IN CONVERSATION WITH ROSEMARIE BUIKEMA A Dutch version of this essay previously appeared in De Gids.   ‘Awe mi ta pidi diskulpa.’ The 19th of December 2022 finally saw the delivery of the long-awaited apology for the Netherlands’ slavery past. ‘Today, I apologise’. At the National Archives in The Hague—a poignant location for reasons that will become clear—our usually rather neoliberally-minded prime minister acknowledged the fact that the effects of…

In Conversation with Manon Uphoff and Rosemarie Buikema To try the accepted forms, to discard the unfit, to create others which are more fitting, is a task that must be accomplished before there is freedom or achievement. (Virginia Woolf, Books and Portraits (1977:30)   If anything becomes clear in Falling Is Like Flying (Pushkin Press 2021) , it is the fact that the horror that took place behind the closed…

IN COVERSATION WITH OMID MIRNOUR AND DIANA HELMICH In January 2023, roughly four months after the start of the Iranian protests after the murder of activist Mahsa Amini, German-Iranian filmmaker Omid Mirnour published his short film ‘Corruption on Earth’ on Youtube. Originally published in German, Mirnour uploaded the film dubbed in Farsi and English (with Spanish subtitles) as well in order to reach a broad as possible audience. The film,…

In conversation with Maria Barnas In 2011, Annet Gelink Gallery started a series called Conversation Pieces: video recordings of several artists in conversation with Dutch art historian and former director of the Stedelijk Museum Rudi Fuchs. Now, the series has been extended to artist talks between our artists and various inspiring sparring partners. On July 15th 2022, Rosemarie Buikema sat down with Maria Barnas at the Annet Gelink gallery in honour…

IN CONVERSATION WITH PAUL VAN DE WATERLAAT A recent exhibition centered around the work from the New York-based black woman artist Kara Walker (1969) sent shockwaves through my hometown of Tilburg. Content warnings, trigger warnings, some said it was ‘unsuitable for children’, my friends called it ‘rough stuff’, and a local newspaper headline read ‘Brace Yourself’. The exhibition at the contemporary art museum De Pont was titled ‘A Black Hole…

Arahmaiani’s Memory of Nature and Flag Performance in conversation with The Golden Coach For the exhibition The Golden Coach at the Amsterdam Museum, the pioneering Indonesian artist Arahmaiani -amongst several other artists- was invited to respond to the colonial past represented on the carriage’s side panel ‘Tribute from the Colonies’ and to engage with the question ‘What to do with this colonial past of The Netherlands?’ posed by the exhibition’s…

IN CONVERSATION WITH EL MEHDI AIT OUKHZAME This article attends to the question of decolonizing the museum by taking the AfricaMuseum[1] of Belgium as a case study to look into issues where the museum and art become a means of reparable justice in the post-colonial era. The article provides a critical appraisal of the ‘decolonial’ approach adopted by the administration of the AfricaMuseum, with a focus upon its five-year project…

IN CONVERSATION WITH GIORGIA CACCIATORE Last April, a group called NYC Art Workers started an online petition urging museums to retain their staff amid the current crisis. “[A] collection of objects alone”, they stated, “does not make a museum. Museums are made, maintained, and brought to life by workers”.[1] However precisely the workers that assure museums to perform their function, i.e. display artworks and receive audiences, are being the most…