de Appel presents CaccHho CucchhA, a scenographic exhibition by Mercedes Azpilicueta that treats play as invention, disobedience, and commons making. Commissioned by de Appel, the project unfolds as an immersive ecosystem of modular sculptural costumes, play platforms and a large tapestry, activated through an ongoing series of workshops with children, families, and invited collaborators. CaccHho CucchhA is part of de Appel’s long-term commitment to embedded art and mutual learning, as well as hosting children and caregivers into the centre of artistic life and rethinking what behaviors, and whose tempos are supported in cultural spaces.
CaccHho CucchhA draws on Azipilicueta’s long-term research Bestiario de Lengüitas while shifting away from adult-centric frames. The exhibition invites visitors to inhabit a porous dramaturgy where children and adults collectively compose stories, gestures, and sounds. The exhibition is structured around two guiding notions: cacho, a fragment of time that is immeasurable or leftover to be repurposed into something new, and cucha, a shelter or safe place. Here, every visitor’s contribution forms a cacho of a larger narrative, while the exhibition space of de Appel becomes a cucha: a hospitable environment for collective play, care, and slow time.
The exhibition is shaped by barnacle interiors, playground platforms inspired from Aldo van Eyck’s designs, modular sculptural costumes, and a large scale tapestry. The abstract structures invite open-ended interaction rather than prescribe fixed behaviors. They invite children to build and unbuild tents and shelters.
CaccHho CucchhA resists productivity-driven time. Instead, it privileges autotelic play (after Brian Sutton-Smith) and foregrounds play as identity and community-building, where rituals of weaving, listening, and moving build shared memories.
Public Programme and Playshops
Playshops
CaccHho CucchhA will be activated through children’s free play and a series of artist-led playshops. These sessions are facilitated by Mercedes Azpilicueta herself, Antonella Fittipaldi, Anna Klas, Lina Bravo Mora, Raoni Muzho Saleh, Gļeb(s) Maiboroda and Vere van der Veen, and will explore the exhibition through storytelling, dwelling-making, weaving, sound-making, and planting. Since this is a child centered exhibition, rather than being guided or instructed, children will be accompanied, with activities adapted to their collective rhythms, needs, and desires. Parents are welcome to participate, and the playshops are open to children aged 4–12.
The activities will be mostly concentrated on Wednesdays, Fridays and Saturdays between 3 October and 22 November. Fridays will be for visits from Schools and BSOs. Wednesday afternoons and Saturdays, the general public are invited to participate with their children.
Symposium
The Magic Circle: Playing Outside Time is a symposium on 27 September 2025, which gathers artists, curators, and theorists such as Choi Heong-uk, O(o)yster Moms, Maria Berríos, Zeina Maasri, Priscila Fernandes, Penny Wilson (Assembly Collective), Daniela Pelegrinelli and other guests to address: How do exhibitions for children reconfigure institutional norms? How can difficult subjects be introduced with care and complexity? Sessions consider disobedience as an artistic and curatorial tool, layered storytelling, and the ethical labour of hosting young audiences without oversimplification.
* The exhibition has different opening and closing times than usual. We will be open from 12:00 PM to 6:00 PM. For more information, please visit our website: www.deappel.nl
