hospitality
paulina siniatkina
22 februari 2026 - 24 maart 2026
Tuberculosis (TB) is a curable disease, yet it remains the deadliest infectious disease in the world. Every day, around four thousand people die of TB worldwide. Despite international pledges to eradicate the disease by 2030 at the latest, scientific progress lags behind and funding is insufficient. Additionally, stigma forces millions of people to hide their diagnosis.
With “Hospitality,” artist Paulina Siniatkina, who herself narrowly survived tuberculosis, focuses on this often invisible, social dimension of the disease. The exhibition is a personal, immersive exploration of what it means to live – and survive – in hospital isolation. Siniatkina spent seven months on a tuberculosis ward, where she saw how people learn to cope with their situation not only medically, but also emotionally and socially. “Wherever you are, it is important to feel at home somewhere,” she says. Friendships and relationships formed on the ward, sometimes with healthcare staff as well. Patients found ways to get out briefly – for a walk in the park or a drink at the shopping mall. The hospital thus became a parallel world, a mini-society with its own rules, full of humor, despair, intrigue, and loneliness.
Siniatkina translated these experiences into a spatial and material installation. Hospital interiors and medical objects are revised and transformed, creating a universe that feels both familiar and alienating. IV counters seem almost personal, plants grow out of test tube racks, and medical equipment becomes fragile and intimate. What normally evokes fear or distance becomes habitable here.
The exhibition explicitly addresses the stigma surrounding tuberculosis, which takes various forms worldwide. In some regions, TB is associated with poverty, imprisonment, addiction, or homelessness; elsewhere, women who have had TB may face social exclusion. Many survivors erase this period from their lives, while others face rejection by family, loss of employment, or housing. At the same time, many people in the West believe that TB belongs to the past. As a result of these misconceptions, nearly four million people worldwide fall outside the scope of care annually—resulting in unnecessary deaths.
“Hospitality” views art as a space for reflection, encounter, and dialogue. The project brings together TB survivors, loved ones, caregivers, scientists, and policymakers, and opens conversations that often do not take place in clinical or political contexts. The exhibition raises questions about how care can be organized differently, how stigma can be broken, and how new ways of dealing with trauma can emerge.
The exhibition is on view at Bradwolff Projects in Amsterdam East, in a former surgical building of the historic Burgerziekenhuis. The history of the location forms an essential part of the experience and strengthens the dialogue between architecture, the past, and lived experience.
“Hospitality” shows with urgency and closeness that ending tuberculosis is not only a medical but also a social and cultural one. Survival begins when people no longer have to hide who they are.
Public program
Performance “Non-violent Kitchen Table” March 1, 14:00 – 17:00 Location: Bradwolff Projects
In this performance, participants are invited to sit together and play with small, candy-like “pills”—moving and rearranging them while conversing with one another. This gesture refers to a coping strategy from tuberculosis treatment, where daily medication becomes a routine that needs to be made more bearable.
The performance offers an informal setting to reflect together on tuberculosis, stigma, and access to care, through conversation and shared action.
Symposium “Who Will End TB?”, led by TB survivors, for global health, medicine, and biology students March 20, 9:00 – 13:20 Location: KIT Institute, Amsterdam
Who will end tuberculosis?
On the occasion of World Tuberculosis Day, this symposium is organizing a half-day program on science, stigma, society, and leadership in tuberculosis (TB).
The sessions are interactive and include a fireside chat with people who have experienced TB, presentations on innovation and collaboration, and a fishbowl discussion for sharing ideas and questions.
The event emphasizes community-led action, with contributions from TBPeople and the Stop TB Partnership CFCS program, supported by IAVI, KIT Institute, KNCV TB Plus, and Delft Imaging.
Language: English | Open to: researchers, clinicians, community organizations and students.
More info and RSVP : eventbrite
Participants are invited to view the Hospitality exhibition at Bradwolff Projects afterwards.
Screening of “Magic Mountain” by Georgian filmmaker and tuberculosis survivor Mariam Chachia on March 21 at 2:00 PM at De Balie, Amsterdam, followed by a discussion.
The film explores the experience of tuberculosis from both personal and collective perspectives, moving between memory, isolation, and the social reality of the disease. Following the screening, a discussion will take place with the filmmaker, artist Paulina Siniatkina, and TB expert Dr. Lucica Ditiu regarding stigma, care, and the global context of tuberculosis.
Reserve your ticket: Counter