IN CONVERSATION WITH FLORIEN KIJLSTRA Scrolling through the online exhibition Curating the End of the World – hosted by New York Live Arts and The Black Speculative Arts Movement[i], soundscapes and visual imageries blend into a submerging audio-visual digital sphere, slowly yet steadily drawing the viewer into a digital third space. [ii] Then, the music stops and a new image fills up my computer screen. UNADJUSTEDNOWRAW, a figure with a…

IN CONVERSATION WITH ELINE POLLAERT What preceded this research (March 2019) The sign itself was inconspicuous, merely one of the many text blocks printed among the map of Europe at the organ courtyard of Museum Speelklok.[1] I had just visited a temporary exhibition, showcasing musical robots, and now wandered about the permanent exhibition. It read:   WAR VETERANS IN THE STREET Empress Maria-Theresa of Austria (1717-1780) granted permits to play…

In this video series, MOED invites guests to talk about their views on equality and difference through artworks they find inspiring, empowering, and that have stayed with them over time. What is the power of artistic practice and imagination in the struggle towards a more inclusive society? How does imagination, affect, emotion, and reason, in their mutual connections, contribute to a better understanding of equality, difference, and inclusion? Our fourth…

In this video series, MOED invites guests to talk about their views on equality and difference through artworks they find inspiring, empowering, and that have stayed with them over time. What is the power of artistic practice and imagination in the struggle towards a more inclusive society? How does imagination, affect, emotion, and reason, in their mutual connections, contribute to a better understanding of equality, difference, and inclusion? Our third…

IN CONVERSATION WITH BELINDA VAN DER STOEP & CARLY EVERAERT The image Black Madonna represents black beauty and iconic women of color. Black Madonna also creates space for both safety and connection. ”The costume gives me confidence that I am not alone, and that I do not have to engage with the debate about my existence all by myself”, says Belinda van der Stoep. MOED interviewed the actress and costume…

In this video series, MOED invites guests to talk about their views on equality and difference through artworks they find inspiring, empowering, and that have stayed with them over time. What is the power of artistic practice and imagination in the struggle towards a more inclusive society? How does imagination, affect, emotion, and reason, in their mutual connections, contribute to a better understanding of equality, difference, and inclusion? Our second…

IN CONVERSATION WITH NIENKE DE HAAN (VIA STUDIUM GENERALE)   The documentary Genderbende (2017, HALAL docs) opens up different ways of thinking about gender.  How does gender influence our daily life? What does it mean to think beyond the box?     “When I go to the bakery, I go to buy a bread, I don’t go to have a ‘gender-experience’ or anything like that,” says Selm, one of the main…

IN CONVERSATION WITH EUGENE VAN ERVEN Equalizing, liberating or decolonizing museums, to me, should be about participation, a notion that is not self-evident or always an inherently good thing. Anyone intent on decolonizing museums could benefit from critically exploring the complexities involved in participation. There is no need here to recapitulate the troubled histories of western public and private museums; Tony Bennett and other new museology scholars already started paving…

A CONVERSATION BETWEEN GLORIA WEKKER, NANCY JOUWE, AND SOJOURNER TRUTH On the occasion of the exhibition MOED: What is Left Unseen in the Centraal Museum, Gloria Wekker performed Sojourner Truth’s notorious speech Ain’t I A Woman?, originally delivered at the Women's Convention in Akron, Ohio, on May 29, 1851. With Ain’t I A Woman?, Sojourner Truth voiced a critique to the middle-class white feminists who failed to take into account…

IN CONVERSATION WITH PAULINE SALET The Guerrilla Girls have been featured in several Dutch museums before. In 2016, the Van Abbemuseum in Eindhoven organised a retrospective exhibition of the artist and activist group, showing their work from their start in 1985 until 2012. A few years later, in March 2018, the Guerrilla Girls visited the Stedelijk Museum in Amsterdam themselves, as they were invited by Mama Cash as part of…