update #42
wat is wij (what is us)
hein duijnstee, wat is wij #48, 2025
21x30 cm, chinese ink on paper
a very short prologue
Please, first read the texts and look at the images which share the title ‘wat is wij’.
The epilogue provides a further context to this update
hein duijnstee, wat is wij #21, 2025
21x30 cm, chinese ink on paper
what is us tells
how you want to be perceived
me, me, me….. and me
are part of us
but not solely
hein duijnstee, wat is wij #51, 2025
21x30 cm, chinese ink on paper
the experience of us is personal
collectively it does not exist
shared it can
us exists
when there is them, the non-us
hein duijnstee, wat is wij #22, 2025
21x30 cm, chinese ink on paper
us is never exclusive
us cherishes autonomy
to create belonging
hein duijnstee, wat is wij #53, 2025
21x30 cm, chinese ink on paper
what is us is more than who is us
what is the materiality too
the what carries meaning
hein duijnstee, wat is wij #3, 2025
21x30 cm, chinese ink on paper
…….
rites
strategy
structure
culture
financials
practices
what is us stands out, materialised, meaningful
spaces
products
systems
believes
markets
capabilities
…..
what is us
is hyper conceptual and super practical
it is art as organisation
hein duijnstee, wat is wij #52, 2025
21x30 cm, chinese ink on paper
a longer epilogue
What defines an organisation could in a sense be captured in what is us. It offers a critical context for thinking about organisations and shaping them.
This update consists of ten short texts that shed a light on these three words. Language is an important element of our work. Finding words that express ideas and concepts, but leave space for the readers to develop their own interpretation. A certain abstractness stretches the boundaries of meaning.
Organisational and corporate language is often bleak and shallow, embodying a desire (disguised as necessity) for control.
The form and the meaning of the words in this update have been conceived with a possibility in mind to involve different parameters of organisational design.
Words matter. They incite acting. An awareness of this property of words allows organisations to flip words that induce toxic (maybe not intended) behaviour to a more suitable and open language that evokes an acting that shapes the intended and true meaning of the organisation.
Stordes creates in its work artistic interventions to evoke wonder and enrich acting in organisations. This update about what is us is a refection of that work.
This update contains drawings that Hein Duijnstee made for the exhibition with the title wat is wij (what is us), but that were not actually shown. (Not because of their quality but because of the limited space available to show the drawings). The drawings are another way to wonder about what is us.
update #42
november 2025
all photos, drawings and texts by hein duijnstee