is no such place as home in today’s world? It is no longer only a question of where home is geographically, but of what creates the feeling of home. Not an address, but a constellation of places. Not a registration stamp in a passport (“propiska”), but rented apartments, favourite cafés, familiar streets, and belonging to a local community.

Nanda Raemansky, the curator of the exhibition:

"For me, “There’s No Place Like Home” is about something deeply universal. Home is much more than a physical place — it is where we feel safe enough to be ourselves, to rest, create, and grow. Bringing together artists from the Netherlands and Russia around this theme revealed how differently we imagine home, yet how strongly these works resonate through a shared human experience of belonging, displacement, and the search for connection."

The exhibition runs through 19 July at the Center for Creative Industries "Fabrika" (Moscow) and T56 Gallery, part of Zesde Kolonne (Eindhoven). Established in 1984, Zesde Kolonne is an independent non-profit foundation and creative collective dedicated to supporting audiovisual projects and fostering collaboration among artists, musicians, and designers.