Neither

The project leaders, teachers, researchers, exhibition designers, and authors are Henny Dörr (former course leader and teacher of the HKU MA Scenography programme, and researcher in the professorship Expanded Artistic Practices) and Vivek Sheth (exhibition designer and guest lecturer at the National Institute of Design, as well as at HKU).

The course was a three-week scenography programme offered annually from 2016 to 2025 to cohorts of approximately twelve undergraduate Exhibition Design students.

Neither also comprises an e-book and an exhibition based on the archive of work produced throughout the course. Developed during 2025 and 2026, the archive consists of approximately 6,000 documents and forms the basis for both Neither the book and Neither the exhibition. Together, these projects seek to articulate the pedagogical, artistic, and scenographic approaches that emerged through the course.

The exhibition

Neither north south east west, stage nor space, reality nor illusion

The Exhibition Neither at AG HKU (ruimte voor nieuwe kunst en media), from the 21th of February to March 1st 2026, was curated, designed and produced by Henny Dörr and Vivek Sheth, in close collaboration with HKU MA Scenography alumni and artists Rhea John and Vishwesh Mistry, assisted by Robin Krijgsman and Goeleke Naaijkens.

The design for this exhibition, titled Neither, unfolds across four spaces at AG, organized around the themes of TIME, POLYVOCALITY, IMMERSION, and CITY. This concept is rooted in the foundations of ‘expanded scenography’, an art form that questions the distinction between reality and illusion, emphasizes non-duality, and engages in a performative practice focused on the non-human. Materials, textures, texts, bodies, sounds, photographs, and films have been selected from the archive as sources of inspiration and remembrance. Together, they offer a glimpse into a remarkable and fruitful international collaboration between art schools in Utrecht and Ahmedabad.

The e-book

Neither

Is co-authored by Henny Dörr and Vivek Sheth, who;

• evolved into a sustained pedagogical partnership that bridged institutional, cultural, and disciplinary contexts
• developed a shared space of teaching emerging between Ahmedabad and Utrecht. Not begin with a fixed structure. but formed through repetition, through working alongside students, through returning to questions of space, performance, and interpretation.
• reflect on a decade of teaching scenography at NID Ahmedabad, exploring spatial storytelling, performance, evolving design pedagogies through a rich archival, pedagogical and reflective lens.

Rather than presenting a linear record, the publication reflects on how scenographic thinking evolved through texts, spatial interpretation, and performative experimentation.

It is organised into three Cahiers:

• Cahier 1 – Reflections: personal and joint reflections on teaching, collaboration, and pedagogical development. Themes - situatedness, polyvocality, non-duality, immersion, non/post-human, time, space - are explored through the lens of practice and experimentation.
• Cahier 2 – Workbook: assignment briefs, excerpts, references, and selected student outputs from 2016–2025.
• Cahier 3 – Extensions: reflections on how these pedagogical ideas extend into professional practice, research, and collaborations beyond the classroom.